July 28, 2008
In this fascinatingly flawed fourth episode in the bloody horror-noir chronicles of New York vampire PI Joe Pitt (after 2007's Half the Blood Of Brooklyn
), relations between the city's vampire clans are unraveling. The Cure is researching antidotes to the ravenous vampire-creating Vyrus, while the better-nourished Coalition seeks the Cure's downfall and the Society plays both sides. Dodging death threats and brokering shaky deals, Pitt shuttles among all three until he learns the Coalition's secret, a revelation so volatile that it may lead to all-out war. Huston supplies terse dialogue and convincing gore in expertly pitched prose, but the beautifully cinematic nastiness doesn't quite mask a key difficulty: Pitt's enemies set their hate aside too easily at his appearance, and their rational behavior is at odds with the emotional intensity (and sheer implausibility) of the climax. Newcomers may find the relationships difficult to parse, but those familiar with the series should be enthralled.
September 15, 2008
In his fourth outing, rakish New York vampire Joe Pitt leaves the series casebooks nomenclature in the dust. This toothsome tale is no variation on the P.I. genre; instead, Huston imaginatively, logically explores the limits of the world hes created for Pitt to haunt. If a virus that forced its hosts to seek blood for sustenance gave rise to competing secret clans that kept members fed in exchange for allegiance, wouldnt a rising population of infected require development of a secure supply chain lest the drained bodies of victims started piling up on the Manhattan streets? Wouldnt a threat to that supply destabilize the entire clan structure? And how would the established clans react to an upstart group promising to find a curethus stripping the old guard of its power? The answers to these questions might pierce even Pitts leather-tough heart as he takes readers on another darkly entertaining ride. Meanwhile, his nights of acting as unofficial clan go-between might be drawing to a close as the saber-rattling and brinksmanship escalates toward an all-out vampire war. We can hardly wait.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)