This Side of Death is a 2011 novel published by Glass Darkly, an indie horror publishing company, and written by author Mike McNichols, a local resident of Placentia. It met moderate, but not overwhelming, success upon publication. This review will be spoiler-free, as we encourage our readers to pick up a copy of this book and go in relatively blind.

The novel is a thriller, first and foremost. It follows a string of strange murders in a cozy beach town near LA, which was once home to a sprawling WWII-era Navy Base. McNichols draws on this heavily, utilizing an atmosphere combining post-war nostalgia that tugs at the characters, whose families were all tied to that base during WWII, having served in the Navy then, and the end of the Cold War nostalgia that befits the actual time period—1989.

When the murders do take place, this provides a rather neat contrast of tone. The viscerality is not explicitly shown in any more detail than, say, a Percy Jackson book. But it is heavily implied, which, although a horror/thriller cliche, works well to the story’s effect of making the familiar threat seem alien.

The premise of WWII vampires is also not something entirely new—it has been done, indeed, multiple times in at least semi-popular media. However, these works usually focus on Nazi Germany experimenting with vampires and have a distinctly European setting. So the lack of antiquity associated with Europe provides another interesting contrast when the setting is a modern California beach town. There is something to be said about settings of Vampire stories needing to feel old—even if, logically, a European setting in 1989 drawing from the WWII era would put the backstory at the same age, there is a popular conception of one continent being older, which, of course, is a boon to media about Vampires since Vampires represent the parasitic nature of things of the past trying to insert themselves into the present, when the audience doesn’t have a feeling of antiquity—even if surface level and culturally dependent—it can hinder the effect of the story.

I will say, this isn’t much the case with This Side of Death at all. The characters provide that sense of, if not antiquity, then at least old history. The family histories of the main characters are shown to be important, which is itself a recurring motif. 

Also, the story can be pretty campy at times. Naturally, it’s a vampire story drawing on WWII and Cold War myths and conspiracies—there was always going to be some camp. I think the author knew this and intended it as such. It’s not overwhelming, and the novel never takes itself too seriously to make this cringy, or too unseriously to undermine the stakes, in my opinion. However, if you are looking for a story that really leans into one extreme over the other, between camp and seriousness, this isn’t it. 

A major criticism of the book is that the characters seem to take the stakes of the story rather lightly, even in the climax. They’re making quips or thinking about family histories in a rather unserious tone, as they’re literally facing a supernatural entity or people—many of whom they know—are being murdered around them. This somewhat cheapens the horror, although it doesn’t completely ruin it. I suppose that’s why the novel is primarily listed as a thriller, not a horror.

As a thriller, it works. However, at times, it can seem like solutions to problems come too cheaply—investigative dialogue often gives the characters what they want to know with hardly any pushback from the characters they’re trying to get information out of. 

The vampire itself is a neat threat. Trying my hardest not to spoil, the twist as to its identity isn’t the hardest to figure out—I guessed it maybe a third of the way into the book. The author makes valiant attempts at red herrings, but they aren’t as convincing as the evidence pointing to the rather obvious conclusion.

The reveal also kind of falls flat. It doesn’t say much about the character the vampire’s origins are tied to, nor how they are or aren’t perceived in the modern day, nor does any of this change—instead it mostly serves as sequel bait for a “larger mystery” that doesn’t seem to be related to the vampire’s origins on a level personal to the characters.

One thing I can really compliment the book on are the action scenes. They are really well-paced—quick and brutal without relying on cheap and shocking viscerality. The characters are smart, which is something I think any reader should appreciate about thriller and horror books, or any pieces of media in these genres. The fights demonstrate this really well—characters attempt to communicate, or block their opponents from effectively communicating. They try to react quickly, failing in reasonable ways when they do fail, which makes successes in these high-stakes scenes feel earned. Also, characters use aspects of their environment creatively, although the effects of these makeshift weapons against an actual vampire do seem inexplicably miraculous at times, which can undercut the threat from our main antagonist.

Overall, this novel is a recommended read that uses the conventions of the thriller genre to capture an idyllic, historical Southern California beach-town and combine this with the conventions of vampire thrillers in a fun and interesting way, sure to entertain readers. 

The author, Mike McNichols, is a teacher and author who lives in Orange County. He writes fiction—especially thrillers—often dealing with underlying theological questions in his fiction works, and exploring themes of heritage and history. His first novel, The Bartender: A Fable about a Journey, was a doctoral project and received a dissertation award in its category. The second book in his Vampire Trilogy that started with This Side of Death, was released in December 2012 with the title A Body Given. The third installment to the series, On Turpin’s Head, was released in early 2014.