Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nightshades | 2016 | Melissa F. Olson | Buy |
| 2 | Switchback | 2017 | Melissa F. Olson | Buy |
| 3 | Outbreak | 2018 | Melissa F. Olson | Buy |
| 4 | Blood Gamble | 2017 | Melissa F. Olson | Buy |
| 5 | Midnight Curse | 2017 | Melissa F. Olson | Buy |
| 6 | Shadow Hunt | 2018 | Melissa F. Olson | Buy |
Nightshades begins with a premise that sets it apart from most vampire fiction: vampires, here called shades, have just been discovered to exist, and the US government has created the Bureau of Paranormal Investigations to deal with them. Agent Alex McKenna takes charge of the BPI’s Chicago office and is assigned the oldest living shade, Lindy, as a reluctant partner. Their first case involves a serial abductor targeting teenagers, and Lindy has her own reasons to want the perpetrator stopped.
The series runs three novels and reads closer to FBI procedural than urban fantasy, though the supernatural elements are central throughout. Olson leans into the institutional awkwardness of government agents trying to write protocols for situations nobody has encountered before. Lindy’s perspective as someone who has lived for centuries among humans she was also hunting gives the series its moral complexity.
The books were published by Tor.com in 2016-2018 and are generally recommended as a complete trilogy. Unlike Olson’s Old World novels, there is no shared universe or crossover characters. Nightshades stands entirely on its own.