Some kind of unknown and unseen animal is killing the area ranchers cattle. The sheriff is stumped. Experts from the university have never encountered anything like it. The ranchers are tired of finding their livelihood dead in the pastures the next morning and are losing patience waiting for someone to provide them answers. Keith is one of them. He's had his run-ins with the sheriff and the local band of punks. He was considered a loose cannon before he lost his wife. Now, without her calming influence, Keith has turned to alcohol to help him face his demons and get him through his day. On a night half drunk and slumbering on his porch, he's awakened by a high pitch squeal in his pasture. What he finds, attacking one of his cattle, is pure fury and stinks of the grave.

Burden Kansas is my first read from Ryker and I can't say enough about it. The characters are perfectly flawed and realistic. The small town rural setting reminds me of the lonliness and tone found in the movie Near Dark. The pacing is excellent. The relationships between the characters are realistic and add wonderful depth and layers to the story. Ryker's vampires are how they should be - fast, furious, and definitely do not sparkle. Great, great story that has caused me to download more of his work before I was even done with this one.

5 bloody fangs out of 5

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Burden Kansas - Alan Ryker

Re-posting an old review.  

One of the best vampire stories that I have read in a while. Economical prose, yet detailed enough to provide good characterization. Upon reviewing Ryker's bio I discovered that he writes both literary fiction as well as dark fiction. No surprise once I had read this very well written short novel. Ryker clearly not only knows how to fashion a well-paced, exciting horror novel with good characters, settings, and imagery, but he has the chops to tackle other genres as well. 

And the best part is that the vampires are old school nasty, unattractive predators. The story line follows these dangerous creatures, and some equally dangerous and aggressive humans, down a path that I think is original. Clearly the capacity for mindless cruelty goes both ways. 

If you like well written horror stories and you hate the "sparkly" type of romantic vampire, then this is the book to read. After I finished, I bought the sequel.

Post script:  the sequel is even better!

If you like your vampires sexy or glittering, this book is not for you. This is how vampires should be - fast, vicious and deadly.

Keith Harris, the main character, might be hard for some to like seeing how he's made some difficult decisions in the past, drinks a lot and generally doesn't care what the public thinks about him. He gets involved with helping some of the townsfolk when something is feeding on his cattle by draining blood from them and sometimes killing them. No one had an inkling of an idea of what it was until Keith saw one of the creatures feeding on one of his cows. This is just the beginning of his new nightmare.

This book was amazing! Ryker managed to suck me right into this story and get me lost in it throughout the whole thing. The few times I was interrupted while reading it, it took me a few seconds to clear my head and come back to the real world. This is now a favorite of mine and I HIGHLY recommend it