3 1/2 stars

Jimmy and Greg are not your typical vampires, though they do have a problem with the sun, stakes through the heart, and quite possibly holy ground (though the jury's still out on the last bit). These guys are after my own heart as they quote from Buffy: The Vampire Slayer throughout the book. Between them, they make up Black Knight Investigations.

Their best friend is Father Mike, a man of the cloth, with whom the pair grew up and who does not seem all that bothered by their status of undead blood drinkers. Before the end of the story we'll encounter a witch and her coven, Lillith (yes, that one), a fallen angel, and a detective whose worldview is about to be rearranged in a very dramatic way.

This is a fairly short book and a humorous read which is precisely what I needed right now despite the ultimate subject matter (demons, possessions, destruction of property, and, yeah, a silly reason which proves that the road to the dark place is often paved with selfish intentions).

[Edit 8/21/15] The narrator for the audio edition of this book is perfect: Nick Russo ( )

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Hard Day's Knight
Series: Black Knight Chronicles #1
Authors: John Hartness
Rating: 1 of 5 Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 230
Words: 62K

Synopsis:

From the Publisher

Children are missing.

The police are stumped.

Halloween is coming, and an ancient evil is on the horizon.

The vampires are the good guys.

This is not your ordinary fall weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina. Vampire private detectives Jimmy Black and Greg Knightwood have been hired to save a client from being cursed for all eternity, but end up in a bigger mess than they ever imagined.

Suddenly trapped in the middle of a serial kidnapping case, Jimmy and Greg uncover a plot to bring forth an ancient evil. Soon, they've enlisted the help of a police detective, a priest, a witch, a fallen angel and a strip club proprietor to save the world. This unlikely band of heroes battles zombies, witches, neuroses and sunburn while cracking jokes and looking for the perfect bag of O-negative.

My Thoughts:

Ranting and theological oriented stuff ahead. Read at your own rist.

This type of book is the EXACT reason I don't read much urban fantasy. If imams were portrayed the way most priests are, you can bet your bottom dollar there would be riots and violence and other imams going full on mufti and screaming out death notice fatwas faster than you could eat a porkchop from Willie Jewels Barbeque! In fact, the author would be in danger of having his head cut off or being gunned down at his business (just look what happened to the Charlie Hebdo publication in France!) Heck, if Hartness had written it that way and gone to Malaysia, the government itself might just cut off his head, or at best beat him until he promised to not write like that anymore. But do you see hordes of roman catholics beating down Hartness's door, or Cardinals (the guys just lower than the Pope) sic'ing the Jesuits on him? No, you don't. What you get is bloggers like me sighing and rolling their eyes at the absolute stupidity and lack of knowledge exhibited here.

The older I get the more I care about how Christianity is portrayed in fiction. Not because it bothers me personally but because of how many people take their cue from fiction. If you were to ask the average Joe or Josephina on the street if a priest who was truly devout would have a comparative religions breakfast with the leader of a coven of witches every month so they could genially compare theological notes, they'd probably wonder why that would be a problem at all. And that is the least of the things I had a problem with in this book. For that example, it wasn't that the priest was friends with a witch. He should be. You can't show Christ to people if you refuse to be their friends and don't interact with them. But it was the “comparative” part coupled with the truly devout. On matters of theology, a Christian is not going to come together with people of other faiths and claim that they're all equal. Only one of those faiths is genuine and since the Bible declares itself to be the Word of God Himself, a devout Christian is going to treat it as such.

Then you have stuff like demons vs fallen angels vs angels. There were no angels in this story. Just a couple of demons and a fallen angel. Who ends up being allowed to go back to Heaven “because he just had to ask”. I barely even know where to start with what is so wrong with ALL of that. Angels and demons are not just amped up humans with a pair of wings of either dovelike or batlike appearance. You cannot ascribe human emotions and reasoning to them because THEY ARE NOT HUMANS!!! That's just the tip of it for that issue and I'm already holding my head in my hands (which is quite a feat as I'm also typng this!). I think that is enough from me. Any more and I'll just start upsetting myself and there's no need for that.

In conclusion, I won't be reading any more in this series and I'll be avoiding Hartness as an author in general.

★☆☆☆☆ ( )

I enjoy urban fantasy with a touch of humor and sarcasm. Jim Butcher's Dresden Files and Simon R. Green's Nightside books are on my list of favorites. But Green completed the Nightside series and Butcher is currently in-between books....so I went looking for something similar to fill the hole in my bookish heart.

Found it!

