Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

By Seth Grahame-Smith

A novel about Abraham Lincoln which places this real person in a fictitious setting, in an America in which vampires exist and prey upon people, including Lincoln's own family. His father borrows money from a vampire and when he can't repay his debt, the vampire exacts revenge against the Lincoln family, inspiring in the young Lincoln a deep, abiding hatred of the undead. He dedicates himself to the destruction off all vampires, not knowing in his inexperience how very deadly the undead are. He is almost killed in a vampire encounter but falls into the hands of a sympathetic vampire who nurses Lincoln back to health and then gives him tips on how to better deal with vampires and even sends Lincoln on other missions to take out vampires.

As Lincoln gains more knowledge and experience in the craft of vampire hunting, he finds out that one of the reasons slavery is supported in the South is because much of the South is under the secret control of vampires, who view slaves as easy prey, even to buying them just to consume. Lincoln is disgusted and outraged at the willingness of non-vampires to collaborate with vampires in supplying them with their slave victims. He discovers this involvement reaches into the highest levels of American society, North and South. And maybe the best way to bring down the vampire reign is to destroy their source of easy prey and end the peculiar institution of slavery in America....

This was an OK story. An odd blend of history and fantasy, it was more interesting at the beginning, when Lincoln is young and strong. But as he gets older and marries and has kids, he retires from vampire hunting. The story kind of slowed down then as middle aged Presidents are hardly in the position to go out chopping vampire heads off on the weekends.