pub: Del Rey/Ballantine Books. 252 page enlarged paperback. Price: $14.00 (US), $16.50 (CAN). ISBN: 978-0-345-49588-4. pub: Orbit. 350 page enlarged paperback. Price: £ 7.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-84149-681-8.

check out website: www.delreybooks.com

Joe Pitt is not dead, it just that life has lost most of its attractions. He has one big appetite and not just for blood. Joe (not his real name) was infected by the Vyrus some books ago. He's been trying to do the right thing, mostly for himself and sometimes for his girl. It's just that curing her of aids by getting her infected by the Vyrus might turn out to be one of his worst decisions. He's good at those.

If you thought it was tough in the streets before, it just got tougher. No waiting, the action commences as the last drop of blood hit the ground in the previous book. It's grim, dirty and it's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel when someone has your eye on the end of her finger.



Everybody really does want a piece of Joe Pitt and he's still not the flavour of the month. Moving between the regions of hell, otherwise know as New York, he starts to find out things better left buried and some things even he has trouble swallowing.

I thought this book might start to uncover a conspiracy theory around the Vyrus but if it's going to do that, it's taking its time. Never mind, it's beautifully put together, dialogue intense and well paced. It's very graphically described.

The dialogue feels natural and unforced and it feeds the story. There are no speech marks and this intensifies the pace and the reader's concentration. Without the markings, it brings a sense of immediacy often lacking. You feel you might be part of the group conversing though you really don't want to be.

A drop of the hard stuff.

Sue Davies