Christopher FarnsworthRezensionen

Nice idea, poorly executed.

This book was everything you could ask for in an action thriller. Cade is the good guy vampire dedicated to protecting the president and the people of this country. Zach, the newbie liaison between the president and Cade, was a snot nosed ass who grew up fast. The story revolved around a terrorist plot to create the ultimate weapon, a soldier who couldn't die. There were many subplots but the author kept them woven tightly and the story flowed smoothly. The story never lacked for action and Cade wasn't a tear them up vampire. Definitely worth reading.

The President's Vampire is the second in the Nathaniel Cade series by Christopher Famsworth. This time around, Cade goes up against genetically engineered lizard people. I love the idea of conspiracy theories and paranormal combining! The story makes for a fun mash up of history, pop culture, supernatural horror and politics. The final third and climax of the book is a gore fest. On the down side, I can't stand how the scenes with Zach and the Company people sound like a bunch of frat boys. Those scenes make me cringe while listening to them. Good for Zach to go all in by the end. Cade could use that commitment from his partner.½

Most of the titles in my little collection of "books I had to quit" get a single star. I couldn't bring myself to do that with this book. I still like the idea of the series a lot. I just wasn't feeling this one. I didn't hate it or want to throw it through a window. I just thought it was mediocre, and I'm not in the mood to settle. I only read about a quarter of the way, so maybe I didn't give it enough time. I might try it again on a different day in a different mood. For now, I bid a lukewarm farewell to Zach and Cade.

A fun read. It occasionally brought to mind the National Treasure movies (the smart & funny young sidekick, a ship named Charlotte, and especially the Resolute Desk) and a bit of Joss Whedon (bad guy revising his computerized To Do after the dust settles). Mostly there's lots of vampire action and Frankenstein-esque-zombiness. Bela Lugosi even makes an unexpected but perfect cameo. Part spy novel, part horror story, part war on terror.

Cole is more in line with the noble monster vampire tradition (which is how I like my vampires) rather than the smoldering lover-boy tradition. He wears a cross for a rather noble reason, and which I thought a great twist on vampire lore.

In a book group setting, this book might spark a good discussion on the question, "what kind of vampire would you be?"

The President's Vampire was a wild combination of a paranormal plot with a military/spy thriller amped up by the conspiracy theory of conspiracy theories.

From the very beginning, so many plotlines and red herrings going in different directions kept me guessing, something which is hard to do. I can usually figure out the end pretty quickly.

This book, while involving genetic experimentation, centuries old Vampires and Somalian pirates, managed to be story and character driven rather than just a graphically gory tale.

Despite the unlikeliness of the conspiracy theories documented, I found myself at the end of the book scratching my head and wondering, maybe? I highly recommend this book!

Zach Barrows and Nathaniel Cade have their hands full of lizard men, political backstabbing and espionage. Cade has encountered similar lizard men before, but the new breed are even more dangerous than the previous batch. Between the two of them, Zach and Cade have a lot of work to do to quill the future horror of a supposed New World Order and the possibility of the Other Side breaking through for real.

I love that Innsmouth and even Dunwich made an appearance. Never read any Lovecraft, but he sure has a lot of influence these days.

Christopher Farnsworth writes a good, tight story, full of conspiracy theory, urban legend and things that go bump in the night. If anything, this is an even better than [b:Blood Oath|6662410|Blood Oath (Nathaniel Cade #1)|Christopher Farnsworth|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1275621832s/6662410.jpg|6857193] and that was a pretty good book. This is a fun read. I look forward to more in the Nathaniel Cade series.

Cade and Zach are back and fighting their worst opponent yet ... the Boogieman. I look forward to the next book when they'll be facing someone who has caused problems in the past...

In Killfile by Christopher Farnsworth, the main character can read minds and after a career in the military and the CIA is now a private consultant to the very rich. What could possibly go wrong?

A backlist title published in 2017 it was a pleasure to finally pick this up after purchasing a copy back in 2018. My initial curiosity surrounded how the author would communicate the mind reading skill to the reader. Secondly, how convincing (or not) this might be. I was pleasantly surprised to read a convincing account of mind reading and how it might impact a person with this ability.

