NO DOMINION

In p.i. Joe Pitt’s second adventure (Already Dead, 2005), turf-warring Vampyres are out for blood.

Not many people know that lower Manhattan is home to more than 4,000 Vampyres. Most of them are attached to clans with names like Coalition (the top of the heap, ruthlessly dedicated to the status quo) and Society (smaller, but equally ferocious). In addition, there’s a smattering of independent Rogues like Pitt, a quintessential loner who stubbornly refuses to wear any clan’s livery. With his blood stash and funds uncomfortably diminished, Joe needs a gig in order to replenish both. So he calls on Society boss Terry Bird. His history with Terry is checkered, but he prefers him to the Coalition alternative. Terry has work for him, all right, but Joe doesn’t like a thing he hears about the assignment. To begin with, it means a subway ride uptown, where the blood-sucking scene is less familiar, more dangerous and full of people like the venomous, murderous Mrs. Vandewater and DJ Grave Digga, who kills as easily as he breathes. Uptown Vampyres are fiercely territorial, chieftains to steer clear of. But Joe’s plummeting blood supply, flat wallet and bleak guiding principle—“I’m already as sick as a man can get”—persuade him to take the A train.

Warning to the squeamish: Huston, a gifted storyteller, relishes moments when things get ugly.