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Joe Pitt #1
Already Dead
Those stories you hear? The ones about things that only come out at night? Things that feed on blood, feed on us? Got news for they’re true. Only it’s not like the movies or old man Stoker’s storybook. It’s worse. Especially if you happen to be one of them . Just ask Joe Pitt.
There’s a shambler on the loose. Some fool who got himself infected with a flesh-eating bacteria is lurching around, trying to munch on folks’ brains. Joe hates shamblers, but he’s still the one who has to deal with them. That’s just the kind of life he has. Except afterlife might be better word.
From the Battery to the Bronx, and from river to river, Manhattan is crawling with Vampyres. Joe is one of them, and he’s not happy about it. Yeah, he gets to be stronger and faster than you, and he’s tough as nails and hard to kill. But spending his nights trying to score a pint of blood to feed the Vyrus that’s eating at him isn’t his idea of a good time. And Joe doesn’t make it any easier on himself. Going his own way, refusing to ally with the Clans that run the undead underside of Manhattan–it ain’t easy. It’s worse once he gets mixed up with the Coalition–the city’s most powerful Clan–and finds himself searching for a poor little rich girl who’s gone missing in Alphabet City.
Now the Coalition and the girl’s high-society parents are breathing down his neck, anarchist Vampyres are pushing him around, and a crazy Vampyre cult is stalking him. No time to complain, though. Got to find that girl and kill that shambler before the whip comes down . . . and before the sun comes up.
There’s a shambler on the loose. Some fool who got himself infected with a flesh-eating bacteria is lurching around, trying to munch on folks’ brains. Joe hates shamblers, but he’s still the one who has to deal with them. That’s just the kind of life he has. Except afterlife might be better word.
From the Battery to the Bronx, and from river to river, Manhattan is crawling with Vampyres. Joe is one of them, and he’s not happy about it. Yeah, he gets to be stronger and faster than you, and he’s tough as nails and hard to kill. But spending his nights trying to score a pint of blood to feed the Vyrus that’s eating at him isn’t his idea of a good time. And Joe doesn’t make it any easier on himself. Going his own way, refusing to ally with the Clans that run the undead underside of Manhattan–it ain’t easy. It’s worse once he gets mixed up with the Coalition–the city’s most powerful Clan–and finds himself searching for a poor little rich girl who’s gone missing in Alphabet City.
Now the Coalition and the girl’s high-society parents are breathing down his neck, anarchist Vampyres are pushing him around, and a crazy Vampyre cult is stalking him. No time to complain, though. Got to find that girl and kill that shambler before the whip comes down . . . and before the sun comes up.
268 pages, Paperback
First published December 27, 2005
370 people are currently reading
8096 people want to read
About the author
Charlie Huston
101 books1,290 followersCharlie Huston is an American novelist, screenwriter, and comic book writer known for his genre-blending storytelling and character-driven narratives. His twelve novels span crime, horror, and science fiction, and have been published by Ballantine, Del Rey, Mulholland, and Orion, with translations in nine languages. He is the creator of the Henry Thompson trilogy, beginning with Caught Stealing, which was announced in 2024 as a forthcoming film adaptation directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Austin Butler. Huston’s stand-alone novels include The Shotgun Rule, The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death, Sleepless, and Skinner. He also authored the vampire noir series Joe Pitt Casebooks while living in Manhattan and later California. Huston has written pilots for FX, FOX, Sony, and Tomorrow Studios, served as a writer and producer on FOX’s Gotham, and developed original projects such as Arcadia. In comics, he rebooted Moon Knight for Marvel, contributed to Ultimates Annual, and penned the Wolverine: The Best There Is series.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 801 reviews
June 12, 2012
I have a special fondness in my heart for NYC. The Met. The Chinese food. The Strand. The people zoo. Especially the people zoo--every time I go, I'm reminded of Whoopie Goldberg in Jumpin' Jack Flash saying, "There's some funky lookin' people in New York." I don't often see the NY Huston writes about. It's there, in the skinny dude doing junkie tai chi on the corner, and in the random clothing nests I might see stashed under a bench. I've been to the kiddie parks with kiddies in tow, but I confess I wasn't looking around for the pedophiles. It gives me extra appreciation for Huston's writing, which has as much to do with the seedy parts of the city as the politics of staying independent among the Vampyres cabals. And I confess; I love seeing Manhattan divided up into vampire enclaves. It seems so apropos.
This is gritty private eye/hired gun noir, with a supernatural twist. Everybody is working an angle, but Joe's just trying to get by. He tracks a 'shambler"--zombie--to a flophouse, killing it before it can spread any the disease. The Upper East Side Coalition of vamps (*snerk*) assigns him to kill the infected carrier before it spreads further. Shortly after, a very wealthy and bored woman hires him to find her missing daughter, last seen slumming it in Alphabet City. Joe really doesn't have time for her, but realizes there is a connection.
It's done well enough to be very readable, making me impatient with whoever it was that called me while I was near the end (personal rule: never answer the phone when near the end of a mystery). There's an interesting metaphysical angle that shows up when dealing with one of the Vampyre sects, and I have to applaud Huston for taking the plot to the next level. Still, it remains very noir, with frequent, almost indifferent violence, interrogations and extreme sexual deviance. Thankfully, although brutal, the scenes are short, detailed enough to create tension but not enough to vicariously wallow in it. There are bits of humor to leaven the darkness, particularly the anarchist -isms dialogue that crops up every time Joe interacts with the Society. There's an especially great dialogue when the lesbian enforcer calls out the presumably straight guy for calling someone a "girl." Her diatribe on being undead not needing to contribute to the further marginalization/ exploitation/ etc. had me cracking up.
Three and a half stars, rounding up because I think it's a standout in the UF detective field. I'll be looking for the next book in the series.
Cross posted at http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2012/1...
This is gritty private eye/hired gun noir, with a supernatural twist. Everybody is working an angle, but Joe's just trying to get by. He tracks a 'shambler"--zombie--to a flophouse, killing it before it can spread any the disease. The Upper East Side Coalition of vamps (*snerk*) assigns him to kill the infected carrier before it spreads further. Shortly after, a very wealthy and bored woman hires him to find her missing daughter, last seen slumming it in Alphabet City. Joe really doesn't have time for her, but realizes there is a connection.
It's done well enough to be very readable, making me impatient with whoever it was that called me while I was near the end (personal rule: never answer the phone when near the end of a mystery). There's an interesting metaphysical angle that shows up when dealing with one of the Vampyre sects, and I have to applaud Huston for taking the plot to the next level. Still, it remains very noir, with frequent, almost indifferent violence, interrogations and extreme sexual deviance. Thankfully, although brutal, the scenes are short, detailed enough to create tension but not enough to vicariously wallow in it. There are bits of humor to leaven the darkness, particularly the anarchist -isms dialogue that crops up every time Joe interacts with the Society. There's an especially great dialogue when the lesbian enforcer calls out the presumably straight guy for calling someone a "girl." Her diatribe on being undead not needing to contribute to the further marginalization/ exploitation/ etc. had me cracking up.
Three and a half stars, rounding up because I think it's a standout in the UF detective field. I'll be looking for the next book in the series.
Cross posted at http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2012/1...
October 16, 2016
In the footsteps of Jim Butcher and his wizard detective Harry Dresden the field of supernatural investigators is getting quite crowded. If you want to stand out, to get noticed, you need an angle, a marketing asset. Charlie Huston has the writing skills to make the grade, but I am only half-sold on his approach. It seems to rely heavily on ultra-violent, explicit gore-fest and some heavy swearing, especially in the first chapters. The horror elements do help in keeping the reader glued to the pages, and the action is tense enough to make for a fast read, but I feel the violence and the bad-boy posturing are actually just a smoke screen for the lack of originality in the plot (a teenage girl goes missing and her stinking rich family hires a street-smart but expendable freelance investigator to bring her back) and the stock characters that populate the metropolis.
The lead character is a combination of killing machine (vampire) and surprisingly numerous vulnerabilities, the most glaring of them a habit of not checking his back and being repeatedly knocked on the head. After the third or fourth 'lights out' incident I started to wonder why Joe is considered such a tough underworld vigilante. It looks like even a toddler with a plastic hammer could take him out.
In Joe's defense, the underworld is a scary and violent place to prowl around at night, even if you are a vampire predator. A complication in the case of the missing teenager is the presence of a secret carrier for the deadly zombie virus, a case that also lands on Joe Pitt's plate. To make matters worse, the alternative New York that is Joe Pitt's hunting ground is parceled out between rival vampire gangs, each fiercely defending its territory against intruders and poaching. Joe Pit is a Rogue, as in unaffiliated with any of the major criminal vampire organizations in Manhattan, and his survival depends on playing one gang against another and making himself useful to them.
In fact, more than half of this debut novel is dedicated to the description of these various Manhattan gangs : upper-class businessmen, leftist guerillas, bikers, ethnic blacks, LGBT's, Italian mobsters, even a Zen-like / Shaolin monks organization. The attention to detail in worldbuilding points out already that Charlie Huston is playing a long game and he prepares here the ground for more Joe Pitt adventures.
Romance is not easy for the undead, but Joe seems to still be a babe magnet after his transformation, with a couple of hot women chasing him. I could take it or leave it, undecided for now if this angle adds or detracts from the story. In the author's defense, femme fatales and gangster molls are a long established staple of the pulp fare.
There's room for improvement also in regard to adversaries, who suffer from a cardboard pastiche syndrome, being easy to spot and almost hilarious later in their evil mastermind disguise, explaining in detail their dastardly plans to the beaten-up and hog-tied hero, never imagining that he could somehow recover and beat their brains out.
