The Story of Lucius Cane: Book One

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader. I also conducted a quick Q&A with the author over there.
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This first installment is a tale of a couple of atypical takes on supernatural staples.

It's London in 1794 and we meet a different kind of vampire (for reasons that are sort of explained), but except for one little quirk of personality, he seems like your typical pre-Victorian Vampire. The quirk does seem to save lives, so it's endearing.

Jack ‘The Hound' Estenborough is lycanthrope-ish. A former pirate, now loanshark (and his own leg-breaker). A man as synonymous with violence as he is with body hair.

The two are manipulated into a showdown, and face-off in a knock-down, drag out fight which is the kind of thing everyone who watched a Lon Chaney flick as a kid wanted to see.

This was a quick story, so there's not a lot to say, not much time for character development or anything like that. It wasn't the most skillfully told story, but it got the job done and kept you reading.

There was a good chunk of info dumping with one character, where he only hinted at things for the other. Obviously, the treatment of the other primary character was better — but I didn't mind the info dump too much, the title tells you the story's not about The Hound, so no need for gradual reveal — also, it was a fun, quick info dump.

Ferreira made some odd vocab choices — some words (especially in idiomatic phrases) that are almost, but not quite right. But when someone living in Serbia writes in English, I figure that's a risk you run — and it's never too distracting.

There were a few questions left by the story, but you can tell that Ferreira has an answer ready for them, he just needs the space to relay them. That, and the cliff-hanger ending, demand a series of these stories (as does, the title, I guess) — or a novel. I don't care which, as long as I get to read it.

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Disclaimer: I was provided a copy of this story by the author in exchange for an honest review.