What do you think?
Kill The Night
Kill The Night is an adventure that stretches from Paris to New York, through the 1893 Chicago World's Fair to the Old West. Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison are in a race to see who will lead the Twentieth Century into the Electric Age. But the night holds tightly to its dark corners. A mysterious and dangerous Gunslinger is watching, following and waiting for an opportunity to turn back history. He will chase Tesla, Edison and journalist Ida Tarbell from Chicago to Kansas City, across the Kansas plains, to the mountains of Colorado. Believing their electricity will destroy everything he loves, he has one objective-stop the inventors and destroy their inventions. He must not let them Kill The Night.
- GenresHistorical Fiction
314 pages, Paperback
Published June 30, 2020
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
January 17, 2024
I saw the author at a market and always love to support local anything. My wife picked it up as a present (that I forgot about, of course). A really fun historical fiction type of read with a lot of familiar names from the late 19th Century. I did have to stop and look up some other names that came up to see if they were real (usually were) as well. The science stuff is way over my head but that did not detract from the book at all. I will get the others at some point.
July 28, 2024
Not only is this story super creative, but it puts that jerk Thomas Edison in his place. Edison. Tesla. Vampires. Need I say more?
I have both a physical and audible version of this book. I love this series and can't wait for the next adventure.
I have both a physical and audible version of this book. I love this series and can't wait for the next adventure.
January 6, 2025
Here are some of my thoughts when reading the book:
First, I met the author at a King Soopers advertising his book and I am so glad I did. He is such a nice dude and I appreciate his readiness to advertise his writing anywhere he can, it's extremely admirable. His writing is nice, though it's got big words I often don't understand, I think it's very engaging! :)
He describes things in great detail, sometimes I get lost just because I am not familiar with the subject, like machine work.
I like how Ida Tarbell gets an introduction for who she is and what she does, was very powerful.
Dude, Wedderburn's diary entry was fire! HE roasted the entirety of modern civilization and was spitting true facts, it was amazing! :)
So much violence in this chapter! He breaks someone's neck and shoves a pipe through someone's throat! :o
Ida's talk about feminist was really interesting. Some of my faves are:
"The modern woman is freer today than at any time in history, save for ancient Egypt."
"A feminist should not seek to denounce a man nor should she seek to emulate him."
"Blaming men for their own position in life always gives women an outside, attackable cause for her limitations and defeats. Feminists make men scapegoats."
"Women are allowing themselves to be burdened with the same excuses that the feminists say they are trying to remove, first they could blame men for they are not getting out into the world, and then they can blame women for their not having families."
"Men have invented the world, and women make it worth living in."
And when Ida discussed the female inventors making living tools more efficient and more convenient, my anthropologist heart felt so happy. Making hard tasks easier leaves more room to do other things, like education! I thought there was some great parallels to our current world.
I also like all the facts we learn just by them exploring/explaining the world.
What is with that scene around page 100? The whole flirting and boobs thing? What!?
Did Wedderburn torture Holmes so much that he now kills the woman he wanted to sleep with so badly!?
What horror movie shit is this around page 123!? Why is H.H. Holmes acting like this?? What did Wedderburn do?
Dude, Randulf is a hoot! He is so scared on the train, I get it, but breaking a window with Tesla's gun because he forgot to open it! Amazing! XD His fear is so relatable yet so funny! "Fight like your fathers before you!" "My father was a pacifist!" Terrific! XD
Randolph has made it back into my good graces because he's just so funny! The fact that he screamed when they went into a tunnel and it was so high that they thought it was Ida? Comedy gold and so relatable. I would be frazzled from being shot in the shoulder as well, so he's handling the situation quite well! XD
Why is Edison such a dick and the only characters with dreadlocks are villains who aren't even humanized? Unless it's explained as slaves bring taken advantage of or trying to pursue a better life through vampirism, I'm not impressed.
When I talked to Terry, he said that his books didn't focus on romance. That was correct, it's not the focus, but there's this cute little thing going on with Ida and Tesla that's so sweet and endearing. I quite enjoy it and am interested in seeing where it goes! :)
The plot is bouncing around too often for me to keep up. The main issue is I don't remember all the characters or their significance to the plot.
