Review: I Travel by Night

By Robert McCammon

Subterranean Press, out now

The Deep South, and an adventurer walks into a trap hoping to spring it to his advantage…

Mixing the two genres for which he is best known – the period piece and the horror story – Robert McCammon has provided a gem of a tale, which is hopefully simply the prologue to the start of a series of adventures for vampire Trevor Lawson. McCammon conjures up the atmosphere of old New Orleans, as well as the fetid Louisana swamps, as Lawson travels to what he is repeatedly told is somewhere non-existent – the town of Nocturne.

You wouldn’t expect the author of They Thirst to provide a standard take on the vampire myth, and I Travel By Night has its surprises up its sleeve, quite a few of which drive the plot. Lawson himself is a man doing the best with the cards he has been dealt: his quest is driven by personal motives but that doesn’t mean that he won’t do his best for others along the way.

By the end of this story, you have a grasp on what has made Lawson the way he is, and what he may be willing to do to alter his situation. His own personal circumstances are changed by the events of the novella, and I, for one, can’t wait to see where McCammon takes him next.

Verdict: Get in on the ground floor of a smart addition to the vampire genre.  8/10

Paul Simpson

Click here to order I Travel by Night from Subterranean Press