Up until now, I’d resisted the urge to write a vampire novel. Not because I don’t enjoy them (I like them a lot), but because I’m neither an authority on the topic nor did I feel I had anything original to offer the genre.

While researching ghost stories from around the world, I happened upon two Asian vampires: the Krasue and Penanggal. I remembered the latter (also referred to as a penanggalan) from teenage role-playing games, so decided to dig further. What intrigued me about the penanggal...