The Midnight Shift is a fresh take on vampire lore

Fans have long known that seemingly pulpy genres like science fiction, fantasy and horror can offer some of the most resonant metaphors for real life.

- Ong Sor Fern

THE MIDNIGHT SHIFT By Cheon Seon-ran, translated by Gene Png Fiction/Bloomsbury/Paperback/ 304 pages/$30.87 ★★★★★

These readers will be well pleased with South Korean writer Cheon Seon-ran's fluid remake of the vampire myth.

This 2021 book was a bestseller in South Korea and it is easy to see why. The 32-year-old author is well versed in the tropes of the genre and mines them cannily for a very millennial spin to the traditional vampire story.

The tale opens as detective Suyeon is called to investigate a string of elderly patient suicides at a dilapidated hospital in Incheon.

Her supervisor Chantae dismisses her suspicions about the deaths, but Suyeon finds validation in the form of the supremely confident and mysterious Violette, whose first appearance rings all the bells for readers weaned on vampire lore.

Dressed in a long black leather coat, Violette is first mistaken for an animal by Suyeon, "because only that would explain why it was on all fours with its nose buried in the ground".

Violette proves her credentials as someone with insider knowledge by voicing Suyeon's own doubts about the suicide scenes, introducing herself — "I put away bad guys too" — and announcing that the murderous culprit is a vampire.

All this happens in a compact 15 pages.