I am sorry for the inconvenience but I don’t have the time to read this anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.

Fast paced and entertaining. A witty, spine tingling vampire tale. A unique take on a familiar trope- atmospheric, eerie and unnerving.

This is a story about vampires, but also about life in small towns and the secrets that everyone keeps.

The colony of vampyrs has lived in an old mining town near the small town of Deadhart, Alaska, for decades. There was an incident many years ago when a local boy was killed and it was blamed on the vampyrs. When a new killing happens, a detective specializing in vampyrs is sent to investigate. She is an outsider in a very small town and runs into locals who want to eliminate the entire vampyr colony without a thorough investigation. The former sheriff of the town, Jensen, ends up helping her with the investigation, even though he is retired and lives as a recluse.

This was an atmospheric read and I could really picture this little isolated town and its inhabitants. They all have secrets to keep and are wary of outsiders. The vampyrs have their own reasons to stay away from the people of the town. They have suffered at their hands before and just want to keep to themselves.

The mystery is interspersed with glimpses of the life of a young vampyr, but we don't know what time period she was in. It was a very interesting read and not the usual kind of novel for me. I enjoyed it. The vampyrs don't go around sucking blood from humans, so it wasn't gory like that. The detective did a great job and I thought the suspense was just right. The ending was great.

I have been loving books that take place in Alaska and this had the promise of a great mystery. I really enjoyed our main character, Barbara, but found the long list of other characters and their backstories hard to follow and keep track of. When the big reveal happened I had to go back and try to remember what I already learned about them. Still a fun book! Really loved how the vampires were explained and wish there had been more!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Such a fabulous novel. The Gathering is so much more than a who-done-it thriller with a supernatural twist. Rather, The Gathering delves into the unfortunate and disappointing ways in which we find new types of prejudices and ways to discriminate again other groups. In the case of Tutor's latest novel, it is humans that are oppressing vampires. It is a novel that stands as both entertainment and critical self-reflection, and does so with perfect balance.

Tudor is one of my favorite authors in the horror/thriller genre and this book about a murder in Alaska and a colony of vampires piqued my interest from the first page. Barbara Atkins is a detective and a "vampyre anthropologist" and is called to the small Alaskan town of Deadhart after a teenage boy is found with his throat torn open. Deadhart is a town which coexists with a local vampire colony who are protected under the law in this world. The townspeople want to have a cull which is when a gang of humans kills all of the vampires, but Barbara wants to wait until she can investigate. The author does a good job of describing the cold, dark Alaskan town as well as the people who live there. We also meet a couple from the vampire colony, mostly Althlinda who was turned as a child but has now become the leader of the vampire group. There are a lot of characters in this story and it is hard to keep them clear at times; they include a local pastor and her protege, an elderly man who hears voices, a family who own the local bar, a retired sheriff who comes back to help, a local doctor, and several teenagers and their families.

Barbara suspects something more is going on than a vampire killing when another person is found dead and she finds herself on her own as the local sheriff has an accident. Tensions increase as the town becomes increasingly afraid and angry about the colony and a previous murder thought to be by vampire is brought up as their reasons for their hatred of the colony. There is a subtext of religion and racial discrimination in this story and the author takes a decided anti-religious stance. She also uses a number of British words even though this novel is set in the United States and at times it took me out of the story. I did enjoy the overall creepy atmosphere and thought Barbara was a fun character. The ending was exciting and looks to be a possible setup for a sequel.

This book was truly so good and I loved how the author blended real life issues with fiction. It was all written so that it flowed and felt very natural and believable. It was almost as if you could believe there truly were vampires living in Alaska. I ate this book up!

The storyline jumps into high gear with the death of a local teen whose throat appears to have been torn out. This leads the people in this small Alaskan town to call for a cull of the vampire group that has recently come back to their area. After all, the boy's death could have only been at the hands....or "teeth" of a vampire....right? But when the detective, Barbara, is brought in (who is also a vampire anthropologist), she questions the obvious. Because sometimes things are a bit too convenient. It almost seems as if someone wants to implicate vampires for the killing.

