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Richard Arbib was born in New York City, earned a master’s degree in English and creative writing at San Francisco State University, taught English in Vietnam, and composition and literature to college students in Nevada. He has had short fiction published in Mensa Bulletin and articles published in Integra—The Journal of Intertel.
Reviewed by Lit Amri for Readers' Favorite
Mark Sheridan’s life is taking a strange turn; three curiously related murders had taken place within twenty-four hours of each other, and both murder scenes had happened within close proximity to him. The strangeness only intensifies with the arrival of Sylvia Martin from London, a mysterious pretty girl with weird eyes. She moved in after Mark’s loud and obnoxious neighbor was murdered in his apartment one night. Enchanted by her, Mark could not help but feel truly infatuated with her, ignoring his friends’ advice to be cautious, including a priest’s ominous warning about Sylvia. The Vampire Girl Next Door is a fast-paced, immersive supernatural fiction by Richard Arbib.
Narrated from a first person point-of-view, readers could tell right away that protagonist Mark is an average guy with a busy life schedule – gym, Kung Fu and film classes as well as working thirty hours per week selling advertising for a weekly newspaper. Readers don’t have to wait long for the eerie supernatural scenes to start. Right at the start of the novel Richard Arbib introduces Sylvia, whom Mark’s friend Dave caught staring at him from outside the gym’s window. As he walked home, Mark was attacked by three young thugs but he was saved by someone or something that swiftly killed two of them without being seen. We could already guess who his ‘savior’ was.
Overall, the story’s pace is definitely a fast one, and yet it does not feel rushed at all. The plot is adroitly written and I myself feel drawn to the mysterious Sylvia. This is perhaps the best supernatural fiction that I have read this year.