Conclusion : Good if you like modern supernatural pulp with a lot of violence. Well written and fast paced, but predictable and not very original. I'm not sure I want to continue with the series.
March 30, 2022
Already Dead
(Joe Pitt #1)
by Charlie Huston
I read this before and forgot details so decided to read again because I just remember I really liked it. It's one of the better vampire and zombie books out there. The zombie theme has really be over done or I have read way too many and most vampire books don't have much variety in the theme. This is different concerning zombies and vampires. Their societies, how they are infected, killed, and vampires hunt zombies here! Love this story.
I read this back in 2015 but picked up an audio version from chirp and the narration was terrific! Glad to revisit this novel and Joe again!
(Joe Pitt #1)
by Charlie Huston
I read this before and forgot details so decided to read again because I just remember I really liked it. It's one of the better vampire and zombie books out there. The zombie theme has really be over done or I have read way too many and most vampire books don't have much variety in the theme. This is different concerning zombies and vampires. Their societies, how they are infected, killed, and vampires hunt zombies here! Love this story.
I read this back in 2015 but picked up an audio version from chirp and the narration was terrific! Glad to revisit this novel and Joe again!
October 10, 2016
I'm a man, does things, gets things done. I'm a handyman. Someone has a problem they maybe call me and I maybe help to take care of the problem.
Joe Pitt is not a detective. He has no license or even an office. Yet when somebody needs someone found, he's the guy for the job.
A woman is going to call you today with a problem. You will offer her your assistance. Whatever it is she asks of you, you shall do it. Efficiently and, need I say it, discreetly. Yes?
Yet another noir story revolving around the missing daughter of a wealthy family - it worked so well for Chandler and Hammett - and the tough guy hired to track her down. Only in this book, there's a catch . . .
His chest is covered with dozens of slash marks and the blood oozes and pools in his lap. My mouth begins to water.
Yep. Joe's a vampire. You thought you had problems . . . try finding a missing girl when you haven't had a pint of blood in days!
This wasn't bad. I enjoyed Huston's writing more than I did the plot, particularly a rather convoluted bit about vampy politics and warring factions. I'm curious enough to want to check out the second book, though, so that's something.
I'll give it four stars, though the last star is kind of anemic.
Joe Pitt is not a detective. He has no license or even an office. Yet when somebody needs someone found, he's the guy for the job.
A woman is going to call you today with a problem. You will offer her your assistance. Whatever it is she asks of you, you shall do it. Efficiently and, need I say it, discreetly. Yes?
Yet another noir story revolving around the missing daughter of a wealthy family - it worked so well for Chandler and Hammett - and the tough guy hired to track her down. Only in this book, there's a catch . . .
His chest is covered with dozens of slash marks and the blood oozes and pools in his lap. My mouth begins to water.
Yep. Joe's a vampire. You thought you had problems . . . try finding a missing girl when you haven't had a pint of blood in days!
This wasn't bad. I enjoyed Huston's writing more than I did the plot, particularly a rather convoluted bit about vampy politics and warring factions. I'm curious enough to want to check out the second book, though, so that's something.
I'll give it four stars, though the last star is kind of anemic.
February 20, 2008
I liked this book. It was a refreshing change of pace from the "female protagonist/romance" vampire thing that has become a cliche of the vampire novel. It was gritty and real, like a hard-boiled detective story from the 30's.
February 22, 2009
1977. NYC. CBGBs. ramones on stage. some suit offers simon twenty bucks to let him suck his dick. sure: a mouth’s a mouth. simon pops off, and takes another twenty to give the guy a handjob. guy pushes his face into simon’s neck, bares his fangs, and – bam! – instavamp.
let that scene serve as a microcosm of this sloppy pulpy drunken joyride of a book: it’s kinda absurd having all this happen at the place in the year seeing the band... but it’s also kinda so fucked up and fun we ignore the author’s anachronistic invasions.
anyway... twenty-eight years later simon's changed his name to joe pitt and is a fixture on the LES scene with a hot little LES bartender girlfriend and plenty of work as a detective, money collector, etc... and yeah, he’s also a vampyre.
huston’s carved out a pretty cool world here. manhattan’s filled with bloodsuckers and they don’t all share the same philosophy. uptown you got The Society. LES filled with The Coalition. west village: The Enclave. you got some 60s leftover vampyres, a gay and lesbian faction, a group that wants to come out and try to work a deal with ‘normal’ society, a group of suicide vampyres (led by creepy-as-shit daniel). but fuck all that. joe’s a Rogue. does some work for all of ‘em, but part of none. ain’t his style. scrape up some dough, watch old movies with evie, slug cheap whiskey, kick some ass, drink some blood...
huston’s great at all that. his manhattan, crawling with vampyres who are very careful not to attract attention (frequenty they prey on a drunk chick or drug addict or homeless dude and rather than kill ‘em, they knock ‘em out, drain a pint of blood and fix), is well constructed, smart, complete... and i must admit to having a particular fondness in that my twenties were spent on the LES so i had that flash of recognition every time he mentioned a pizza joint where i'd sucked down a slice or a bar at which i'd puked out the bathroom!
what huston's not so good at are the mechanics of the genre. for example: three times in this book of 268 pgs joe gets knocked over the head and dragged unconscious to the bad guys' lair. beyond the plot contrivance, this illuminates a larger problem: joe’s a pretty passive hero. people keep approaching him, people come from behind and knock him out, people feed him information and save him from an otherwise certain death. huston took great pains to describe joe as a crafty badass toughguy, but the actions of the book tell a different story. it’s important to show a hero with vulnerability, but it’s also important that s/he be the captain of his/her fate.
all in all, a damn enjoyable book. i just ordered the next three in the series. i hear joe ventures into the other boroughs. fuck. rumor says it's full of savages. no order. crazy vampyres part of no Clan, just taking people out. watch it joe!
a shout-out to donkey don for recommending this. bitch can wax poetic on du fu, coetzee, or rimbaud and in the next breath throw some pulped-out crime shit (winslow, nunn, etc) that goosebumps the fuck outta ya... yay donkey don!
let that scene serve as a microcosm of this sloppy pulpy drunken joyride of a book: it’s kinda absurd having all this happen at the place in the year seeing the band... but it’s also kinda so fucked up and fun we ignore the author’s anachronistic invasions.
anyway... twenty-eight years later simon's changed his name to joe pitt and is a fixture on the LES scene with a hot little LES bartender girlfriend and plenty of work as a detective, money collector, etc... and yeah, he’s also a vampyre.
huston’s carved out a pretty cool world here. manhattan’s filled with bloodsuckers and they don’t all share the same philosophy. uptown you got The Society. LES filled with The Coalition. west village: The Enclave. you got some 60s leftover vampyres, a gay and lesbian faction, a group that wants to come out and try to work a deal with ‘normal’ society, a group of suicide vampyres (led by creepy-as-shit daniel). but fuck all that. joe’s a Rogue. does some work for all of ‘em, but part of none. ain’t his style. scrape up some dough, watch old movies with evie, slug cheap whiskey, kick some ass, drink some blood...
huston’s great at all that. his manhattan, crawling with vampyres who are very careful not to attract attention (frequenty they prey on a drunk chick or drug addict or homeless dude and rather than kill ‘em, they knock ‘em out, drain a pint of blood and fix), is well constructed, smart, complete... and i must admit to having a particular fondness in that my twenties were spent on the LES so i had that flash of recognition every time he mentioned a pizza joint where i'd sucked down a slice or a bar at which i'd puked out the bathroom!
what huston's not so good at are the mechanics of the genre. for example: three times in this book of 268 pgs joe gets knocked over the head and dragged unconscious to the bad guys' lair. beyond the plot contrivance, this illuminates a larger problem: joe’s a pretty passive hero. people keep approaching him, people come from behind and knock him out, people feed him information and save him from an otherwise certain death. huston took great pains to describe joe as a crafty badass toughguy, but the actions of the book tell a different story. it’s important to show a hero with vulnerability, but it’s also important that s/he be the captain of his/her fate.
all in all, a damn enjoyable book. i just ordered the next three in the series. i hear joe ventures into the other boroughs. fuck. rumor says it's full of savages. no order. crazy vampyres part of no Clan, just taking people out. watch it joe!
a shout-out to donkey don for recommending this. bitch can wax poetic on du fu, coetzee, or rimbaud and in the next breath throw some pulped-out crime shit (winslow, nunn, etc) that goosebumps the fuck outta ya... yay donkey don!
May 21, 2009
Huston brings his signature noir style to a dark, urban fantasy Manhattan where the protagonist is a vampire.
I liked the first half of the book better than the second, mostly because I found one of the characters (a teenage girl) speaking in a voice that didn't sound as authentic as the rest of Huston's characters. Everything else in the book is so well-crafted and so interesting, it was very jarring to me.
I wasn't surprised very often, maybe because I read so much Huston I can sense when things are being set up. This didn't bother me at all, though, because I found Joe Pitt such an incredibly compelling character, even if he's no Henry Thompson (an unfair comparison, but since I'm such a fan of Huston's other works, it's one I can't help but make.)
It's imperfect, but I still felt it was time well-spent, and a welcome reintroduction (for me) not only to vampire novels, but to dark urban fantasy, as well.
I liked the first half of the book better than the second, mostly because I found one of the characters (a teenage girl) speaking in a voice that didn't sound as authentic as the rest of Huston's characters. Everything else in the book is so well-crafted and so interesting, it was very jarring to me.
I wasn't surprised very often, maybe because I read so much Huston I can sense when things are being set up. This didn't bother me at all, though, because I found Joe Pitt such an incredibly compelling character, even if he's no Henry Thompson (an unfair comparison, but since I'm such a fan of Huston's other works, it's one I can't help but make.)
It's imperfect, but I still felt it was time well-spent, and a welcome reintroduction (for me) not only to vampire novels, but to dark urban fantasy, as well.
March 12, 2022
When I grow-up I want to be like Joe Pitt in the same way I’ve wanted to be
Philip Marlowe
. This story is a dark, engaging and gritty, noir detective/urban fantasy mashup. It borrows more from the author’s edgier graphic novel experience than classic hardboiled/noir and has a
Steven King
-level of the supernatural built-in. It overcame my jaded view of modern stories with both vampyres [sic] and zombies (called "shamblers"). It was one of the more entertaining urban fantasies I’ve read in awhile.
Prose is good, although it may be bit over-done in a gritty, hardboiled way for many readers. The story’s format hews closely to the noir format. I always find it hard to find continuity errors in stories with magic, this was no exception. I could find none here. The protagonist’s (Joe Pitt) POV is used throughout. Pitt’s dialog is noir-laconic and his internal monologues are scarcely more verbose. The other characters don’t say too much either. Oddly, the author eschews the noir genre's traditional use of similes. Use of expletives was not as heavy as I would have imagined could have been. In my vulgar opinion they were tastefully applied. I came to forgive the author his peculiar spelling conceit for the words "vampire", "virus", and others. Descriptive prose amounts to description porn, but the spare style of writing occludes it nicely. Action sequences are well done. In many places, the story is wryly funny, if you have a macabre sense of humor.
This story includes sex, drugs, disease and violence. The sex is graphic and not heteronormative, although Pitt is a celibate. (A nice plot twist.) Drug use and abuse is pervasive. It includes alcohol, and several categories of illegal types. Aside from a reasonably well-developed disease model for vampirism and zombie-ism, the diseases of the demimonde receive detailing. There is graphic violence. Physical, edged-weapons, and firearms violence appear in some detail. Physical trauma may be a bit overdone, although who is to say how much physical punishment a vampire can take? Body count is moderately high, but not genocidal. Note that sexual violence against both sexes is included. This cannot be considered a YA read.
The main characters include: Pitt, Evie (no last name), Terry Bird, Daniel (no last name), Dexter Predo and The Hordes. Pitt is an unaffiliated Manhattan vampire working as a ‘Fixer’ (actually the pseudo-noir, hardboiled PI role) amongst the Secret Circle of vampire clans that have a balkanized NYC unknown to most humans. He’s a heavily damaged, tough, cynical, street smart guy who is full of self-loathing over his inhumanity. Evie is the human love interest keeping alive an ember of his residual humanity. The unresolved sexual tension resulting from their diseases is interesting. Bird is the Don of The Society, one of the vampire clans. (Note the “The” in all the clan names.) The Society has a community/social action organizational model. Bird and Pitt have a history and a cooperative, but uneasy relationship. Daniel is the head of The Enclave, a Shaolin-like clan of vampire monks/nuns. The Enclave is pursuing vampire enlightenment with a supernatural flavor. Predo is the antagonist. He’s the face of The Coalition. The Coalition are the Rich Evil White Guys vampire clan. Their machinations to dominate the vampire population are likely the main plot line of the series. Bird, Daniel and Predo are very old vampires. They're playing a long-game. Pitt is relatively young, having died only 30-years ago. The Hordes are a severely disfuntional, wealthy, powerful, human family (father, mother, and daughter). Father and mother (Marilee) are well-enough connected to know about the Secret Circle of vampires. Marilee is the story's femme fatale. Doctor Horde is a very twisted co-antagonist. The Goth, spoiled, emo, teen daughter (Amanda) with an undead fetish is the story’s MacGuffin.
Plotting is good, although most of the way it's threading along one of the accepted, hardboiled, noir, detective formulas: Pitt is hired to find the runaway girl (Amanda) while threading through vampire clan politics and an active Coalition plot in which he has been built-into. Thankfully, the zombie sub-plot was only a small part of the story. Zombies are not my fave supernatural character, although neither are vampires. I would have preferred a few more red-herrings than were actually netted. The story ends with a not-very-original plot exposition between Predo and Pitt. I really didn’t need that. The built-in long-term plot line hooks were not objectionable to me. Thankfully there was no must-read-next-book cliffhanger.
World building was good. It's lower Manhatten, in the ‘aughts’, specifically Alphabet City . In my misspent youth I gained some knowledge of Greenwich Village, but did venture into The East Village on occasion. I regret to say I was likely one of the NPCs the author, humorously describes in the story. Individual locations are intentionally obscured, but the geography of lower Manhattan and the neighborhoods, including public locations was solid.
This story was a surprise to me. While I read noir fiction all the time, I have not recently read a noir/urban fantasy crossover I’ve liked in a while. The story reminded me a lot of Warren Ellis’s work. Ellis like Huston is also a graphic novel writer to print novelist crossover. I suspect there is something about the process that a graphic artist to novelist uses that is subliminally appealing to me. This story was dark, gritty, but also not-too-deep. I also found a lot of humor in it, and found myself laughing-out-loud several times. I liked this story. However, I think that many folks would find it objectionable. Tough. Its life in The Big City with Vampyres.
I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series No Dominion. Folks interested in reading something similar might try Gun Machine (my review).
Prose is good, although it may be bit over-done in a gritty, hardboiled way for many readers. The story’s format hews closely to the noir format. I always find it hard to find continuity errors in stories with magic, this was no exception. I could find none here. The protagonist’s (Joe Pitt) POV is used throughout. Pitt’s dialog is noir-laconic and his internal monologues are scarcely more verbose. The other characters don’t say too much either. Oddly, the author eschews the noir genre's traditional use of similes. Use of expletives was not as heavy as I would have imagined could have been. In my vulgar opinion they were tastefully applied. I came to forgive the author his peculiar spelling conceit for the words "vampire", "virus", and others. Descriptive prose amounts to description porn, but the spare style of writing occludes it nicely. Action sequences are well done. In many places, the story is wryly funny, if you have a macabre sense of humor.
This story includes sex, drugs, disease and violence. The sex is graphic and not heteronormative, although Pitt is a celibate. (A nice plot twist.) Drug use and abuse is pervasive. It includes alcohol, and several categories of illegal types. Aside from a reasonably well-developed disease model for vampirism and zombie-ism, the diseases of the demimonde receive detailing. There is graphic violence. Physical, edged-weapons, and firearms violence appear in some detail. Physical trauma may be a bit overdone, although who is to say how much physical punishment a vampire can take? Body count is moderately high, but not genocidal. Note that sexual violence against both sexes is included. This cannot be considered a YA read.
The main characters include: Pitt, Evie (no last name), Terry Bird, Daniel (no last name), Dexter Predo and The Hordes. Pitt is an unaffiliated Manhattan vampire working as a ‘Fixer’ (actually the pseudo-noir, hardboiled PI role) amongst the Secret Circle of vampire clans that have a balkanized NYC unknown to most humans. He’s a heavily damaged, tough, cynical, street smart guy who is full of self-loathing over his inhumanity. Evie is the human love interest keeping alive an ember of his residual humanity. The unresolved sexual tension resulting from their diseases is interesting. Bird is the Don of The Society, one of the vampire clans. (Note the “The” in all the clan names.) The Society has a community/social action organizational model. Bird and Pitt have a history and a cooperative, but uneasy relationship. Daniel is the head of The Enclave, a Shaolin-like clan of vampire monks/nuns. The Enclave is pursuing vampire enlightenment with a supernatural flavor. Predo is the antagonist. He’s the face of The Coalition. The Coalition are the Rich Evil White Guys vampire clan. Their machinations to dominate the vampire population are likely the main plot line of the series. Bird, Daniel and Predo are very old vampires. They're playing a long-game. Pitt is relatively young, having died only 30-years ago. The Hordes are a severely disfuntional, wealthy, powerful, human family (father, mother, and daughter). Father and mother (Marilee) are well-enough connected to know about the Secret Circle of vampires. Marilee is the story's femme fatale. Doctor Horde is a very twisted co-antagonist. The Goth, spoiled, emo, teen daughter (Amanda) with an undead fetish is the story’s MacGuffin.
Plotting is good, although most of the way it's threading along one of the accepted, hardboiled, noir, detective formulas: Pitt is hired to find the runaway girl (Amanda) while threading through vampire clan politics and an active Coalition plot in which he has been built-into. Thankfully, the zombie sub-plot was only a small part of the story. Zombies are not my fave supernatural character, although neither are vampires. I would have preferred a few more red-herrings than were actually netted. The story ends with a not-very-original plot exposition between Predo and Pitt. I really didn’t need that. The built-in long-term plot line hooks were not objectionable to me. Thankfully there was no must-read-next-book cliffhanger.
World building was good. It's lower Manhatten, in the ‘aughts’, specifically Alphabet City . In my misspent youth I gained some knowledge of Greenwich Village, but did venture into The East Village on occasion. I regret to say I was likely one of the NPCs the author, humorously describes in the story. Individual locations are intentionally obscured, but the geography of lower Manhattan and the neighborhoods, including public locations was solid.
This story was a surprise to me. While I read noir fiction all the time, I have not recently read a noir/urban fantasy crossover I’ve liked in a while. The story reminded me a lot of Warren Ellis’s work. Ellis like Huston is also a graphic novel writer to print novelist crossover. I suspect there is something about the process that a graphic artist to novelist uses that is subliminally appealing to me. This story was dark, gritty, but also not-too-deep. I also found a lot of humor in it, and found myself laughing-out-loud several times. I liked this story. However, I think that many folks would find it objectionable. Tough. Its life in The Big City with Vampyres.
