“Mr. Oliveri writes in a fun, easy flow style that pulls the reader in. In fact, I finished the book in one sitting. The time flew by, much as the story did. The action is high, the scares are placed nicely and there is just enough comedic banter to keep it fun.”
Way cool. Thanks Carl Isonhart and Suspense Magazine for the kind words.
Grab one of the electronic versions and you’ll have it ready to read while you’re waiting for this weekend’s fireworks displays to start!
About Mike Oliveri
Mike Oliveri is a writer, martial artist, cigar aficionado, motorcyclist, and family man, but not necessarily in that order. His Bram Stoker Award-winning first novel, Deadliest of the Species, was just reprinted by Evileye Books.
You have to be dead not to dig this book. That’s right. Dead.
What you see before you is one of the most incredible mixes of crime, action, and the supernatural that you can ever lay claim to reading. To say that this is the best example of how cross genre writing should be done would be an understatement. Between Greg Lamberson and Mike Oliveri – the bar has been set.
Reading that just made my month. You can read the full review here.
I have to admit, I was nervous about this book as we neared the street date. It’s been a few years since my last release, and a few more years since my first novel release. I felt like I’d been out of the game too long, and I worried that it would show in the final product. Fortunately those concerns have been largely unfounded, as the book has been very well received.
Here’s hoping book 2 gets the same kind of attention. You can be sure I’m giving it my all.
About Mike Oliveri
Mike Oliveri is a writer, martial artist, cigar aficionado, motorcyclist, and family man, but not necessarily in that order. His Bram Stoker Award-winning first novel, Deadliest of the Species, was just reprinted by Evileye Books.
My librarian recently put me in touch with Michael Cart, a past president of the Young Adult Library Services Association and author of My Father’s Scar. I sent him a copy of The Pack: Winter Kill and he was kind enough to provide the following review.
Mike Oliveri, winner of the prestigious Bram Stoker Award, combines horror and mystery in his riveting new novel Winter Kill, the first in a projected series that will delight fans of fast-paced noir fiction.
Writing in the tradition of the hardboiled crime novel pioneered by Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, Oliveri pulls no punches in this hard-edged novel of gun-running and murder. What makes his novel memorably unusual is not only its realistic treatment of crime but also its additional element of horror, featuring the current runaway popularity of werewolf fiction.
Altogether, these many exciting elements combine to make Winter Kill a howling success!
Comparisons to Hammett and Chandler? Nice!
Reviews have been very positive so far. I’ll have to be sure to stay on top of my game as I finish book 2.
About Mike Oliveri
Mike Oliveri is a writer, martial artist, cigar aficionado, motorcyclist, and family man, but not necessarily in that order. His Bram Stoker Award-winning first novel, Deadliest of the Species, was just reprinted by Evileye Books.
The best part about Google Alerts? They notify me when reviews of my work show up online. In this case, The Horror Fiction Review covered The Pack: Winter Kill and gave it four out of five stars. Sweet.
Here’s part of what the reviewer Colleen Wanglund had to say:
In this first book in a planned series, Mike Oliveri lays out a crime story with the promise of the supernatural mixed in and he delivers. … It is Mr. Oliveri’s take on the werewolf tale that is fed in small doses to keep the reader coming back for more.
Full review here (scroll down about halfway). I’m in good company, too: Joe Hill, Nicholas Kaufmann, Peter Straub… even a few other werewolf books. Not too shabby.
Remember, if you’re not into ordering from Amazon, Barnes & Noble online stocks it now, too. If B&N online has it, then you should be able to order it at a B&N retail store as well.
About Mike Oliveri
Mike Oliveri is a writer, martial artist, cigar aficionado, motorcyclist, and family man, but not necessarily in that order. His Bram Stoker Award-winning first novel, Deadliest of the Species, was just reprinted by Evileye Books.
The Black Glove just ran a couple of pieces about me and my work.
You can check out the interview here. TBG contributor Karen Newman asked me about everything from my karate studies to my writing to collaborating with guys like Brian Keene and J.F. Gonzalez. Wonder what happened to Muy Mal with John Urbancik, Weston Ochse, and myself? We cover that, too.
The review is here. Newman did the review as well, and the short version is she dug it. Check this out:
Oliveri doesn’t utilize the supernatural as a crutch, a testament to the strength of his writing. Oliveri has made a wonderful contribution to the werewolf mythos in The Pack: Winter Kill.
Rockin’. Ready to buy your own copy of the book? Make with the clicky. You can even get a Kindle version here.