I don't understand where all these vampires came from and I don't feel the intensity. I feel disinterested, though that could be because I put it down for a few months, that's my bad.
I think it's funny how Edison is so impressed by Tesla's lab. But it shows his pride that he can't express it publicly.
If they make Ida a damsel in distress, I will be VERY upset. :(
I'm a bit confused. Are the vampires Wedderburn creates ghouls or vampires? Because they are described almost like zombies. Who's to say. I wish the mechanics were explained more, I would enjoy that. Wedderburn has also been turned into a typical cult leader of vampires and is a cartoonish caricature of what a vampire is expected to be. Same with Ida, I know there's nothing she can do, but I wish she wasn't so helpless. But all of this is easy to say since I'm reading it. I'm impressed he published and wrote a book. Good for Terry!
I would have loved it if Edison was the one kidnapped. I think his snootiness could have been funny with the vampires trying to be all scary and it would have given more relationship development with Ida and Tesla while subverting expectations.
I like the little interaction with Tesla and Ida. Especially the line "Of course not, Madam. Vampire never stood a chance." Very cute. Made me smile! :)
Did I miss something? Because I don't get why they can't hang out afterwords. They just can't talk about the vampires. Doesn't seem that hard.
I love the line "Ignore precedent and startle civilization my dear." Very nice. :)
The afterword was really cool! I liked the historical information, but the epilogue made no sense to me. Maybe because I don't get the context for how it connects to the rest of the book. I couldn't find anything to make sense of Frankenstein and Allefea, But it seemed entirely unnecessary to me. Also I don't remember Milo at all, Was he in the story?
Overall, though I struggled with the ending part of the book, there's a lot to like about this book. Terry's writing and dialogue is interesting and his humor with some of his characters are amazingly timed! I think there are a lot of cool aspects to the world building and historical tie-ins while also adding his own flare to the characters. I think that the demographic that he's writing for would love it. I might try his next book, "And The Sun Goeth Down"...
First, I met the author at a King Soopers advertising his book and I am so glad I did. He is such a nice dude and I appreciate his readiness to advertise his writing anywhere he can, it's extremely admirable. His writing is nice, though it's got big words I often don't understand, I think it's very engaging! :)
He describes things in great detail, sometimes I get lost just because I am not familiar with the subject, like machine work.
I like how Ida Tarbell gets an introduction for who she is and what she does, was very powerful.
Dude, Wedderburn's diary entry was fire! HE roasted the entirety of modern civilization and was spitting true facts, it was amazing! :)
So much violence in this chapter! He breaks someone's neck and shoves a pipe through someone's throat! :o
Ida's talk about feminist was really interesting. Some of my faves are:
"The modern woman is freer today than at any time in history, save for ancient Egypt."
"A feminist should not seek to denounce a man nor should she seek to emulate him."
"Blaming men for their own position in life always gives women an outside, attackable cause for her limitations and defeats. Feminists make men scapegoats."
"Women are allowing themselves to be burdened with the same excuses that the feminists say they are trying to remove, first they could blame men for they are not getting out into the world, and then they can blame women for their not having families."
"Men have invented the world, and women make it worth living in."
And when Ida discussed the female inventors making living tools more efficient and more convenient, my anthropologist heart felt so happy. Making hard tasks easier leaves more room to do other things, like education! I thought there was some great parallels to our current world.
I also like all the facts we learn just by them exploring/explaining the world.
What is with that scene around page 100? The whole flirting and boobs thing? What!?
Did Wedderburn torture Holmes so much that he now kills the woman he wanted to sleep with so badly!?
What horror movie shit is this around page 123!? Why is H.H. Holmes acting like this?? What did Wedderburn do?
Dude, Randulf is a hoot! He is so scared on the train, I get it, but breaking a window with Tesla's gun because he forgot to open it! Amazing! XD His fear is so relatable yet so funny! "Fight like your fathers before you!" "My father was a pacifist!" Terrific! XD
Randolph has made it back into my good graces because he's just so funny! The fact that he screamed when they went into a tunnel and it was so high that they thought it was Ida? Comedy gold and so relatable. I would be frazzled from being shot in the shoulder as well, so he's handling the situation quite well! XD
Why is Edison such a dick and the only characters with dreadlocks are villains who aren't even humanized? Unless it's explained as slaves bring taken advantage of or trying to pursue a better life through vampirism, I'm not impressed.