Hard Day's Knight is book 1 in the Black Knight Chronicles series. Jimmy Black and Greg Knightwood are vampires. They aren't exotically sexy and they definitely don't sparkle. In fact, they are two geeky guys that just happen to be undead. Greg is on a quest to collect every vampire movie ever made. And Jimmy has a tendency to make bad pop culture references. Yea, dorks can be vampires, too. And it's delightful! This book had me hooked the minute Greg crashed through a ceiling, sporting skin tight black spandex over his 240-pound rotund frame. He fell to the floor with a loud thump, then proceeded to fight with his cape because it flipped up over his head. Lovably dorky.

Despite their dorkiness, Jimmy and Greg do make a great PI team. In Hard Day's Knight, they try to protect a teenager from a witch's curse, only to discover children have been disappearing. The missing children are tied to an ancient evil that will be released into the world on Halloween. Jimmy and Greg only have a few days to prevent the end of the world, so they call on their friends to help. The future of humanity depends on two geeky vampires, a fallen angel who runs a strip club, a priest they call Dad, a witch and a police detective.

I enjoyed the humor and banter between the characters in Hard Day's Knight. It reminded me a bit of the sarcastically fun feel of the Iron Druid series by Kevin Hearne. But....I do have to add that the writing in this first book is not on the level of Butcher, Hearne or Green. There are a few plot inconsistencies, some awkward grammar, and a few plot threads that were never resolved. But, despite a few rough edges, this story is still a fun read and I will be reading more of this series. I look forward to discovering the antics Jimmy and Greg get up to next! The jokes and interactions between the cast of characters in this first book make up for the few writing issues. My guess is that each book will get progressively better.

I read this book as part of Modern Magic, a collection of urban fantasy. The anthology gathers 12 first novels in a variety of urban fantasy series.

There are five novels in the Black Knight Chronicles series so far, plus several novellas. Hartness also writes the Quincy Harker Demon Hunter series. Discover more about the author and his books on his website: www.johnhartness.com ( )

A fun read but maybe a little too light and linear for my tastes. I kept expecting for a plot twist but it never came. :( ( )

Book Info: Genre: Urban Fantasy
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: Fans of urban fantasy who've been looking for something a bit less serious
Trigger Warnings: violence, children being kidnapped, and in danger, killing

My Thoughts: I came to urban fantasy through a series by Glen Cook, then Simon Green, and finally Jim Butcher, so I've been reading urban fantasy since before the genre was named. I love the stuff, so I was so excited to grab these books when I noticed them. I just love the fact that the vampires are the good guys in this book (although I have some friends for whom that will turn them away from the book).

Something I've been wanting to read for awhile is more-or-less silly urban fantasy, and that's what we have here. While there is a real Big Bad, at the same time Jimmy and Greg are more bumbling then heroic, and more antiheroic than heroic. They are trying to be the good guys, but Jimmy is willing to do pretty much whatever it takes to make his goals, while Greg wants to think he's Batman. It's hilarious. This is a great example:
“Greg realized that he had an audience, and sprang to his feet, swirling his cape dramatically.

At least, that was the idea. It's hard to swirl properly when part of the cape is tangled around your feet and another corner is draped over your head, but he gave it a hell of a try.”

Then there is the fact that being a vampire has left them the same as when they were turned.
“I've never been what anybody would call smooth, and turning into a vampire, much to my disappointment, didn't turn me into some super-suave sex machine...”

All in all, I enjoyed this book quite a lot. It loses one star just because of the really bad editing. But if you've been looking for an urban fantasy that doesn't take itself quite so seriously, this is a good place to find it. Lots of fun!

Series Information: Hard Day's Knight is the first book in the Black Knight Chronicles.
Book 2: Back in Black
Novella 1: Movie Knight
Book 3: Knight Moves
Novella 2: Black Magic Woman
There is also a book of short stories called Knight (un)Life - Black Knight Shorts Vol. 1, which I do not currently have. He has a number of other books, including his Bubba Monster Hunter books, a number of which I currently have as well.

Disclosure: I picked this book up for myself on free promotion on Amazon. Some time later (almost a year I think?) I noticed it was on NetGalley and accepted it there, since I already planned to read it. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis: Children are missing.

The police are stumped.

Halloween is coming, with an ancient evil on the horizon.

The vampires are the good guys.

This is not your ordinary fall weekend in Charlotte, NC. Vampire private detectives Jimmy Black and Greg Knightwood have been hired to keep a young client from being cursed for all eternity, but end up in a bigger mess than they ever imagined.

Suddenly trapped in the middle of a serial kidnapping case, Jimmy and Greg uncover a plot to bring forth an ancient evil into the world, and enlist the help of a police detective, a priest, a witch, a fallen angel and strip club proprietor to save the world. This unlikely band of heroes battles zombies, witches, neuroses and sunburn while cracking jokes and looking for the perfect bag of O-negative. ( )