"I know what you're thinking. Most of the time, it's not impressive. Trust me." Page 1

Our character goes by the name of John Smith (of course he does), and he often sheds light on the complex nature of his gift. He knows if a person means him harm and can take action beforehand. There are also unintended consequences of being able to read minds, as this quote early on in the book demonstrates:

"One of the many other downsides to being a telepath: knowing instantly and with certainty when you've acted like an asshole. I broke into her private life to score a cheap point, which is a lot worse than the countless guys who snuck a look down her blouse when they thought she wouldn't notice." Page 43

Smith is hired by Everett Sloan to get close to his billionaire rival in attempts to right a wrong, but not all is as it seems. Sloan can't read minds, but he has plenty of resources at his command, as does Sloan's rival, and the action is non stop.

Killfile by Christopher Farnsworth is a satisfying thriller with a refreshingly different angle I hadn't pursued since reading the Shadows series by Kay Hooper featuring a team of FBI Agents made up of psychics and those with special abilities.

Overall, a good read!

Zach Barrows, ambitious White House staffer, made the mistake of sleeping with the President's daughter and now he's been reassigned as partner and handler of secret agent Nathaniel Cade. Cade's mission, given to him by President Andrew Johnson as part of a pardon for vampirism, is to protect the Union from supernatural horrors that the daylight world, and Zach, are not prepared to cope with.

Blood Oath is the first in the Nathaniel Cade series by Christopher Famsworth. Nathaniel Cade is the vampire version of Jack Reacher with a little bit of The West Wing thrown in. In this mission someone has been shipping dismembered American soldiers back to the States with the intention of reassembling them in a kind of frankensoldier based on old Nazi experiments.

Cade is more of what I'd consider a "classic" vampire. Ultra strong and fast, drinking blood helps him regenerate from wounds, severe sunlight allergy. He has a strong moral compass for a vampire that could make for some interesting situations in the future. Basically everything but the supernatural seduction because:

"Humans are our food. Do you want to have sex with a cow?”

Did I mention there's some humor too? On the flip side, Zach Barrows starts off highly unlikable and obnoxious. I believe this is by design so we can see his character grow as he adjusts to the full reality of his new job situation. I ended up with how well Zach handles himself by the end of the book.

I listened to the audio book narrated by Bronson Pinchot. It took me a bit to get used to the narration as he was more monotone than I prefer. It made more sense as the story went along and more characters were added which upped the variety of voices.

Famsworth had fun drawing inspiration from popular horror legends and weaving them together into an entertaining horror/thriller. Fair warning, there are a couple gory parts and one in particular that made me cringe. That said, I enjoyed the set up and I'm looking forward to continuing the series.½

I really wanted to like this book, but the initial chapters were just so farfetched that I couldn't past them and then need to give every dead body a disgusting back story at the end was too much. Oh well.

Fast, action-packed thriller. John Smith has a special gift in that he can access and influence peoples' thoughts. Having quit the military, he is now an expensive private contractor. Billionaire software genius Everett Sloan hires Smith to recover an algorithm he allegedly stole and to "scrub every trace of it from Eli Preston's head." He is joined on his assignment by a beautiful and resourceful woman, Kelsey Foster. Mysteriously, Preston discovers Smith's identity, igniting trouble. My issues with this book are: (1) Smith's backstory is not well-integrated with the main story, and (2) Kelsey's character seems forced.

Osama bin Laden as a naga? Really?

This sucked so bad I gave up after the first chapter. It wasn't even good for a laugh.

I didn't realize it was the second of a series until I started to post it here.

I'm agog.

Dead Man Running and 113 Minutes are also included in this book of 3 short Book Shots stories. I had not read any of these. I would say each story rates three stars, as nothing too amazing occurred to make any of them stand out. In fact, writing this review is hard because thinking back, I can’t really recall one single strong point in each that really stands out to me. I enjoyed the Book Shot stories for what they are, which is usually a quick and an entertaining read. So if you don’t go in expecting too much, you probably won’t be disappointed.

Quick fun read, it always quite making sense, even if you go with the whole special psychic premise. Just enough science in it to make it almost plausible.

Beware this is three bookshots and not a standalone book.
DEAD MAN RUNNING ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️ First story was very good. Could've been a full length book. Main character and suspense were good.

113 MINUTES ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I was going to give the second story 3 stars. The story didn't make sense, but the twist was good and explained it all.

13-MINUTE MURDER ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Didn't like the story as much as the first two, but I liked the character, some humor...and I'm a sucker for dogs. A darker story.

Interesting concept and decently-written. The last half of the book especially is quite engrossing and I was compelled to keep listening to it. Not, however, for the faint of heart--there's lots of graphic violence. Not overdone, but very visceral. The titular vampire is a fascinating character and I do feel I'd like to read the first book in the series now. If you like a mix of supernatural/politics/military and thriller, you'd probably enjoy this book very much.