When I talked to Terry, he said that his books didn't focus on romance. That was correct, it's not the focus, but there's this cute little thing going on with Ida and Tesla that's so sweet and endearing. I quite enjoy it and am interested in seeing where it goes! :)
The plot is bouncing around too often for me to keep up. The main issue is I don't remember all the characters or their significance to the plot.
I don't understand where all these vampires came from and I don't feel the intensity. I feel disinterested, though that could be because I put it down for a few months, that's my bad.
I think it's funny how Edison is so impressed by Tesla's lab. But it shows his pride that he can't express it publicly.
If they make Ida a damsel in distress, I will be VERY upset. :(
I'm a bit confused. Are the vampires Wedderburn creates ghouls or vampires? Because they are described almost like zombies. Who's to say. I wish the mechanics were explained more, I would enjoy that. Wedderburn has also been turned into a typical cult leader of vampires and is a cartoonish caricature of what a vampire is expected to be. Same with Ida, I know there's nothing she can do, but I wish she wasn't so helpless. But all of this is easy to say since I'm reading it. I'm impressed he published and wrote a book. Good for Terry!
I would have loved it if Edison was the one kidnapped. I think his snootiness could have been funny with the vampires trying to be all scary and it would have given more relationship development with Ida and Tesla while subverting expectations.
I like the little interaction with Tesla and Ida. Especially the line "Of course not, Madam. Vampire never stood a chance." Very cute. Made me smile! :)
Did I miss something? Because I don't get why they can't hang out afterwords. They just can't talk about the vampires. Doesn't seem that hard.
I love the line "Ignore precedent and startle civilization my dear." Very nice. :)
The afterword was really cool! I liked the historical information, but the epilogue made no sense to me. Maybe because I don't get the context for how it connects to the rest of the book. I couldn't find anything to make sense of Frankenstein and Allefea, But it seemed entirely unnecessary to me. Also I don't remember Milo at all, Was he in the story?
Overall, though I struggled with the ending part of the book, there's a lot to like about this book. Terry's writing and dialogue is interesting and his humor with some of his characters are amazingly timed! I think there are a lot of cool aspects to the world building and historical tie-ins while also adding his own flare to the characters. I think that the demographic that he's writing for would love it. I might try his next book, "And The Sun Goeth Down"...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 8, 2023
I was curious about this book from a historical perspective. When he introduced the vampire gun slinger, the book picked up pace and ended up being a page turner. I wonder if he has other books in this genre? Good read!
September 16, 2026
I was grocery shopping at the local King Soopers this summer when I spotted something unusual near the dairy section: a guy sitting at a folding table with stacks of books on it. I started chatting with him and learned that his name was Terry Mark and that he was a local author. I asked him what the first book in his series was and he pointed to “Kill the Night” (2018), which I bought from him then.
I read the book on my breaks at work for a couple of weeks, except for the last chapter, which I read at home to get the book finished. It’s about a vampire gunslinger that falls in love with a woman in France who is killed by one of Nikola Tesla’s experiments gone wrong. The vampire seeks revenge on Tesla and follows him to America. Along the way, the vampire also feels threatened by Tesla’s experiments to ‘kill the night’ with electrical illumination, since vampires (at least, of the variety that Mark imagines in his work) are powerless except in the dark. Thomas Edison is conducting similar experiments, which causes him to become a target for the vampire’s wrath as well. Tesla and Edison are forced to set their rivalry aside and cooperate to save themselves from the vampire and hilarity ensues.
With a plot like that, the tone of the book is obviously one that’s meant to be fun and playful rather than serious and historical but Mark seems to have done his research to create fairly accurate portrayals of various parts of the world, ca. 1892-93. Other historical figures like Ida Tarbell also show up as characters in this story. I found the book very easy to read for the most part, but some of the descriptions (especially action sequences) could have used more detail, as I often found myself slightly confused about what was happening.
