August 19, 2022
Mina and the Undead by Amy McCaw
The basics
Title: Mina and the Undead
Author: Amy McCaw
Series: Mina and the Undead #1
- Mina and the Undead (2021) - Mina and the Slayers (2022)
Add it: Goodreads
Goodreads Summary:
17-year-old Mina, from England, arrives in New Orleans to visit her estranged sister, Libby. After growing up in Whitby, the town that inspired Dracula, Mina loves nothing more than a creepy horror movie. She can't wait to explore the city's darkest secrets - vampire tours, seedy bars, spooky cemeteries, disturbing local myths... And it gets even better when Mina lands a part-time job at a horror movie mansion and meets Jared, Libby's gorgeous housemate, co-worker and fellow horror enthusiast. But the perfect summer bliss is broken when, while exploring the mansion, Mina stumbles upon the body of a girl with puncture marks on her neck, clutching a lock of hair that suspiciously resembles Libby's... Someone is replicating New Orleans' most brutal supernatural killings. Mina must discover the truth and prove her sister's innocence before she becomes the victim of another myth.
Read a full summary of Mina and the Undead by Amy McCaw below. If you can’t remember what happened in Mina and the Undead and you need a refresher, then you’re in the right place.
What happened in Mina and the Undead?
- Mina goes to stay with her older sister, Libby, for the summer. Libby has moved to New Orleans and
works in a haunted mansion. Mina gets a nice introduction to both the mansion and to Libby’s friends. - Murders are occurring in New Orleans at a somewhat alarming rate. Young girls seem to be the victims.
- Jared tells Mina the story of the Carter brothers, who were executed for their crimes in 1932. Thandie has the diary of one of the brothers.
- Mina has her fortune read and is told she has a crush on someone handsome. She is also told there’s
tragedy in the attic. - Mina reads about how the Carter brothers found vampires in New Orleans. The diary entry tells of a
vampire attack. - Mina goes looking for Heather, one of the haunted house workers. She finds her dead in the attic of the mansion. Detectives arrive and start questioning everyone. Dark, curly hair is found in Heather’s hand. The hair matches the sisters’.
- The gang go back to speak to Armand, the fortune teller. They question what he knows, since he
seemed to make hints towards the situation in the attic. Armand says Heather was bitten. - Libby becomes angry with Mina for looking into the murder herself. She threatens to send Mina back with Aunt Sandra, who’s currently on holiday in Europe.
- Wayne Carter’s diary entry tells of how his brother, John, turned him into a vampire. Mina thinks the
diary entries may be fake and written by someone else entirely. - Mina and Jared realise people are being killed along the same lines as other New Orleans myths.
- Libby comes across Jared and Mina in Mina’s room with the door closed and freaks out.
- Mina and Jared explore Thandie’s museum and wonder if the killer got their ideas from there.
- The group go to a club and have a dance contest. The bartender, Marsden, tells Mina that some people aren’t really vampires, they just like the vampire way of life. These people go to a place called the Underground.
- Jared and Mina kiss.
- Then they tell the police everything (apart from the kissing) because it seems right that the police
investigate these cases properly from now on. - Lucas gets attacked and the cops suspect it was Libby. They take her into custody.
- Jared tells Mina that Lucas goes to the Underground. Mina wonders if her mother used to go to a
similar bar in the UK. - They head to the Underground and speak to a woman called Elvira. She implies there are real
vampires hanging around. They bump into Thandie there too. She’s a real life vampire, by the way. - They ask Thandie a bunch of questions, which is kind of helpful.
- A man in a black van takes Jared.
- Mina is informed that Lucas is dd. They’re not allowed to see the bd.
- Mina receives a note with a riddle telling her where to meet to see Jared again. They find Jared
unconscious and buried alive, and they call an ambulance. Jared wakes up in hospital and they tell him about Lucas. - Mina receives a confession note from “John Carter”. Libby is let out of jail.
- Thandie shares that the Carter brothers turned her into a vampire. She thinks John is after her because
she turned them into the police in 1932. - Jared is now a vampire, having been turned by his kidnapers. He drinks from Mina. He gets a bit carried away and Della saves her. Jared goes to stay with Thandie.
- Della shares that she thinks a vampire killed her mother.
- Mina reads about a woman called Emma in the diaries. The entries are from the 90’s. Emma was
Mina’s mother’s name. - Libby helpfully shares that she knew their mother was in New Orleans a year ago. She supposedly
found someone to turn her and then left again. - The police want to use the girls as bait to draw out whoever is pretending to be Carter. They try to lure them out but it doesn’t seem to work.
- Veronica kills Thandie. Marsden then shows up, apparently they’ve been working together.
- They kill Officer Thorpe.
- Marsden reintroduces himself as John Carter. He says he’s trying to draw Emma out by using the girls as bait.
- Armand has been working with Carter too. He runs off.
- The girls hear Lucas speak from the next cell over. Carter has been drugging him and pretended he was his father to get Lucas out of hospital.
- They realise that Jared has been working for Carter as a spy. Jared bites Della, which goes against their plan. Carter makes Libby stake Jared, so she does.
- Then it turns out that Lucas has been working with Carter, not Jared. This whole scene was an act.
- Carter tries to get Mina to choose between Libby and Della. Della stakes Lucas. She threatens Carter, but he uses his vampire magic to freeze all of them.
- Armand returns and puts a crossbow bolt through Carter’s temple. Armand admits that he should have killed his brother long ago. He’s Wayne Carter.
- Jared wakes up, as Libby missed his heart. Carter and Lucas’ bodies start to decompose.
- Thandie left the mansion to Libby in her will.
- The girls’ mum shows up. She apologises for leaving, but she was determined to become a vampire.
The girls wonder if they can forgive her.
This is a full plot summary of what happened in Mina and the Undead by Amy McCaw. Check out our recap list for more recaps. If you can’t find what you need, you can request a recap from us!