3 BookShots contained in this book.
1. Dead Man Running - a psychiatrist witnesses his patient’s murder, uncovering a plot to kill a political candidate
2. 113 Minutes - a mother is determined to seek revenge on the drug lord who she blames for her teenage son’s death
3. The 13-Minute Murder - a paid assassin hunts for the killer of a Mafia boss’s son

These 3 stories are all short, very quick reads. Nothing spectacular in any of them, just a quick escape.

#The13MinuteMurder #JamesPatterson

Good Short Stories½

This combines all the best parts of thrillers and vampire lore with hints of The West Wing. SO GOOD. I am cranky that the next in the series isn't in the library's ebooks for me to read right now grumblegrumblegrumble.

I was feeling really lonely and sad after my boyfriend broke up with me, so I picked this up because I knew it would be full of action and not romance. I loved the first one in the series, and this one was a quick, fun read too. Lots of gore and weird creatures, plus the awesome vampire. Also, while I was reading, I felt almost normal again, and that's a pretty major compliment, since when I wasn't reading I was spending my time crying buckets.

The book was well written, but very silly. I would probably read another one of his books, because they are enjoyable.

Blood Oath is the story of vampire Nathaniel Cade, pardoned for vampirism by President Andrew Johnson, and now required to loyally serve each subsequent president of the United States. Cade is an interesting character who seems closer to James Bond and Jack Reacher than Dracula. He takes pride in his patriotism and professionalism. He's absolutely fascinating but the secondary characters are also well developed. We have Zach Barrows, an arrogant young Washington insider assigned to work with Cade after being caught with the president's daughter. In their first assignment together they must work together to stop terrorists who are shipping dismembered American soldiers into the U.S., intending to create Unmenschsoldat, undead killing machines, better known as Frankenstein monsters. Cade and Zach are sent to find the one man who can create those monsters, but are unable to prove anything. Even worse, they have attracted hostile attention from several different areas, including the evil Dr. Konrad, a beautiful vampire named Tania, and a terrifying Shadow Company which knows no mercy. Cade is a very compelling sort of anti-hero, a vampire who doesn't really like the humans he's sworn to protect. He's arrogant, brooding and vicious, and knows both the intelligence game as well as the supernatural realm.

I'm not a fan of vampire novels but this one is much more than that. It's part vampire, part thriller and loads of fun to read. The plot moves along quickly and there's a perfect blend of Black Ops thriller combined with vampires, werewolves and the undead. The concept is a good one and it works well. If you like political thrillers and vampires you are in for a real treat. I immediately picked up the second and third books in this fascinating series.

Blood Oath, the first book featuring vampire Nathaniel Cade was so good I had to pick up the second one. The President's Vampire takes place months after Blood Oath and Zach Barrows, Cade's handler, has had plenty of time to get used to his new job. I didn't love Zach in the first book but he's so much more interesting in this one. In fact, in many parts of the book Zach almost outshines Cade. In this new adventure Cade and Zach are up against a virus that's turning humans into serpent-like creatures that are killing machines. Unstopped, they'll destroy most, if not all of mankind.

The President's Vampire provides shocking twists and is filled with non-stop action. If you liked the first book in this series, you will certainly like this one. I'm not a fan of vampire novels but I do enjoy a good political thriller and this is both. I wouldn't recommend reading them out of order since the character development is part of the plot. Now I'm off to get the third one...Red, White and Blood.

Nathaniel Cade has been the president's vampire since he was caught and swore a blood oath to protect the nation and its leader. In the third installment of the series Cade and his handler, Zach Barrows, have to accompany President Samuel Curtis on his re-election tour to protect him against one of the most gruesome monsters out there....the Boogeyman. Cade has met the Boogeyman before, a legendary figure that draws its power and thirst for blood from the killers and sadists that inhabit the world. While the president is on the campaign trail, evidence surfaces that the Bogeyman is back in action and preparing to take out President Curtis. We follow Cade as he tracks the killer through Middle America, leaving bodies in his wake. Filled with non-stop action, gore, blood and disembowelment, you will certainly enjoy this one if you were a fan of the first two books, Blood Oath and The President's Vampire.

Last year I read the first book of the series even though I'm not a fan of paranormal, vampires, werewolves, etc. I've kept up with it because it's a solid story full of characters that absolutely fascinate me. I really enjoy the historical interludes where we witness Cade interacting with one of the past presidents. It combines a horror thriller with an action packed movie. It might not be the best book I've read all year but it is one of the most fun.