Book Review: The Joe Pitt novels: Already Dead, No Dominion, Half the Blood of Brooklyn

Charlie Huston, Orbit Books

If you’ve not read any of Charlie Huston’s Joe Pitt novels, you’re missing out on a treat. Pitt is a Vampyre; infected by a Vyrus that hones sufferers’ predatory instincts in order to attain blood, which the Vyrus needs to survive. Superhuman strength and healing powers are extra benefits of contracting the Vyrus. The down-side is that, if blood isn’t regularly ingested, the Vyrus begins to cannibalise the host body. And then there’s the fatal allergy to sunlight...

Despite this, most Vampyres are not slathering monsters: they’re just regular folk, who keep their less savoury habits under wraps in order to keep Vampyre existence a secret from the general public. That’s not to say they’re nice folk, of course. Pitt himself is a bona fide arsehole, who makes a ‘living’ working as hired muscle (and occasional hit man) for various Vampyre factions, a lifestyle that inevitably makes him dangerously unpopular with pretty-much everyone. In the most recent novel, Half the Blood of Brooklyn, Pitt finds himself coming into deadly conflict with the Mafia-like coalition, the hippie-esque (though no less dangerous) Society, a Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Vampyre group, psychotic Jewish Vampyres, Carney Freakshow Vampyres, Biker Vampyres, and even a religious faction who believe that starving themselves of blood will lead them to the next level of existence, plus a spoilt human teen socialite with access to a zombie-generating bacteria, and who is financing a ‘cure’ for the Vyrus for her own selfish reasons. Throw in Pitt’s terminally-ill HIV-positive girlfriend, who is blissfully ignorant of her boyfriend’s true nature, and you get some idea of how much Joe Pitt’s life tends to suck.

The writing and atmosphere in these books is pure Chandleresque Crime Noir, and the Vampyre element is more science-fictional than supernatural. The action is hard, fast, and prolonged – it takes a lot to put a Vampyre down, after all – with an accompanying level of gleefully realistic violence and gore. The characters are a joy, and the plot of each book twists and turns in delightfully unexpected ways.

With the interest in vampires in the media at an all-time high, this is a series crying out for a TV adaptation. In the meantime, do yourself a favour and pick up a copy of Already dead, the first in this series. It’s a brilliant read, and a worthy introduction to the world of Joe Pitt.