Click here to buy this book! Lulu Rebirth: Online Horror Novel Category:  Horror Publisher: Lulu.com Type: Fiction Pages: 240 Copyright: Jan 2007 An attack on a pharmaceutical laboratory leads Detective Tom Ryder into an investigation that challenges everything he ever believed about the world around him. With the help of World Health Organisation operative Jane Simpson, he discovers a secret society that has defended humanity against the creatures of the night for centuries. A horrifying turn of events forces Tom to reconsider his place in the world and he finds himself fighting against the evil outside as well as the evil growing inside him. With death around every corner, Tom becomes the number one target of both the people he thought were allies and the creatures he thought were enemies Sample the novel at http://rebirthnovel.blogspot.com Prologue One year ago He was frantic. The straps binding his arms and legs gave way and he leapt to his feet. The figures standing round him were frozen in shock. Before they could attempt to hold him down, he bolted for the door and ran faster than he had ever run before. Something was flowing around his body, carrying him at a speed he never thought possible, something that had been explained to him many times before that he didn’t want to believe. He was in pain. Incredible agony. There was a fire in his stomach. The pain stabbed him in the belly and he doubled over, stumbling into the wall. Using his hands to steady himself, he got back onto his feet and continued his dash for freedom. The shouts of his captors echoed behind him. “Don’t let him leave! He can’t be allowed to escape!” “Shoot him if you have to!” “No! Take him alive.” “It’s too late, doctor. He’s beyond help now. There’s nothing more you can do for him.” He was dead. He was sure of that already, but if he could make it down the long stone-flagged corridors to the front steps and make a leap for it, he might have a chance of survival. Two figures appeared in front of him but he immediately barged them out of the way, sending them skidding along the smooth floor. Just in front of him were the heavy doors that stood between him and the outside world. He paid no mind to the possibility that the doors might be locked. Without a pause to think about his actions, he felt all the power in his body flow through his arm and up his side and shoulder-charged the wooden barricade, knocking it from its hinges. The cool fresh air washed over his face as the rain poured in torrents from the darkness above onto the gravel drive and lush green lawn ahead of him. As soon as his feet left the top steps, he heard a gunshot behind him. He kept running down the steps onto the drive and wondered why there were no more shots. Then he lost all feeling in his chest. He put his hands to his heart and knew what was happening. As he fell to the ground with his life ebbing away, the voices of the men who had held him against his will for so long and done hideous things to him rang in his ears. “There goes another one.” “We’ve learned a lot from him. I think we know what we have to do.” “How long will it take to reach the next stage?” “Give me twelve months.”

Fangtastic Detective Story with a Bloody Twist (www.spinetinglers.co.uk)
Detective Tom Ryder is your classic cynical detective – he is good at is job because it is the only thing he has going for him. He has no wife, no family, and an expanding waist line. When there is double homicide at Mantek Labs, he is called in to investigate the crime. What starts out as an ordinary murder investigation becomes anything but as Tom Ryder discovers what the military and the World Health Organisation have been hiding for centuries.

Before the end of the day, Detective Ryder finds himself in a very different world than the one he awoke to that morning: a world full of silver bullets and monsters he had only seen in the movies. He finds himself on the lookout for his best friend, Myers, who ‘used to be dead but now he’s naked and running round the streets near the hospital, eating homeless guys.’ Will this day get any worse, or will he wake up from this nightmare and re-enter the predictable world he lived in before?

Although Rebirth begins as an average, run-of-the-mill detective story, it ends up as anything but that. Filled with interesting characters, exciting gunfights, and even a few epic battles thrown in, it is also different from the average vampire story because it humanises these characters and tells you its story from both perspectives (the humans fighting against the vampires as well as the vampires fighting against the humans). We are used to vampire stories giving us either one side or the other – (the tortured brooding vampires disgusted at what they have to do to survive, as in Anne Rice novels, or the soulless creatures that do not care what they do and who they destroy doing it..). This book offers none of these old clichés and the reader empathises with the individuals on both sides of the fight.

Scott Mckenzie’s Rebirth is a real page-turner that leaves you hungry for more from this new writer. If you aren’t absolutely thrilled by the exciting chase sequences and the bloody confrontations, the charm and wit of the characters will win you over. Spinetinglers highly recommends this book for anyone who loves classic vampire tales with a modern twist – five stars.