Printer-friendly version
Reviewed by Pennell Paugh
January 6, 2026 (San Diego) -- Erik Christopher Martin lives and writes in San Diego. The Case of the Niceferatu is his seventh published novel and is the fourth book in the Dotty Morgan Supernatural Sleuth series: The Case of the Niceferatu.
Elderton, North Carolina is home to Dotty Morgan, an inventive thirteen-year-old paranormal detective. Despite taking self-defense instruction for a year, Dotty is no fighter. She tries to protect her girlfriend, Hannah, when they are attacked in the locker room following one of Hannah’s wrestling matches. While it is Hannah who saves Dotty, the event awakens Dotty’s suspicions that paranormal individuals are present in her town.
Hannah is injured as she saves a boy in a sledding incident. While the boy is unharmed, Hannah’s leg is broken. Not being able to be in wrestling competitions or to work in a self-defense studio, Hannah can no longer defend Dotty.
Now alone and wearing a mohawk with tailored clothes made by her close friend and fashion designer, Parker, Dotty endures daily teasing from the basketball team. Spitballs and humiliations become her new norm.
Parker’s dad is spending all his time with a beautiful woman client. Parker’s mom throws out his dad. His dad seems different. Parker tells Dotty that his father worries him.
Dotty discovers Parker’s father isn’t having just an affair with his client, the woman is turning him into a vampire. She also discovers a missing Elderton woman has become a vampire. Then she investigates a hidden apartment in a parking building. The residents tell her they only use the blood bank to feed themselves but say there are others who are blood-sucking monsters.
Dotty, her friend and housemate, Greg, and Greg’s vampire hunter father, investigate and try to stop the monster vampires. Some times they work together, sometimes not.
Tension ratchets up when Dotty learns a group of bad vampires plans to descend on the town for a gathering called the Fifty-Year Feast, where a large number of the town’s residents will be attacked, fed on, and killed.
Every chapter of Martin’s book is full of surprises and the pace never lags as each revelation raises the stakes. Dotty, a scientist at heart, struggles to find a cure for the vampires. Specifically, she wants to save Parker’s dad from becoming a full-fledged vampire. Will she succeed?
Martin’s paranormal creatures are unique. Some are harmful. Others need protection. In his four novels, Dotty invents ways to detect, understand, help or fight the paranormal. The Case of the Niceferatu is his best book so far.
Below is an excerpt from the novel:
“The lights went out, plunging Dotty and Hannah into darkness.
“A tall figure, barely visible in the red light of the exit sign, rushed toward them. The girls had no time to react. It knocked them back and kept going, slamming into a second thing slinking up from the showers. The shadowy things crashed into the back wall, snarling and fighting like animals.
Dotty grabbed Hannah’s arm. “Come on!”
“Wait. My bag.”
Hannah’s gym bag was just two strides away. The moment she started for it, the third figure loomed up and shoved Dotty back toward the PE office. The Arcanometer [a tool, invented by Dotty, that measured the presence of the paranormal] clattered to the floor. Barely visible in the dim light of the exit sign, her attacker charged. Dotty closed her eyes and tried to execute a foot sweep, like she had learned in kickboxing. The rushing something easily avoided her sweeping leg and knocked Dotty onto her back. It fell on top of her.
She shouted and clawed at the creature’s eyes. It pinned both of her arms with one of its own. It leaned closer. Its breath, reeking like old, raw hamburger, warmed her neck.
Bright light bathed them. Dotty, half-blinded, caught glimpse of the boy in the jean jacket before Hannah kicked him in the head. The light from Hannah’s self-defense mini flashlight, remained trained on him. Hannah kicked him again, knocking him sideways. Hannah leapt on top of the boy in a full mount and rained down elbows on his face.
The boy bucked. Dotty sat on his legs. He heaved with his whole body, and the girls flew off, banging into the lockers. Hannah’s light spun across the floor away from them.
The boy was up in an instant. A tall and lanky shadowed figure grabbed him and dragged him toward the exit.
The locker room was quiet. Hannah helped Dotty up. Dotty found the switch and turned the lights back on.
In addition to writing books for YA and middle-grade readers, Erik Christopher Martin’s short fiction for adult readers has appeared on the Tales to Terrify Podcast, in Frontier Tales, Coffin Bell, The Potato Soup Journal, and various other anthologies and journals. He is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and the San Diego Writers and Editors Guild (SDWEG). Visit www.DottyMorgan.com or www.ErikChristopherMartin.com.
Recent comments