Ramón Terrell’s Running from the Night starts with a murder. Jelani, California transplant to Vancouver, stop-motion actor, and martial artist, is out jogging and stumbles across a killing.

Not just a killing, as it happens.  A vampire feeding.

It turns out that his witness not only condemns Jelani to death, it also condemns to death the vampire whose meal he interrupted.

Soon Jelani and his roommate Daniel are on the run not only from that vampire — a super-fast, super-strong killing machine who decidedly is not bothered by trivialities like running water and crosses — but also from the hunter sent to dispatch both of them, as well as from a strange couple of non-human observers who seem beyond the abilities of even the vampires to hurt.

Running from the Night is kung fu vampire fun and also a sort of love letter to the city of Vancouver. Terrell, himself a martial artist and resident of VC, writes affectionately and credibly about both those things, making this an engaging and fast-moving read.

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