Thursday, May 29, 2008

"Half the Blood of Brooklyn" by Charlie Huston


"There's only so much room on the Island, only so much blood, and Manhattan's Vampyre Clans aren't interested in sharing. So when the Vyrus-infected dregs of New York's outer boroughs start creeping across the bridges and through the tunnels, the Clans want to know why.
Bad luck for PI and general hard case Joe Pitt.
See, Joe used to be a Rogue, used to work off his own dime, picked his own gigs, but tight times and a terminally ill girlfriend pushed him into the arms of the renegade Society Clan. Now he has all the cash and blood he needs, but at a steep price. The price tonight is crossing the bridge, rolling to Coney Island, finding the Freak Clan, and figuring out what's driving that bunch of savages to scratch at the Society's door. No need to look far. The answer lies around the corner in Gravesend. Convenient, all those graves.
From uptown to the boardwalk, war drums are beating. Murderous family feuds and personal grudges are being drawn and brandished, along with the long knives. Blood will spill and, big surprise, Joe's in the middle. But hey, why should this night be different from any other?
Sunset to sunrise: Put off a war, keep your head attached to your neck, and save your girl. Check. Joe's on the case."

Yes, our favorite vamp PI is back. And this time around, Joe is being played by all sides, not just The Society. There's Predo at the Coalition, getting info from Joe not so much by what Joe tells him but by what he doesn't. There's Daniel, enigmatic leader of The Enclave, who tells Joe that he can tell is someone is Enclave just by looking at them. Which means that Joe will end up bringing his AIDS-stricken girlfriend, Evie, to see Daniel, whether she wants to become Vampyre or not. There's the Count, who has been looking for a real cure to the Vyrus; his search is driving him insane. And there's Amanda, a human girl, who wants to start her own "family" of vamps and humans living and working together in harmony. A very rich girl who feels that Joe owes her a favor or two, seeing as how he killed her mother.

Yeah, Joe's getting it from all sides. But by the end of this book, he's going to surprise quite a few people, including me. I was worried that Huston was going to send this one to the trilogy graveyard (pardon the pun); Joe was looking like a man on the ropes and down for the count. I had really enjoyed his other non-vamp work, but didn't care for how that trilogy ended. Luckily, I think Joe Pitt will be coming back to us soon. And the Manhattan Clans? I think they better be prepared...

No comments: