Outbreak: A Nightshades Novel

by Melissa F. Olson

• ISBN10: 1250176301
• ISBN13: 9781250176301
• Publish Date: 5 June 2018
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 7 June 2023
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: St Martin's Press
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 240
• Language: English

Reviews

[Melanie]

My review and an extended sample of the audiobook are posted at Hotlistens.com.

In this third book in Melissa F. Olson’s Nightshades series, we finally wrap up the story arc. I don’t know if there will be more books set in this world, but this book does wrap up the story arc of the first three books. I really enjoyed this series. It takes everything I love about cop shows and combines them with vampires. What’s not to love.

If I had to complain about this series, the stories are short. I don’t feel like the author left anything out of the stories. The characters are well developed, as is the world that these characters they live in. But each book is around 4 hours long, which is really short. I am glad that she didn’t just fill the story up with filler, though. I would just like more time with these characters.

Alex and Lindy have made their relationship more than a working one. But that doesn’t mean they don’t still have a lot of work to do. Lindy’s brother, Hector, is still on a rampage. The FBI still need to catch him. Chase, Alex’s best friend and second in command of the Chicago BPI team, passes along some news that is a big hit to the team.

I would highly recommend reading this series in order. Each book builds on the previous story. I think if you started here, you would be completely lost to what is going on with the vampires. I hope to see more books set in this world.

Narration
Luke Daniels continues to narrate this series and does a fantastic job. There’s a reason he is at the top of many people’s favorite narrator list. He’s great with a large selection of voices that are always attuned to the character’s personality. He’s great with both male and female voices. Pace and tone are always right where it’s needed for the current scene. If you’ve never listened to Luke Daniels, you’re really missing out.

**I like to thank the publisher for providing me with a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

[EBookObsessed]

This series is good but just too short to be great.

We start book 4 where we left off on book 3, where shade (vampire) Lindy Frederick and FBI Agent Alex McKenna have just spent the night together and wake up to the news that the shades have all broken out of the FBI holding in Washington DC known as “Camp Vamp.” Many agents were killed in the break out and Alex receives a call from his boss to bring Lindy in. Alex isn’t stupid and as Lindy is the only known shade and even though she has been working with the FBI, he knows the FBI wants to bring her in and make her take the fall for the breakout.

Alex also knows that Lindy has been working with them on the up and up and wasn’t using her in with the FBI as a front for information. Lindy could have simply used her shade abilities and mesmerized one of the agents for inside information. She didn’t need to work with them to help capture her brother, Hector. So Alex goes rouge and helps Lindy escape her apartment.

Alex gets his team involved, as they too have come to trust Lindy, and together they make a plan to take down Hector. They just need to make sure they don’t get caught themselves before their trap has sprung.

I am not certain if this is the final story of the Nightshade series, but it does end a story arc.

I liked the characters and as always, I was very happy with the narration by Luke Daniels. But my overall problem with the series is the fact that it was a group of novellas, which were each rather short, less than 4 hours of audiobook so the story is ending just as it is really getting started.

While the first novella was slow trying to set up the series and introduce the world of shades (vampires), the other two picked up a little more with more plot. With a novella size ending of story arc, the ending came too quick and there was no time for plot twists. The author did attempt to throw Alex and Lindy’s perfect plan off kilter, but you knew, since there wasn’t much story left, that everything was going to end really soon.

All the characters we have met over the prior stories are back so once again we can jump back into the story without further introductions but this was still not overly dramatic or exciting for a story arc ending.