This book was interesting because they dealt with something referred to as "vampire racism" but it was an unusual way to look at the way the townspeople viewed the vampires and their impact on the town. The fear they had was obviously legitimate. However, there were so many tokens of vampire killings around the town too that it was obvious the vampires had often been hunted and massacred. It was a fine line between fear of something because it was dangerous and fear because it was different.

Overall, I found this book to be quite fascinating and was mesmerized by the storyline from start to finish.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I chose to read and review it and the opinions included are my own.

This is a mystery thriller set in small town Alaska. Detective Barbara Atkins investigates a grisly murder where a young boy is found with his throat ripped out and his blood drained. The town suspects the Colony, which is a group of vampyrs who live in an old mine settlement nearby. Atkins, is an expert in vampyr killings and she teams up with the former sheriff to help uncover the truth behind the murder. This definitely would appeal to anyone who enjoys reading mystery/suspense with a touch of supernatural elements.

4/5 stars

In a small Alaska town, a boy is found with his throat ripped out and all the blood drained from his body. The inhabitants of Deadhart haven’t seen a killing like this in twenty-five years. But they know who’s responsible: a member of the Colony, an ostracized community of vampyrs living in an old mine settlement deep in the woods. Detective Barbara Atkins, a specialist in vampyr killings, is called in to officially determine if this is a Colony killing—and authorize a cull. Old suspicions die hard in a town like Deadhart, but Barbara isn’t so sure. Determined to find the truth, she enlists the help of a former Deadhart sheriff, Jenson Tucker, whose investigation into the previous murder almost cost him his life. Since then, Tucker has become a recluse. But he knows the Colony better than almost anyone.As the pair delve into the town’s history, they uncover secrets darker than they could have imagined. And then another body is found. While the snow thickens and the nights grow longer, a killer stalks Deadhart, and two disparate communities circle each other for blood. Time is running out for Atkins and Tucker to find the truth: Are they hunting a bloodthirsty monster . . . or a twisted psychopath? And which is more dangerous? I love this author and totally loved this book. This is not your typical vampire story but it is a classic murder mystery/whodunit. Highly recommend!

The Gathering is perfect if you want a detective mystery with a sprinkle of vampires. Right away it reeled me in into wanting more. So I kept reading. However, the beginning is where it ended for me. I was wanting more vampires and less detective. It does bring an interesting tie in of the hate a group gets for being different and the generalization of that hate. However, ultimately it fell short for me.

Detective Barbara Atkins is a Forensic Vampyre Anthropologist (her alma mater was not mentioned) is sent to a remote town in Alaska for a murder case involving a teenager whose wounds look familiar and considered to be caused by a vampyre. 
    Another "human" teenager was murdered similarly in the town many years ago, vampyres were implicated and subsequently murdered by some townfolk. The colony emigrated but it seems they're back and taking their revenge.
    The book describes an interesting society where vampyres manage to coexist with humans----and have done so for centuries. Their  symbiotic relationship, if disrupted, can result in the culling of the vampyres, a legal procedure that wipes them out .    
    The author describes a remote, frigid town whose residents all seem to have a past history with these vampyres and it's all catching up with them resulting in their death. The freezer in the local cafe is posing as a temporary morgue and filling up fast.
    Barbara is a wonderful character. She knows her credentials cause eye rolling but she is impressive in her job.
    A eerie adventure in a series of macabre events that has the reader totally absorbed in this other world.

I don’t read vampyr (spelling as it is in the story), but this was a great little mystery. Vampyrs have been active in the works for hundreds of year. Most live in colonies. They live amongst humans, neither side happy about this, as cohesively as possible. Detective Barbara Atkins, a forensic vampyr detective is send to Deadhart. A small town in Alaska in the middle of nowhere, decorated all year long in Christmas lives. She is investigating murders that appear to be vampyr related and the town is calling for a complete cull to get rid of the colony.
Barbara is not convinced this is the doing of the colony and as she investigates, she finds more and more hidden secrets that ultimately lead to the truth.
I enjoyed this very much and there were many twists and turns and an ending that was unexpected. There were lies, betrayal and angry townspeople with many secrets. As the body count begins to add up, so do the mysteries of people in the town that should be trusted figures in the community.
This was my first Tudor book and won’t be my last. Her writing style suits my taste

Similar to 'The Drift', The Gathering is an isolation murder mystery with a vampyric twist.