I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series No Dominion. Folks interested in reading something similar might try Gun Machine (my review).
September 8, 2012
Already Dead is a rollicking, no-holds-barred film noir vampire pastiche. Main protagonist Joe Pitt is a Mike Hammer with fangs and no suntan. As low vamp on the totem pole, Pitt gets it from all sides of the undead crime underground. Picking no side and forced to do favors here and there for the various vampire factions just to survive, he is pushed into a job to find a missing girl which develops into a complex scheme that would make Phillip Marlow's head spin. The combination of vampire and gumshoe is played to perfection with Charlie Huston's nail biting style of writing keeping the reader glued to the book until the end. This is the first of a series. It is currently available for the kindle as a free book with the idea that you will buy the rest of the series when the author decides to treat us to more Joe Pitt adventure. It worked. I'm hooked.
P.S. I just discovered Already Dead was originally released in 2005 and there are already four more novels in the series. Yippe
P.S.S. No longer free.
P.S. I just discovered Already Dead was originally released in 2005 and there are already four more novels in the series. Yippe
P.S.S. No longer free.
September 19, 2011
This was really fun! I like these genre-twisting books. This one is about a guy who works for the Vampyre clans of NYC. These clans are usually competing groups who control the paranormal interests of Manhattan and greater NYC. One clan, The Coalition, controls the area above 14th street, up past Central Park, to around 116th street. Another clan, The Society, runs the area below 14th with other pockets of smaller clans, as well, through out Manhattan and the outer Burroughs. These clans are comprised of local vampyres and they keep the peace among the supernaturals and the humans.
Joe Pitt is an enforcer but he has gone rogue and refuses to affiliate himself with any of the other clans. But he does good work, and he always has one or the other of the clans asking for his assistance. In this tale, he is asked by the head of The Coalition to find a local big-wigs missing daughter. The big-wig is the head of a leading Bio-Tech firm who is not a supernatural but is "in the know" on the status quo of vampyres and other non-humans in the area. Joe reluctantly takes the job but as is usual, things quickly go from bad to worse when someone beats the crap out of Joe then steals his blood stash so he cannot heal.
A combination of noir and horror with a little vampyre and zombie thrown in for fun, I had a great time reading this. Check it out if you liked the Mike Carey "Fix Castor" series.
Joe Pitt is an enforcer but he has gone rogue and refuses to affiliate himself with any of the other clans. But he does good work, and he always has one or the other of the clans asking for his assistance. In this tale, he is asked by the head of The Coalition to find a local big-wigs missing daughter. The big-wig is the head of a leading Bio-Tech firm who is not a supernatural but is "in the know" on the status quo of vampyres and other non-humans in the area. Joe reluctantly takes the job but as is usual, things quickly go from bad to worse when someone beats the crap out of Joe then steals his blood stash so he cannot heal.
A combination of noir and horror with a little vampyre and zombie thrown in for fun, I had a great time reading this. Check it out if you liked the Mike Carey "Fix Castor" series.
abandoned-dnf
July 23, 2016I hate to say it, but I'm abandoning at 47%. I've tried, I really have, but this book and writing style just isn't for me. I was excited to read it for awhile too - love gritty, dark urban stories, enjoy hard-boiled detectives, anything with vampires - but the writing style has no chemistry with me. It's present tense, chopping, and a little dry. Dialogue has no quotations. The main character is completely unsympathetic - perhaps he does things for the 'right' reasons but he doesn't seem to care about anything or anyone enough to come across solid. The main plot hasn't interested me yet. The vamp factions and "villains" blend together to me. I give up. A shame too, because so many rated high and I held hope, but...
November 20, 2011
Rating: 3.5* of five
What a ride...really, noir for the new millennium is a fair description of the book, the character, the setting and set-up for the series.
Hyper-violent, and not for the squeamish. Lots of yech-ptui sexual deviance. Plenty of "Reservoir Dogs"-style torture and cruelty.
In the end, I think it's got something fresh to say about the evergreen plot device of hardboiled dick with a heart of gold, a strong girlfriend whose very existence causes him joy, and clients he not only can't trust but whose lies and machinations are calculated to cost him his life. I'd recommend it to the noir readers, but it's not for everyone.
Rating: 4* of five
The Publisher Says: "My name is David Brandstetter. I'm a claims investigator for the Medallion Life Insurance Company." He handed her a card. She didn't glance at it. "I'm looking for Peter Oats," he said.
"He's not here. I wish he were. Maybe you can help me. The police don't seem to care."
She was April Stannard. Her lover, Peter's father, had died. April believed he'd been murdered.
Dave Brandstetter's investigation takes him through the rare-book world, to backstage at a community theatre, to the home of a world-famous television performer. Along the way, Dave soon comes to agree with April.
My Review: Small-town California has a lot of atmosphere, according to Hansen; I don't remember it that way, but I was young and miserable, so I'll go with the man who found there something that led to this description of an old mill made into a theater:
Beautiful.
It's with this book, second in the series, that Hansen's chops come fully into play. He's here to wow you, and he's got the story to keep you sitting right there flipping pages. April, the bereaved, is Rita Hayworth in my mind; Oates, the dead guy, looks like John Garfield; Peter, the son and heir, is Cabaret-era Michael York; and so on and so on. (Eve, Oates' ex-wife, is Barbara Stanwyck.) I do this a lot, cast the perfect movie cast as I read along. But this time it felt as if it was all done for me. Oates' murderer, when revealed, was a surprise to me even though this was a re-read. And the actor I'd put in the role was perfect...no testament to my skills, just an example of how beautifully Hansen draws his characters.
Dave's got a man, too...how amazing for the 1970s! I so wish this had been a TV series. Magnum PI only gay! *sigh* What might have been....
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
What a ride...really, noir for the new millennium is a fair description of the book, the character, the setting and set-up for the series.
Hyper-violent, and not for the squeamish. Lots of yech-ptui sexual deviance. Plenty of "Reservoir Dogs"-style torture and cruelty.
In the end, I think it's got something fresh to say about the evergreen plot device of hardboiled dick with a heart of gold, a strong girlfriend whose very existence causes him joy, and clients he not only can't trust but whose lies and machinations are calculated to cost him his life. I'd recommend it to the noir readers, but it's not for everyone.
Rating: 4* of five
The Publisher Says: "My name is David Brandstetter. I'm a claims investigator for the Medallion Life Insurance Company." He handed her a card. She didn't glance at it. "I'm looking for Peter Oats," he said.
"He's not here. I wish he were. Maybe you can help me. The police don't seem to care."
She was April Stannard. Her lover, Peter's father, had died. April believed he'd been murdered.
Dave Brandstetter's investigation takes him through the rare-book world, to backstage at a community theatre, to the home of a world-famous television performer. Along the way, Dave soon comes to agree with April.
My Review: Small-town California has a lot of atmosphere, according to Hansen; I don't remember it that way, but I was young and miserable, so I'll go with the man who found there something that led to this description of an old mill made into a theater:
The waterwheel was twice a man’s height, wider than a man’s two stretched arms. The timbers, braced and bolted with rusty iron were heavy, hand-hewn, swollen with a century of wet. Moss bearded the paddles, which dripped as they rose. The sounds were good. Wooden stutter like children running down a hall at the end of school. Grudging axle thud like the heartbeat of a strong old man.
Beautiful.
It's with this book, second in the series, that Hansen's chops come fully into play. He's here to wow you, and he's got the story to keep you sitting right there flipping pages. April, the bereaved, is Rita Hayworth in my mind; Oates, the dead guy, looks like John Garfield; Peter, the son and heir, is Cabaret-era Michael York; and so on and so on. (Eve, Oates' ex-wife, is Barbara Stanwyck.) I do this a lot, cast the perfect movie cast as I read along. But this time it felt as if it was all done for me. Oates' murderer, when revealed, was a surprise to me even though this was a re-read. And the actor I'd put in the role was perfect...no testament to my skills, just an example of how beautifully Hansen draws his characters.
Dave's got a man, too...how amazing for the 1970s! I so wish this had been a TV series. Magnum PI only gay! *sigh* What might have been....
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
March 14, 2015
Το βιβλίο το λιγουρευόμουν πολύ καιρό αλλά το έβρισκα λίγο ακριβό, το πέτυχα τελικά φτηνά κάπου και το τσίμπησα. Πρόκειται για τον ορισμό του page turner, διαβάζεται απνευστί μέσα σε λίγες ώρες.
Έχουμε να κάνουμε με ένα νέο-νουάρ αστυνομικό μυθιστόρημα με βρικόλακες και ζόμπι. Η όλη ιστορία διαδραματίζεται στο σύγχρονο Μανχάταν, όπου οι βρικόλακες ζουν μυστικά αλλά ανάμεσα στους κανονικούς ανθρώπους. Είναι χωρισμένοι σε φατρίες, μικρές και μεγάλες, οι οποίες έχουν κάνει συμφωνίες μεταξύ τους για τα όρια της καθεμίας. Πρωταγωνιστής της ιστορίας είναι ο βρικόλακας Τζο Πιτ, ο οποίος δεν είναι μέλος καμίας φατρίας, αλλά λίγο-πολύ έχει σχετικά καλές σχέσεις με όλες. Ο Τζο Πιτ καλείται από τον Συνασπισμό, την μεγαλύτερη φατρία, να ανακαλύψει τον φορέα που δαγκώνει ανθρώπους και τους κάνει ζόμπι, καθώς και να βρει ένα εξαφανισμένο έφηβο κορίτσι μιας πλούσιας κυρίας. Στην πορ��ία θα ανακαλύψει ότι συνδέονται αυτές οι δυο υποθέσεις, ενώ θα μπλεχτεί σε διάφορες ιστορίες με αναρχικούς βρικόλακες, ζόμπι, θεοπάλαβους βρικόλακες που πολεμάνε την φύση τους μένοντας μακριά από το αίμα και ούτω καθεξής.
Μια πολύ διαφορετική και ξεχωριστή ματιά στο νουάρ μυθιστόρημα και τις ιστορίες με βρικόλακες. Οι ιδέες του Χιούστον έχουν μια πρωτοτυπία και φρεσκάδα και είναι να αναρωτιέσαι γιατί κάνουν θραύση τα κάκιστα και γλυκανάλατα βαμπιρικά μυθιστορήματα τύπου Twilight. Η γραφή σπάει κόκαλα, το βρισίδι είναι μπόλικο, ο underground κόσμος στον οποίο κυκλοφορεί ο Πιτ, γεμάτος με καμένους, πρεζόνια και άστεγους ιδιαίτερα σκληρός, οι περιγραφές των σκηνών δράσης καλά δοσμένες και πολλές εικόνες ιδιαίτερα σκληρές και δυναμικές. Η ατμόσφαιρα φυσικά εξαιρετική και ελπίζω να γίνει κάποτε ταινία το βιβλίο, ήδη σκέφτομαι ποιοι ηθοποιοί ταιριάζουν και ποιος σκηνοθέτης (Ταραντίνο φυσικά...) θα μπορούσε να γυρίσει την ταινία. Κρίμα που δεν έχουν μεταφραστεί άλλα βιβλία του Χιούστον, φαίνονται το ίδιο δυναμικά και παλπ με αυτό.
Έχουμε να κάνουμε με ένα νέο-νουάρ αστυνομικό μυθιστόρημα με βρικόλακες και ζόμπι. Η όλη ιστορία διαδραματίζεται στο σύγχρονο Μανχάταν, όπου οι βρικόλακες ζουν μυστικά αλλά ανάμεσα στους κανονικούς ανθρώπους. Είναι χωρισμένοι σε φατρίες, μικρές και μεγάλες, οι οποίες έχουν κάνει συμφωνίες μεταξύ τους για τα όρια της καθεμίας. Πρωταγωνιστής της ιστορίας είναι ο βρικόλακας Τζο Πιτ, ο οποίος δεν είναι μέλος καμίας φατρίας, αλλά λίγο-πολύ έχει σχετικά καλές σχέσεις με όλες. Ο Τζο Πιτ καλείται από τον Συνασπισμό, την μεγαλύτερη φατρία, να ανακαλύψει τον φορέα που δαγκώνει ανθρώπους και τους κάνει ζόμπι, καθώς και να βρει ένα εξαφανισμένο έφηβο κορίτσι μιας πλούσιας κυρίας. Στην πορ��ία θα ανακαλύψει ότι συνδέονται αυτές οι δυο υποθέσεις, ενώ θα μπλεχτεί σε διάφορες ιστορίες με αναρχικούς βρικόλακες, ζόμπι, θεοπάλαβους βρικόλακες που πολεμάνε την φύση τους μένοντας μακριά από το αίμα και ούτω καθεξής.
Μια πολύ διαφορετική και ξεχωριστή ματιά στο νουάρ μυθιστόρημα και τις ιστορίες με βρικόλακες. Οι ιδέες του Χιούστον έχουν μια πρωτοτυπία και φρεσκάδα και είναι να αναρωτιέσαι γιατί κάνουν θραύση τα κάκιστα και γλυκανάλατα βαμπιρικά μυθιστορήματα τύπου Twilight. Η γραφή σπάει κόκαλα, το βρισίδι είναι μπόλικο, ο underground κόσμος στον οποίο κυκλοφορεί ο Πιτ, γεμάτος με καμένους, πρεζόνια και άστεγους ιδιαίτερα σκληρός, οι περιγραφές των σκηνών δράσης καλά δοσμένες και πολλές εικόνες ιδιαίτερα σκληρές και δυναμικές. Η ατμόσφαιρα φυσικά εξαιρετική και ελπίζω να γίνει κάποτε ταινία το βιβλίο, ήδη σκέφτομαι ποιοι ηθοποιοί ταιριάζουν και ποιος σκηνοθέτης (Ταραντίνο φυσικά...) θα μπορούσε να γυρίσει την ταινία. Κρίμα που δεν έχουν μεταφραστεί άλλα βιβλία του Χιούστον, φαίνονται το ίδιο δυναμικά και παλπ με αυτό.
October 8, 2012
The best way to describe this book-violent and hilarious vampire noir.
A bunch of rival vampire clans fight over NYC like (literally) blood-hungry gangs. Each clan has its own shady agenda, and Joe Pitt is a free agent who frequently finds himself tangled up in their drama. He takes on odd jobs with the clans to keep the cash and blood flowing in, but only runs into more trouble at every turn. This book focuses on Joe looking for a lost girl and also the origin of a bunch of zombies (shamblers, he calls them).
He's also one of those characters who doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut-or more likely just doesn't care. He's always spouting off to the wrong vampire and getting his bell rung because of it. His dialogue alternately made me laugh out load and groan at the ass-kicking I knew he was about to get. Which is exactly why I love this character. In all five books of this series, it was a blast going along for his crazy ride.
The book has heart too. Joe has a human girlfriend that he can't have sex with for various reasons and who doesn't know what he is. His devotion to her is unusual and endearing. Also, Joe befriends the leader of a cultish, fasting clan that believes in a higher power, and although the guy seems crazy at first, he inspires Joe in unexpected ways throughout the series.
A bunch of rival vampire clans fight over NYC like (literally) blood-hungry gangs. Each clan has its own shady agenda, and Joe Pitt is a free agent who frequently finds himself tangled up in their drama. He takes on odd jobs with the clans to keep the cash and blood flowing in, but only runs into more trouble at every turn. This book focuses on Joe looking for a lost girl and also the origin of a bunch of zombies (shamblers, he calls them).
He's also one of those characters who doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut-or more likely just doesn't care. He's always spouting off to the wrong vampire and getting his bell rung because of it. His dialogue alternately made me laugh out load and groan at the ass-kicking I knew he was about to get. Which is exactly why I love this character. In all five books of this series, it was a blast going along for his crazy ride.
The book has heart too. Joe has a human girlfriend that he can't have sex with for various reasons and who doesn't know what he is. His devotion to her is unusual and endearing. Also, Joe befriends the leader of a cultish, fasting clan that believes in a higher power, and although the guy seems crazy at first, he inspires Joe in unexpected ways throughout the series.
July 11, 2014
**edited 11/28/13
There's a certain stereotype about the streets of New York City. To non-City-dwellers, the phrase can conjure a claustrophobic skyline blocked with lowering buildings and blinding lights, anonymous figures studiously avoiding eye contact as they rush past each other on the sidewalks, seething masses of pedestrians pouring onto the streets at random to the furious honks of stultified drivers, and snobby natives glaring at gaping tourists. Basically, the stereotyped New York is a place where people on the streets don't see each other as human. In Joe Pitt's NYC, "inhuman" is a pretty good description.
Due to my disapproval of GR's new and rather subjective review deletion policy, The rest of my (rather verbose) review is posted over here at Booklikes.
~2.75
There's a certain stereotype about the streets of New York City. To non-City-dwellers, the phrase can conjure a claustrophobic skyline blocked with lowering buildings and blinding lights, anonymous figures studiously avoiding eye contact as they rush past each other on the sidewalks, seething masses of pedestrians pouring onto the streets at random to the furious honks of stultified drivers, and snobby natives glaring at gaping tourists. Basically, the stereotyped New York is a place where people on the streets don't see each other as human. In Joe Pitt's NYC, "inhuman" is a pretty good description.
Due to my disapproval of GR's new and rather subjective review deletion policy, The rest of my (rather verbose) review is posted over here at Booklikes.
~2.75
February 23, 2008
This was my first Charlie Huston novel, and I really enjoyed it despite a few serious flaws. It's grittier than my usual thing, but I liked the take on vampirism and the writing is very good. Thanks for the rec, Donald!
The flaws:
1. I've seen the plot a dozen times: a low-life detective is sent to find a rich girl who went slumming and got in over her head.
2. Not once, but twice the bad guys tell their secret plan to the protagonist since they're about to kill him anyway.
3. The author spells it "Vampyre" and "Vyrus". That annoys me almost as much as "Magick".
Also the dialog is formatted with leading hyphens instead of quotes, but after a while it grew on me and seemed to fit in with the style of the book.
The flaws:
1. I've seen the plot a dozen times: a low-life detective is sent to find a rich girl who went slumming and got in over her head.
2. Not once, but twice the bad guys tell their secret plan to the protagonist since they're about to kill him anyway.
3. The author spells it "Vampyre" and "Vyrus". That annoys me almost as much as "Magick".
Also the dialog is formatted with leading hyphens instead of quotes, but after a while it grew on me and seemed to fit in with the style of the book.
February 19, 2016
Vampire private investigator out to find a missing girl?
Better than you'd think.
But then -it's by Charlie Huston.
Can't wait to read the other entries in the "Joe Pitt" series.
This was stupid fun.
Like getting high on nitrous oxide while smoking hydroponic.
But more addictive.
Huston amazes me.
What amazes me more is that this has been in my "to read" shelves" for over 5 years and I'm a long time fan of his writing.
Recommended.
Highly.
March 16, 2015
1.5
This pretty much hits all the hard-boiled detective checkmarks, with the sole point of variation being the vampire thing, but that didn't seem to add all that much to the story 'cause the different vampire clans and groups could just be mob or gang groups, and you'd get the same schtick.
The best part was the one group of vampires with hippies and radicals. Also sort of interesting was the way the blood lust was portrayed like a drug addiction.
Other than that, Joe spends a lot of time getting the crap beat out of him, stumbling across clues, and having bad guys monologue their nefarious schemes to him.
There's a part of me that wants to write-off UF in general, and hard-boiled detectives in particular... but for some reason I keep giving these things a shot.
This pretty much hits all the hard-boiled detective checkmarks, with the sole point of variation being the vampire thing, but that didn't seem to add all that much to the story 'cause the different vampire clans and groups could just be mob or gang groups, and you'd get the same schtick.
The best part was the one group of vampires with hippies and radicals. Also sort of interesting was the way the blood lust was portrayed like a drug addiction.
Other than that, Joe spends a lot of time getting the crap beat out of him, stumbling across clues, and having bad guys monologue their nefarious schemes to him.
There's a part of me that wants to write-off UF in general, and hard-boiled detectives in particular... but for some reason I keep giving these things a shot.
October 13, 2016
This was a rather disappointing genre bender starring Joe Pitt, a vampyre, as the detective, investigating the kidnapping of a rich woman's daughter and also hunting the patient zero responsible for a recent rash of zombie (shambler) attacks.
Having recently read a book where a robot plays the role of detective (The Automatic Detective), I find it somewhat ironic that, between the two books, the robot had more personality.
Thanks to the folks at the Goodreads Pulp Fiction group for giving me the opportunity to read and discuss this book. It may not have been the best I've read but it is fun to talk about it with friends.
Having recently read a book where a robot plays the role of detective (The Automatic Detective), I find it somewhat ironic that, between the two books, the robot had more personality.
Thanks to the folks at the Goodreads Pulp Fiction group for giving me the opportunity to read and discuss this book. It may not have been the best I've read but it is fun to talk about it with friends.
April 13, 2013
Cover: 3/5
Story: 4.5/5
Action: 5/5
Writing: 3/5
Favorite character(s): Evie, Phil
Most annoying character(s): Tom, Marilee
Meet vampyre Brad Pitt.
Oops, I meant JOE Pitt. :D This is his chosen vampyre name, his actual name is Simon (Pitt??). What was he thinking?
The writing wasn't extraordinary, but the story was gory, with lots of violence, blood and you don't even want to know what else! You need to have a strong stomach to read this stuff.
I liked it.
4 stars
April 26, 2025
6.5/10
Este primer acercamiento a la saga de Joe Pitt me dejó sensaciones encontradas. De entrada, su propuesta —un detective sobrenatural en un Nueva York oscuro, violento y dividido entre clanes vampíricos— me recordó al universo de Harry Dresden, aunque en una versión mucho más cruda, adulta y sombría. Eso, en principio, me atrajo. Sin embargo, a medida que avanzaba en la lectura, noté que carece de la profundidad de mundo y del humor desenfadado que tanto caracterizan a la saga de Jim Butcher, así como del carisma que hace tan entrañable a Dresden.
La historia es entretenida y el ritmo funciona muy bien; se lee rápido gracias a una buena dosis de acción y un tono bastante directo. Aun así, el protagonista, Joe Pitt, no termina de convencer: le falta ese "punch" o magnetismo necesario para que te impliques de verdad en su suerte. Se queda a medio camino entre el típico investigador de thriller y el antihéroe de fantasía urbana, sin destacar demasiado en ninguno de los dos terrenos.
No es una mala lectura, especialmente si buscas algo de acción rápida y un ambiente sobrenatural más adulto. Pero, en conjunto, se queda un poco corta y me deja con dudas sobre si seguiré con el resto de la saga.
Este primer acercamiento a la saga de Joe Pitt me dejó sensaciones encontradas. De entrada, su propuesta —un detective sobrenatural en un Nueva York oscuro, violento y dividido entre clanes vampíricos— me recordó al universo de Harry Dresden, aunque en una versión mucho más cruda, adulta y sombría. Eso, en principio, me atrajo. Sin embargo, a medida que avanzaba en la lectura, noté que carece de la profundidad de mundo y del humor desenfadado que tanto caracterizan a la saga de Jim Butcher, así como del carisma que hace tan entrañable a Dresden.
La historia es entretenida y el ritmo funciona muy bien; se lee rápido gracias a una buena dosis de acción y un tono bastante directo. Aun así, el protagonista, Joe Pitt, no termina de convencer: le falta ese "punch" o magnetismo necesario para que te impliques de verdad en su suerte. Se queda a medio camino entre el típico investigador de thriller y el antihéroe de fantasía urbana, sin destacar demasiado en ninguno de los dos terrenos.
No es una mala lectura, especialmente si buscas algo de acción rápida y un ambiente sobrenatural más adulto. Pero, en conjunto, se queda un poco corta y me deja con dudas sobre si seguiré con el resto de la saga.
June 13, 2016
My reactions to Already Dead varied significantly as I progressed through the book. Initially, I was simply flabbergasted by the pure awesomeness of a plot starring a rogue 'Vampyre' (Huston's spelling, not mine) Private Eye who exists in a world that simultaneously gives The Warriors a run for its costumed, turf-staking, New-York-as-Battleground title supremacy, while retaining the ultra-specific shout-outs to East Village landmarks (the community garden on Ave. B with the huge tower; Doc Holliday's bar).
Then, about mid-way through, I was wishing that I had read this novel prior to having read the first two books in Huston's Hank Thompson trilogy, because it seemed like he'd effectively just written the same book all over again...but now, with vampires. Which really seems to negate the point of the non-vamp precursors, right?
Not really. Because upon finishing Already Dead I'm fairly certain that Mr. Huston has some not-so-latent chauvinist and sadist tendencies that may have been given a bit too free a rein in this setting. It's true that noir and pulp and crime fictions have always been at their best when revealing the true debasement of such grand ideas as 'The Human Condition.' And fantasy/horror/alternate-reality novels maybe even more so. But that doesn't mean you have to revel in the slime.
Some elaboration:
The novel's protagonist here is Joe Pitt, a Vampyre whose been living under the influence of a blood-craving 'Vyrus' for about 30 years. Living in a Manhattan which is almost entirely controlled by a handful of Vampyre Clans, in which one's party alliance is paramount to remaining well-fed and protected, Pitt nevertheless 'goes rogue'--one lone cowboy roughing it in the wilds of Alphabet City. He lives by doing free-lance assignments for the various clans, but eventually finds himself at odds with two of the larger groups, who are both bent on destroying him. Slowly. And Painfully. For a little over 260 pages.
Huston loves the lone wolf. The man's man who doesn't need to integrate himself into a group for protection and doesn't abide by anyone's rule. Come to think of it, he'd probably have a pretty good time writing neo-Libertarian political thrillers (you know, like Point of Impact ), but that wouldn't really give him the chance to run wild with his other great love: Witty Comebacks and Toughguy Oneliners. Banter of the "Fuck with me and I'll...stuff you in a cubbyhole and flush the card so no one can claim your ass..." variety.
Besides both having a penchant for rejoinders, both Hank Thompson and Joe Pitt are Dudes. Dudes who can take and dole out an unreasonable amount of pain. But where there is actually a limit to the damage that you can inflict on a human man, there is practically limitless potential for a Vampyre. As Pitt explains, "[the Vyrus:] clots [my blood:] in seconds and knits my flesh and if you want to kill me you will have to blow up my heart or head or cut me in half or otherwise annihilate my body in blow before it can heal." Huston seems to take this as a challenge. He starves his anti-hero into a mere shadow of himself, burns him, beats him, knifes him, shoots him, etc. etc. etc. before gifting him an uber-vampire strength that only the blood-deprived can attain.
But we already knew that Huston has a thing for abusing his protagonists. What kicks Already Dead into a higher sphere of sadism is its treatment of the book's women. Though tucked under the guise of vengeful empathy for the abused and downtrodden, Huston can't seem to help himself from peppering his novels with violated, abused women just waiting to be saved. In Caught Stealing Hank's girlfriend has her arms and legs strapped to the corners of a table before being beaten to death. In Six Bad Things , he adopts a drug- addled, abused stripper. Here, we have a whole cast: an HIV positive girlfriend; a teenage porn star who is raped while being infected with a Zombie-virus; a drunken mother whose husband seduced her when she was underage, only to toss her aside when she got too old; and her teenage daughter who runs away because, among other things, her father wants to have sex with her. And in our climactic scene? Pitt's great moment of victory? Check out the set-up: Father has his lackey not only inject mother with a zombie drug, but also one which causes limb paralysis. He then commands said lackey to rape the mother, while making sure that she watches as he strips his anesthetized daughter and rapes her at the same time.
But while this scenario sends Joe Pitt into crazed mind-karate antics, it seems to positively titillate Huston: "The goon...grabs a fistful of Marilee's hair and twists her face towards her husband. Horde is roped with lean muscle and pelted with graying hair. He squats next to Amanda, his penis sharply erect between his knees, and begins to undo the button and zipper of her jeans...He opens his daughter's fly slowly, then butterflies it and pauses, gazing at the triangle of white cotton beneath."
Well, firstly..ew.
But consider that this setup is then paired with positively carnal violence. As the brawl heats up, Pitt narrates. "There is a tingling along my jaw and in my hand. I feel the flesh knitting, the Vyrus in overdrive, closing my wounds as they are inflicted...the stiletto enters my back, is plunged into my liver twice before I can seize his arm, hunch forward and toss the enforcer to a far corner of the room. The pain is more persistent this time. The healing tickle not such a balm. The Vyrus is fighting a losing battle against the damage I'm absorbing. I must feed."
Hmmm. A character remarks of evil-father Horde at the end of the novel that "his taste for youth seemed to have more to do with inflicting pain than receiving pleasure." Based on Already Dead, this seems a relatively apt assessment of Huston's own predilections.
Then, about mid-way through, I was wishing that I had read this novel prior to having read the first two books in Huston's Hank Thompson trilogy, because it seemed like he'd effectively just written the same book all over again...but now, with vampires. Which really seems to negate the point of the non-vamp precursors, right?
Not really. Because upon finishing Already Dead I'm fairly certain that Mr. Huston has some not-so-latent chauvinist and sadist tendencies that may have been given a bit too free a rein in this setting. It's true that noir and pulp and crime fictions have always been at their best when revealing the true debasement of such grand ideas as 'The Human Condition.' And fantasy/horror/alternate-reality novels maybe even more so. But that doesn't mean you have to revel in the slime.
Some elaboration:
The novel's protagonist here is Joe Pitt, a Vampyre whose been living under the influence of a blood-craving 'Vyrus' for about 30 years. Living in a Manhattan which is almost entirely controlled by a handful of Vampyre Clans, in which one's party alliance is paramount to remaining well-fed and protected, Pitt nevertheless 'goes rogue'--one lone cowboy roughing it in the wilds of Alphabet City. He lives by doing free-lance assignments for the various clans, but eventually finds himself at odds with two of the larger groups, who are both bent on destroying him. Slowly. And Painfully. For a little over 260 pages.
Huston loves the lone wolf. The man's man who doesn't need to integrate himself into a group for protection and doesn't abide by anyone's rule. Come to think of it, he'd probably have a pretty good time writing neo-Libertarian political thrillers (you know, like Point of Impact ), but that wouldn't really give him the chance to run wild with his other great love: Witty Comebacks and Toughguy Oneliners. Banter of the "Fuck with me and I'll...stuff you in a cubbyhole and flush the card so no one can claim your ass..." variety.
Besides both having a penchant for rejoinders, both Hank Thompson and Joe Pitt are Dudes. Dudes who can take and dole out an unreasonable amount of pain. But where there is actually a limit to the damage that you can inflict on a human man, there is practically limitless potential for a Vampyre. As Pitt explains, "[the Vyrus:] clots [my blood:] in seconds and knits my flesh and if you want to kill me you will have to blow up my heart or head or cut me in half or otherwise annihilate my body in blow before it can heal." Huston seems to take this as a challenge. He starves his anti-hero into a mere shadow of himself, burns him, beats him, knifes him, shoots him, etc. etc. etc. before gifting him an uber-vampire strength that only the blood-deprived can attain.
But we already knew that Huston has a thing for abusing his protagonists. What kicks Already Dead into a higher sphere of sadism is its treatment of the book's women. Though tucked under the guise of vengeful empathy for the abused and downtrodden, Huston can't seem to help himself from peppering his novels with violated, abused women just waiting to be saved. In Caught Stealing Hank's girlfriend has her arms and legs strapped to the corners of a table before being beaten to death. In Six Bad Things , he adopts a drug- addled, abused stripper. Here, we have a whole cast: an HIV positive girlfriend; a teenage porn star who is raped while being infected with a Zombie-virus; a drunken mother whose husband seduced her when she was underage, only to toss her aside when she got too old; and her teenage daughter who runs away because, among other things, her father wants to have sex with her. And in our climactic scene? Pitt's great moment of victory? Check out the set-up: Father has his lackey not only inject mother with a zombie drug, but also one which causes limb paralysis. He then commands said lackey to rape the mother, while making sure that she watches as he strips his anesthetized daughter and rapes her at the same time.
But while this scenario sends Joe Pitt into crazed mind-karate antics, it seems to positively titillate Huston: "The goon...grabs a fistful of Marilee's hair and twists her face towards her husband. Horde is roped with lean muscle and pelted with graying hair. He squats next to Amanda, his penis sharply erect between his knees, and begins to undo the button and zipper of her jeans...He opens his daughter's fly slowly, then butterflies it and pauses, gazing at the triangle of white cotton beneath."
Well, firstly..ew.
But consider that this setup is then paired with positively carnal violence. As the brawl heats up, Pitt narrates. "There is a tingling along my jaw and in my hand. I feel the flesh knitting, the Vyrus in overdrive, closing my wounds as they are inflicted...the stiletto enters my back, is plunged into my liver twice before I can seize his arm, hunch forward and toss the enforcer to a far corner of the room. The pain is more persistent this time. The healing tickle not such a balm. The Vyrus is fighting a losing battle against the damage I'm absorbing. I must feed."
Hmmm. A character remarks of evil-father Horde at the end of the novel that "his taste for youth seemed to have more to do with inflicting pain than receiving pleasure." Based on Already Dead, this seems a relatively apt assessment of Huston's own predilections.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 30, 2023
Novela muy entretenida, más cercana a la novela negra que al terror. Eso si nos olvidamos de los vampiros y los zombies. Sería más un 3,5 ⭐. Me molesta más lo de que no tenga capítulos ni pausas largas, pero se lee con mucha rapidez y, en mi caso, interés. No es nada juvenil y aquí me parece que es un acierto. Bastante sórdida a ratos. Ideal par esta spooky season.
Y Runas se podría currar un poco más las cubiertas, porque esta del cartel publicitario me parece un poco feucha.
Y Runas se podría currar un poco más las cubiertas, porque esta del cartel publicitario me parece un poco feucha.
February 14, 2020
(Insert favorite private investigator/murder solver here) meets Dracula
I was so disappointed to find this is just another private investigator story. Whodunnits bore me. I blame Hollywood. Back in the 70s, 80s, 90s, if an actor's career was flagging, they'd stick him/her in a whodunnit/private investigator series. They were a dime a dozen. So much so, that the writers had to make each PI different somehow. One would have a big moustache and drive a Ferarri (Magnum, P.I.), the next would live in a caravan on a beach (Rockford Files) yada yada yada. Shiiiiit – even Jed Clampett made it into P.I. role (Barnaby Jones) which was a bit of a laugh. A few of them I didn't mind – Kolchak: The Night Stalker was good. So was Monk. However, after so many, I just got bored with them. I still am. Same with books about murder mysteries and private investigators.
So this is just another mystery book with our investigator being a vampire (or vampyre as the author chooses to misspell it). Even that's not original. I think the TV series “Angel” had a vampire investigator. Yawn!
Look, if you like murder/missing girl mysteries, give it another star. For me, Joe Butt, Joe Pitt...whatever his name is, is just another investigator in a sea of investigators.
Edit: Sorry for the unnecessary length of this review. I should have just said, "Not my cup of tea" and left it at that. But I paid good money for this so-called vampire story, only to find out it isn't.
I was so disappointed to find this is just another private investigator story. Whodunnits bore me. I blame Hollywood. Back in the 70s, 80s, 90s, if an actor's career was flagging, they'd stick him/her in a whodunnit/private investigator series. They were a dime a dozen. So much so, that the writers had to make each PI different somehow. One would have a big moustache and drive a Ferarri (Magnum, P.I.), the next would live in a caravan on a beach (Rockford Files) yada yada yada. Shiiiiit – even Jed Clampett made it into P.I. role (Barnaby Jones) which was a bit of a laugh. A few of them I didn't mind – Kolchak: The Night Stalker was good. So was Monk. However, after so many, I just got bored with them. I still am. Same with books about murder mysteries and private investigators.
So this is just another mystery book with our investigator being a vampire (or vampyre as the author chooses to misspell it). Even that's not original. I think the TV series “Angel” had a vampire investigator. Yawn!
Look, if you like murder/missing girl mysteries, give it another star. For me, Joe Butt, Joe Pitt...whatever his name is, is just another investigator in a sea of investigators.
Edit: Sorry for the unnecessary length of this review. I should have just said, "Not my cup of tea" and left it at that. But I paid good money for this so-called vampire story, only to find out it isn't.
November 10, 2021
Loved it even more the second time around! Hopping into the second one immediately. This dark, gritty vampire world is right up my alley. 😍
October 3, 2023
Entertaining Vampire PI schlock. Heavy on the slurs and societal underbelly stuff, but still a fun quick read.
May 18, 2011
Ok as a mystery, but some parts were confusing. I didn’t like Joe getting beat up all the time – too much of a victim.
STORY BRIEF:
Joe is a vampyre living in New York City. His vampyrism requires him to drink blood which he usually purchases but sometimes takes directly from humans without killing them. He also drinks and eats human food. The vampyres have divided Manhattan Island into several geographical areas. The vampyres north of 14th street belong to the gang called Coalition – ruled by Predo. Other vampire gangs are Society, Dusters, and Enclave. Terry rules the Society. Joe used to work for Terry but quit and is now a rogue, but his home is in the Society area.
A shambler (called the Feeder) is infecting people with a flesh-eating bacteria. The victims of this bacteria kill other humans by eating their brains. Joe wants to find the Feeder and kill it.
Predo calls Joe with a “request” that Joe help Marilee Horde. Her fourteen-year-old daughter Amanda is living on the streets and won’t go home. Joe agrees and gets beat up a lot as he travels into different gang territories.
REVIEWER’S OPINION:
I want to be entertained, but this was more of an “ugh” “ow” feeling than entertainment. I wasn’t captivated. I wasn’t drawn to the characters. Although I was intrigued with Lydia (a minor character later in the book) and could have been drawn to her if she had been developed more. Too many characters were mean and brutal to each other. This is not a genre for me.
The book is narrated in first person by Joe. He has good motivations, but he acts like an uncaring tough guy. It has the sound of the hard-boiled private detective noir fiction. As I listened to him speak I kept trying to define his style/attitude. The words I came up with are cynical, hard-swearing, annoyed, resigned, I don’t care, whatever, tough guy. The Washington Post describes Joe as “shades of Raymond Chandler, Hunter Thompson, and Quentin Tarantino.” The environment is urban grittiness.
My biggest confusion was about the gang names (Coalition, Society, etc.). That wasn’t clear to me until after I finished the book and saw the map on Amazon’s Look Inside the book. I didn’t know they were all vampyres and the names were gang names. I thought they might be different “types of paranormal creatures” which they were not. That’s the downside of listening to the audiobook and not seeing the map (as opposed to reading the book).
Someone steals Joe’s stash of blood so he is starving for blood and in pain. His pain is like torture, cramps, and drug withdrawal. For much too long, the story keeps getting interrupted by Joe’s terrible pain. For example A says something. Joe thinks about his pain. B does something. Joe thinks about his pain. The result was interrupting the story too much and for too long which annoyed me.
Joe gets beat up frequently as he travels in the different gang territories. He can’t fight back because he’s outnumbered wherever he goes. He’s resigned to it and just suffers through it. I guess that’s the nature of being an independent rogue. But it isn’t a fun storyline for me. Throughout the story he was reacting to things rather than making things happen. Wherever Joe went he was a helpless victim at the mercy of the gangs. I’d prefer seeing someone walk into a gang territory and win once in a while – whether he wins by smarts, weapons, or other buddies helping him, doesn’t matter. I just don’t like hanging with a guy who keeps getting beat up. Yes he survives it all and has success at the end, but it wasn’t a fun trek for me. Also part of his success was due to luck, not of his making, again the reactionary method.
Daniel is a member of the Enclave. I was confused about Daniel’s interactions with Joe. I wanted to know more about Daniel’s motivations and Joe’s nature relating to that. It’s possible that may be developed in the sequels.
DATA:
Unabridged audiobook length: 9 hrs and 5 mins. Narrator: Scott Brick. Swearing language: strong. Sexual language: moderate. Number of sex scenes: 2 brief scenes, 1 male-male, 1 male-female attempted rape. Setting: current day New York City. Copyright: 2005. Genre: paranormal mystery crime fiction (possible urban fantasy).
STORY BRIEF:
Joe is a vampyre living in New York City. His vampyrism requires him to drink blood which he usually purchases but sometimes takes directly from humans without killing them. He also drinks and eats human food. The vampyres have divided Manhattan Island into several geographical areas. The vampyres north of 14th street belong to the gang called Coalition – ruled by Predo. Other vampire gangs are Society, Dusters, and Enclave. Terry rules the Society. Joe used to work for Terry but quit and is now a rogue, but his home is in the Society area.
A shambler (called the Feeder) is infecting people with a flesh-eating bacteria. The victims of this bacteria kill other humans by eating their brains. Joe wants to find the Feeder and kill it.
Predo calls Joe with a “request” that Joe help Marilee Horde. Her fourteen-year-old daughter Amanda is living on the streets and won’t go home. Joe agrees and gets beat up a lot as he travels into different gang territories.
REVIEWER’S OPINION:
I want to be entertained, but this was more of an “ugh” “ow” feeling than entertainment. I wasn’t captivated. I wasn’t drawn to the characters. Although I was intrigued with Lydia (a minor character later in the book) and could have been drawn to her if she had been developed more. Too many characters were mean and brutal to each other. This is not a genre for me.
The book is narrated in first person by Joe. He has good motivations, but he acts like an uncaring tough guy. It has the sound of the hard-boiled private detective noir fiction. As I listened to him speak I kept trying to define his style/attitude. The words I came up with are cynical, hard-swearing, annoyed, resigned, I don’t care, whatever, tough guy. The Washington Post describes Joe as “shades of Raymond Chandler, Hunter Thompson, and Quentin Tarantino.” The environment is urban grittiness.
My biggest confusion was about the gang names (Coalition, Society, etc.). That wasn’t clear to me until after I finished the book and saw the map on Amazon’s Look Inside the book. I didn’t know they were all vampyres and the names were gang names. I thought they might be different “types of paranormal creatures” which they were not. That’s the downside of listening to the audiobook and not seeing the map (as opposed to reading the book).
Someone steals Joe’s stash of blood so he is starving for blood and in pain. His pain is like torture, cramps, and drug withdrawal. For much too long, the story keeps getting interrupted by Joe’s terrible pain. For example A says something. Joe thinks about his pain. B does something. Joe thinks about his pain. The result was interrupting the story too much and for too long which annoyed me.
Joe gets beat up frequently as he travels in the different gang territories. He can’t fight back because he’s outnumbered wherever he goes. He’s resigned to it and just suffers through it. I guess that’s the nature of being an independent rogue. But it isn’t a fun storyline for me. Throughout the story he was reacting to things rather than making things happen. Wherever Joe went he was a helpless victim at the mercy of the gangs. I’d prefer seeing someone walk into a gang territory and win once in a while – whether he wins by smarts, weapons, or other buddies helping him, doesn’t matter. I just don’t like hanging with a guy who keeps getting beat up. Yes he survives it all and has success at the end, but it wasn’t a fun trek for me. Also part of his success was due to luck, not of his making, again the reactionary method.
Daniel is a member of the Enclave. I was confused about Daniel’s interactions with Joe. I wanted to know more about Daniel’s motivations and Joe’s nature relating to that. It’s possible that may be developed in the sequels.
DATA:
Unabridged audiobook length: 9 hrs and 5 mins. Narrator: Scott Brick. Swearing language: strong. Sexual language: moderate. Number of sex scenes: 2 brief scenes, 1 male-male, 1 male-female attempted rape. Setting: current day New York City. Copyright: 2005. Genre: paranormal mystery crime fiction (possible urban fantasy).
November 20, 2018
....it has gore, vampires, zombies....fun shit. what's not to like. It's not your usual vamp book and I appreciate that. It's a fast read and yeah i know it took me like a month to finish it but that's because lately I've been hella busy and sick. I got it from a book bazaar for 3€ so if i ever find the rest of the series for the same price or cheaper i will continue it
What i didn't like is the fact that it doesn't have chapters and i have a thing where i read an x amount of chapters and when i get bored i bookmark it. Made my life difficult but that's because i'm a fucking weirdo. Not the book's fault
What i didn't like is the fact that it doesn't have chapters and i have a thing where i read an x amount of chapters and when i get bored i bookmark it. Made my life difficult but that's because i'm a fucking weirdo. Not the book's fault
April 12, 2019
Early on in this novel I thought it was going to be a total fail for me. I wasn't certain of Joe's voice to start with, and then the first female character was introduced. She was simply a bar patron, no one he even spoke to. But the way he ogled her, the way he referred to her only in terms of 'the number,' 'the number in the dress,' etc made me go, "Oh, it's gonna be one of those books." I resigned myself to a disappointing read.
And while I think the representation of women in the book remained problematic, with one large exception, I really did end up liking the book. The exception is that the plot is based around rape. Several years ago, I started noting in reviews when a book includes rape as a plot device. I started doing this because it's so problematically frequent in books. Since I started, I swear it feels like a full 2/3 of the books I review include it. Are there really so few other options out there to progress a plot? It's not that I take issue with rape in books in general, I take issue with it being all pervasive and everywhere. So, I note it when I see it. And here, in Already Dead it's not graphic, but it's especially heinous, what he's trying to stop.
Outside of that, I liked Joe. I liked his smart mouth, his gruff attitude, his buried but real soft side. I liked the gritty representation of New York and the inclusion of quite a lot of diversity. Granted, being a dozen years old, the language in the book is sometime a little cringe-worthy, but time ages all things. All in all, I plan of continuing the series.
And while I think the representation of women in the book remained problematic, with one large exception, I really did end up liking the book. The exception is that the plot is based around rape. Several years ago, I started noting in reviews when a book includes rape as a plot device. I started doing this because it's so problematically frequent in books. Since I started, I swear it feels like a full 2/3 of the books I review include it. Are there really so few other options out there to progress a plot? It's not that I take issue with rape in books in general, I take issue with it being all pervasive and everywhere. So, I note it when I see it. And here, in Already Dead it's not graphic, but it's especially heinous, what he's trying to stop.
Outside of that, I liked Joe. I liked his smart mouth, his gruff attitude, his buried but real soft side. I liked the gritty representation of New York and the inclusion of quite a lot of diversity. Granted, being a dozen years old, the language in the book is sometime a little cringe-worthy, but time ages all things. All in all, I plan of continuing the series.
May 23, 2010
If you like the movie Maltese Falcon with Humphrey Bogart I think you will like this book. It is a Sam Spade type of detective story where Joe is a great hero and is trying to deal with vampire politics and his own personal demons. I think Huston created an original story about vampires/zombies and these conditions come from biological viruses. This book is very macho with girls with a nice butt and tight shirt serving beer and a lot of tough guy kind of lines. For me this is a welcome break from so many wonderful female authors who just do not write this way. I will also give Huston credit for creating a complex and intriguing relationship between Joe and his girlfriend Evie.
The reason why I rated this book at 3 is because of the formatting. There are no chapters in this book...who does that?? Then Huston uses a - to let you know when someone is speaking, so at times I had to reread parts to figure out who said what and what was narration in addition there is absolutely no transition between scene changes which for me made this disorienting. In addition the incest subplot just did not work for me I just do not think it added any value to the overall story line and you know what it was gross.
The reason why I rated this book at 3 is because of the formatting. There are no chapters in this book...who does that?? Then Huston uses a - to let you know when someone is speaking, so at times I had to reread parts to figure out who said what and what was narration in addition there is absolutely no transition between scene changes which for me made this disorienting. In addition the incest subplot just did not work for me I just do not think it added any value to the overall story line and you know what it was gross.
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