I might be biased towards liking this book because I found out about the author by meeting him, face-to-face and having a nice conversation with him. Regardless, I did enjoy the book and plan to continue reading the series in the future.
I read the book on my breaks at work for a couple of weeks, except for the last chapter, which I read at home to get the book finished. It’s about a vampire gunslinger that falls in love with a woman in France who is killed by one of Nikola Tesla’s experiments gone wrong. The vampire seeks revenge on Tesla and follows him to America. Along the way, the vampire also feels threatened by Tesla’s experiments to ‘kill the night’ with electrical illumination, since vampires (at least, of the variety that Mark imagines in his work) are powerless except in the dark. Thomas Edison is conducting similar experiments, which causes him to become a target for the vampire’s wrath as well. Tesla and Edison are forced to set their rivalry aside and cooperate to save themselves from the vampire and hilarity ensues.
With a plot like that, the tone of the book is obviously one that’s meant to be fun and playful rather than serious and historical but Mark seems to have done his research to create fairly accurate portrayals of various parts of the world, ca. 1892-93. Other historical figures like Ida Tarbell also show up as characters in this story. I found the book very easy to read for the most part, but some of the descriptions (especially action sequences) could have used more detail, as I often found myself slightly confused about what was happening.
I might be biased towards liking this book because I found out about the author by meeting him, face-to-face and having a nice conversation with him. Regardless, I did enjoy the book and plan to continue reading the series in the future.
June 16, 2025
This book is hard to categorize. Part historical fiction, part steampunk, and part vampire novel, it's an interesting read. The book follows the inventors Nikolai Tesla and Thomas Edison across the country while they fight to come out on top of the race to provide electricity. But, along the way, they also encounter a man who is actually a vampire! He is determined to stop the spread of light so that darkness will continue to rule the night.
There is a lot of scientific information in the book, which I found to be interesting. The characters were well-written and relatable and there was enough action to keep the story moving at a fast pace. The ending of the book paves the way for more stories like this one and I look forward to seeing what the author has in store next.
The narrator, S.W. Salzman, is one of my favorite narrators and he does his usual wonderful performance. His voices for the different characters help the listener keep track of the fast pace and his pacing is perfect.
There is a lot of scientific information in the book, which I found to be interesting. The characters were well-written and relatable and there was enough action to keep the story moving at a fast pace. The ending of the book paves the way for more stories like this one and I look forward to seeing what the author has in store next.
The narrator, S.W. Salzman, is one of my favorite narrators and he does his usual wonderful performance. His voices for the different characters help the listener keep track of the fast pace and his pacing is perfect.
September 24, 2023
In a world with cookie cutter plots it’s nice to finally have a story that is unique, with so many things I find fascinating in one book. These type of stories always lead me down rabbit holes, whether it’s because of historical context, technical description, or novel genre. As I progressed through the book I was anticipating references to people and curious how they would be interwoven.
I will definitely be reading the books that follow.
I will definitely be reading the books that follow.
May 8, 2024
I met the author recently selling his books and my oh my am I glad I happened upon him and his Vim series. Kill The Night is such a fun blend of history I love, a vampire, and a time period that’s right up my alley. This book is suspenseful, action packed, and Carrie’s you into another world. Awesome book, awesome writing!
February 8, 2026
This fast-paced, genre bending story might just be the strangest novel I have read in quite some time. This scifi/fantasy with a strong historic setting and characters was all about plot and pacing and less about character development. It didn’t shy away from violence either.
July 3, 2024
This is a fun fantasy including vampires and historical figures like Tesla and Edison. Recommend it for its historical accuracy and well written fight scenes!
Read
January 20, 2026Like other reviews said, I met the author at a King Soopers. Fun! I liked the second half more when the action picked up.
April 25, 2026
Fantastic book!!! Start of a great series!
June 19, 2023
At first I thought this book was detailing the life of two of some of the greatest inventors in modern age , but their is a twist in the middle that made me realise that this was a work of Fantasy fiction. The characters like Tesla really existed and are depicted with traits different from their true ones. The book is very organised and the author is very skilled in all what he does . This is really a fascinating read.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews