Author : Charlie Huston
Publisher : Orbit
Price : $13.95
This second outing for vampiric ‘fixer’ Joe Pitt sees his life improving not at all. His girlfriend’s HIV meds aren’t taking, she’s started asking awkward questions about his lifestyle and he’s finding it hard to answer them. After all, if he turned her, would he be curing her or simply swapping one disease for another? And to make matters worse, something is on the streets of New York, something that drives vampires mad and that threatens the security of every undead in the city…
It’s next to impossible to bring a new spin to this sort of story but Huston manages it. He plays Pitt as a classic, down at heel film noir leading man, keeping secrets from the people important to him and constantly backing himself into a corner. He’s a remarkably nuanced character in a lot of ways, a man who’s cunning but not smart, subtle but brutal. He’s Mike Hammer with fangs and Huston has a lot of fun with him as a result.
This time around we also get to see a lot more of his New York, a city divided along strict lines and simmering with tension. War is coming to the vampire community and Joe is looking more and more like he’s a favoured weapon, but by who? This novel provides plenty of suspects from his old running mates to the splendid DJ Gravedigga, a Method Man-esque figure who runs the vampiric gangs outside Joe’s turf. It’s Gravedigga who holds the key to what’s really going on and it’s there that Huston excels, creating something so horrific that even the vampires turn away from it.
Brutally violent and ideas heavy, this is vampire noir with bite. Joe Pitt may not have an easy life, but it’s certainly entertaining reading about it.
Alasdair started writing when he was nine, powered by a hefty diet of '80s cartoons, Doctor Who and Icepops. He's quite tired by this stage but has written a lot of things for a lot of people, including Fortean Times, Neo and Surreal.