By Charlie Huston

Place: Publisher & Year: New York: Del Rey, 2006

Genres: Mystery, suspense, paranormal, vampire

Series: Joe Pitt Casebook; 2

ISBN: 9780345478252

Intended audience: Adult

Number of pages: 251

Setting: Manhattan, NYC

Time period: Contemporary

Plot summary: When vampyre detective Joe Pitt discovers that there is a new drug in his neighborhood designed solely for vampyres, he has to find out more about it.    Unfortunately for him, no one is officially asking him to look into this matter and he is almost out of both blood and money with no hopes of refilling his supply of either.  Even worse is when he discovers that the source of the drug is coming from uptown.  He has to cross Coalition territory to get above 110^th street, which is a very risky venture for him.  Even if he can do this without getting killed, he still needs an uptown contact.

Appeal factors:

Pacing: Relentless pace – the story starts in the middle of a fight between two vampyres in a bar and does not let up until the end of the book.

Characterization: Told in first person through Joe.  Many characters from Already Dead continue to play significant roles in this story, including Evie, Phil, Terry (and other Society members), and Daniel.  Important new characters are also introduced.

Frame: Very dark – action mainly takes place at night and includes lots of violence (mainly vampyre to vampyre, but also includes vampyre dogs).

Story line: An action packed story about a lone vampyre trying to make things right in his world.  Unfortunately for Joe, his view of the world often doesn’t match the view of others.

Subject headings:

From PCPL:

Vampires — New York (State) — New York — Fiction.

Private investigators — New York (State) — New York — Fiction.

Manhattan (New York, N.Y.) — Fiction.

Mystery fiction.

Similar authors: Greg Herren – Scott Bradley series, Ken Bruen – Jack Taylor series, Walter Mosley – Fearless Jones novels, Charlaine Harris – Sookie Stackhouse series and Harper Connelly series, Jim Butcher – The Dresden Files series, Kat Richardson – Greywalker series

Personal notes: I’m wondering what Charlie Huston has against dogs, since the dogs in the two books by Huston that I’ve read suffer horrible fates (then again, most of the humans do as well).  I didn’t much care for the dog fighting scene; I could handle the other violence much more easily.  The characters continue to be great with very real sounding voices.  Joe is a real shit to his girlfriend, but that’s part of what makes him so interesting.

Other (themes, diversity): Diversity – vampyres, Black vampyres, New Yorkers, drug addicts, HIV infected woman

Charlie Huston’s website