Thursday, March 17, 2011

Department Nineteen by Will Hill

Publisher:  Razorbill (Penguin Group)
Publish Date:  March 31, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-59514-406-5
Pages:  480

We all know there are secret government agencies, right?  I mean, someone has to deal with aliens, monsters and vampires.  That's where Department Nineteen comes in.  Will Hill's debut novel is amazing.  He writes a beautiful historical back story, great characters, kick-ass modern weapons and mean-as-snake vampires.  No sparkling allowed here, these creatures are bloodthirsty and set on revenge..or something.

Jamie's dad is killed one night, in front of the family, and then the family is told a story.  It's one they can hardly believe.  Two years later, Jamie discovers the truth accidentally and is pulled into Department Nineteen.  Remember good 'ol Van Helsing, Harker and the rest of the gang from Dracula?  It would seem that they knew it wasn't going to end there and made a deal with the government to set up a secret agency.  Cool, huh?  Yep, that's Department Nineteen. The tagline is "Department Nineteen: The Reason You're Alive".

Now, the only thing Jamie cares about is in danger and it seems the only way out...is to sacrifice himself.  The chapters go back and forth between the present with Jamie's story and the past with Van Helsing's group.  A lot of questions are answered by looking into the past.  With chapter names like Teenage Wasteland and It's Hard to Breathe with a Hand Around Your Throat, things move along quickly and kept my interest.  The characters are well written: from the military men to teenage Jamie.  Luckily this is the first in a series - I'm looking forward to the next one already.  My favorite thing - the T-Bone.  It's a vampire killing weapon and I can't believe no one thought of it before - GENIUS!

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