About Mike Oliveri
Mike Oliveri is a writer, martial artist, cigar aficionado, motorcyclist, and family man, but not necessarily in that order. His Bram Stoker Award-winning first novel, Deadliest of the Species, was just reprinted by Evileye Books.
Daybreakers isn’t a wonderful movie, but I enjoyed it and I give the writers credit for bringing something new to vampire mythos. It’s also nice to see scary vampires coming back, with the viciousness and bloodthirst. The way they degenerate into the almost Nosferatu type with an absence of blood is a fun twist, and the occasional exploding body is a nice bonus.
Spoiler warnings from here out.
All in all, the movie felt to me like the writers had a series in mind, something to spread out across two or three flicks,b ut the financiers were only willing to give them one flick. The action feels very condensed, with events that could easily kill a half hour or so playing out in the span of one scene. There are characters who are introduced but get very little screen time, characters who change switch personalities on a dime, and the ending is left open enough it could easily bring a sequel.
The most blatant example of this is Bromley’s (Sam Neill) daughter. We get a quick explanation that they’ve become estranged because she was scared when he turned into a vampire, and she’s later captured by the vampire soldiers who hunt humans. He forcibly turns her, she goes feral, and he leaves her to be executed with the rest of the blood-crazed vampires they call subsiders. It seems like her storyline is supposed to demonstrate how bad a guy Bromley is, but it plays out so quickly we really don’t feel for her.
Part of the action takes place at a senator’s place, and this senator helps the humans stay hidden from the vampires. However, we get none of his motivation or background, he’s little more than a convenience. When he dies, it’s little more than an afterthought on either side. His work to get the humans set up and keep them human, not to mention his conflict against the other senators and/or Bromley’s company, could easily have played out over the course of the film.
Same goes for Edward Dalton’s (Ethan Hawke) brother. The two of them play opposite sides, with Dalton trying to find a blood substitute to spare humans and his brother, Frankie (Michael Dorman), dedicated to hunting down all the humans so they don’t run out of blood. There’s no other explanation for it than Frankie’s claim that he’s “good at it,” and when he’s cured at the end, he simply changes his attitude and moves on. No conflict, no (demonstrated) growth or change, just a flipped switch in his head.
There’s more, but you get the idea. Again, it just strikes me they had a lot more material than they needed, possibly from squeezing two longer scripts (or perhaps a longer novel) down to about 90 minutes. They could have trimmed some of this without it making much difference, and given us a little more detail for what’s left.
Question is, would it have improved the movie? Hard to say. I did enjoy it, but I didn’t walk out excited about it, or even looking forward to the telegraphed sequel. The whole cure thing is a bit iffy, but it makes sense in the context of this particular flick and at least it’s something different.
On the plus side, there’s some good action, and the viciousness of the vampires is a lot of fun. There’s plenty of blood for fans of same, and the writers (Michael & Peter Spierig, also the directors) give us a very stylish flick that touches on all the standard vampire tropes without resorting to cheese.
If you’re a horror fan, especially a vampire fan, give it a shot. I don’t think you’ll regret it.
About Mike Oliveri
Mike Oliveri is a writer, martial artist, cigar aficionado, motorcyclist, and family man, but not necessarily in that order. His Bram Stoker Award-winning first novel, Deadliest of the Species, was just reprinted by Evileye Books.
Like tough-guy anti-heroes? They don’t come much tougher or more morally ambiguous than Deputy Billy Lafitte.
I asked Kent Gowran to recommend a few good crime novels a while back, and Yellow Medicine by Anthony Neil Smith was on the list. I ordered it, read it, loved it. Smith’s first-person narrative is top-notch, providing a great picture of Lafitte’s character as well as sucking the reader into the story. The plot and action pull no punches, and my horror readers who enjoy a good thriller would do well to pick this one up.
The plot itself is simple: terrorists come to small-town America. Lafitte bends the law to his advantage from time to time, and when an old partner from New Orleans tells the members of a terror cell that Lafitte can help them make inroads into the meth trade, they waste no time proving they mean business. Lafitte soon finds himself stuck between the feds and the terrorists, but he’s not one to waste time catering to either.
I’d like to see this one hit the big screen, too. It reminds me a bit of Fargo and A Simple Plan, but it would hold its own. Assuming, of course, the Lafitte character makes it through the studio intact…
Give it a read, folks. You won’t be disappointed.
About Mike Oliveri
Mike Oliveri is a writer, martial artist, cigar aficionado, motorcyclist, and family man, but not necessarily in that order. His Bram Stoker Award-winning first novel, Deadliest of the Species, was just reprinted by Evileye Books.
, and he had some great things to say about the book.
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