Entertaining read, plenty of depth to keep your mind working and active as you turn towards the final page. A small Alaskan town's long-held secrets begin to come to light as the hunt for the killer becomes more and more intense. Complex lives of both piety and sin are blended together in a small community with a dark history.

It was fun to see the author play with time and age for vampires and humans, as well as the complications of different cultures living side by side.

Middle of the road for me,

In Alaska, humans vampyrs coexist, but vampyrs are ostracized, living deep in the woods in The Colony. Imagine the American South during the Civil War, but with vampyrs. Now, vampyrs have rights, and killing them is only allowed in self-defense.

Detective Barbara Atkins, an expert in vampyr killings, arrives in Deadhart to investigate a human teenager’s brutal murder, caught on video and seemingly committed by a vampyr. The town is outraged and on the brink of violence.

Barbara was a compelling character with a complex past that explains her motivations, touching on themes of sexuality, race, and abuse. However, she sometimes comes across as emotionally dry, a common issue with female detectives in fiction. Despite this, the story’s unique premise and Barbara's character make it an intriguing read.

This is not your classic vampire story, it’s much better. So many twists in this book it will keep you engaged. Many murders happen in this investigation but they end up figuring out who did these things. But that ending 🫣😬 seems as if another book is possible 😅




Thank you to NetGalley and Ballentine for allowing me to read for an honest review.

A gripping tale blending police procedural with supernatural elements.. The vivid descriptions evoke the desolate Alaskan landscape and the characters leap off the page. The Gathering awaits you.
Many thanks to Random House and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Being a slow reader has its disadvantages like being last to the party. Already released I got around to reading this C J Tudor vampire thriller and it did not disappoint. Caught in a snowstorm a small town has a murder of a teenage boy pitting humans against vampires. As a special agent is assigned to the case it’s a race against time to find the killer before one race destroys the other in what’s known as a gathering. Fast paced and not a glittering vampire insight this novel brings horror back to us and what can happen when fear rules a town. As all her novels I’ve read well done. 5/5⭐️ thanks to @netgalley and @randomhouseballentine. Another home run

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy.

This is a small town murder mystery with vampires. Even with the vampires, you shouldn't expect a straight up horror. I loved it and felt for the detective just trying to do her job.

Rating: 4/5

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy of this book!

Wow wow wow! That's all I can say! I was a fan of C. J. Tudor and her snow-covered, locked-room mysteries with a twinge of science-fiction and "extra" dangers woven into her story, then to find that the twists had time as a factor, and she played with timelines, was so intriguing. She's done it again with a mountain, a locked-room story, and of course, lots of cold snow! The use of setting creates tension just with how she describes the area, the forest, how she can manage to describe loneliness and danger with descriptions of vast and dense trees. She really is a master storyteller!

TV-series worthy, I'm really enjoying this stylistic shift C.J. Tudor has been exploring since The Drift, where her stories venture beyond the 'real world' setting of typical thriller mysteries, and start taking place in more fantastical alternate universes — in this case, one where vampires live (with social tension) alongside human civilization.

C.J. Tudor did an excellent job interweaving The Gathering's world building, without coming across as info-dumpy, and the Alaskan small town setting provided the needed chills and atmosphere (though I still wonder why was this not released during a colder season). A signature to C.J. Tudor's narrative style, we had a laundry list of character, alongside a complex relationship/connection to keep track of; while this one isn't as mind-boggling as in the The Burning Girls, some reveals did lose their shock value a tad as I tried to recall in the moment who they were and their relevance to the plot.

Overall, The Gathering has a very polished, 'Hollywood' sheen to it—the plot moves fast, the characters are memorable and appealing (appreciate the sprinkle of humor), and the writing strikes the perfect balance between descriptive and digestible. It has a generally mainstream appeal that might not be everyone's cup of tea (I see the inclusion of more action set pieces and paranormal elements as such tactics), but for me C.J. Tudor is one of a few that blends the marketable influences with enjoyable personal flair. Can't wait for the next one!