No Dominion

Down on his luck and running low on his blood stash, vampire private detective Joe Pitt decides to do what he never does--solicit business. His former mentor in The Society is willing to offer him a job--tracking down the strange drug that turns vampires into out-of-control crazies. Although The Society is dedicated to the proposition that vampires eventually come out of the closet, they don't want to rush that moment, and they certainly don't want to come out of the closet with vampires mowing down dozens of normal humans. Pitt's investigation takes him across the vampire worlds of New York. From the south of Manhatten, where members of the Society struggle to power, to the northern end--the Hood, where African-American vampires suppress dissent and urge a bloody war against the Coalition that rules the central part of Manhattan. Almost from the start, Pitt's life is in danger. In the vampire world. a rogue is never trusted and frequently killed. While Pitt merely wants to retain his independence, the other vampires see him as a rogue to be killed. It doesn't help that he pissed off the Coalition's leader so badly they'll do just about anything to kill him. Pitt gradually unravels the plan, and learns that his friends in The Society have been infiltrated. Author Charlie Huston continues his fascinating Joe Pitt series with another hard-boiled vampire story. Pitt, with a convincing blend of cynicism and desire to do the right thing makes an interesting protagonist. Huston adds some nice twists at the end, leaving Pitt frustrated and falling short of his goals. Charlie Huston's prose is fast and engaging. NO DOMINATION is a hard book to put down. Nicely done.

I had never really delved into the noir/detective genre of fiction until i began reading Charlie Huston. Admittedly, I've yet to begin digging around for much other good stuff, but Huston has blown me up and away. This is the second book in the Joe Pitt series, so start from book one: Already Dead. He's an average guy, really. Just a down and out fellow in the middle of New York. And he's a vampire. In the city there are a few clans that run their own area, and if you're a vampire you're expected to be in one of them and never be caught outside of your territory. Joe, however, is a stubborn rogue. He refuses to bow down to the politics and BS and instead settles for doing odd, morally-questionable jobs for any one of the clans willing to get him some dough or blood. He's in an unusually good spot because the clans are able to use him to fulfill some of their dirty work that would normally put them at odds with one of the others. Now there's a new drug exclusively for vampires that's killing them by the dozens or making them insane with murderous rage. It also makes them very visible to the ignorant masses. So now it's up to Joe to cross over hostile turfs patrolled by sharp-toothed thugs and find out who's supplying the substance. Huston writes some of the grittiest stuff I've ever read. I can taste the New York smog and smell the odors wafting from alleys and manholes. It's also extremely brutal and bloody. One thing Huston does is avoid the cliche idyllic hero. Joe Pitt will kill you in inventive ways if you pose a threat to him. He will put a bullet in you if you make him angry enough and he won't feel too bad about it. There were even a few times where I thought "Ah, man, he didn't have to do that. . ." He's vindictive and temperamental. I think in some way it adds to the appeal of Joe, who you root for all the way. He's not perfect. So if you need a break from the stuffy, laced lingerie world of vampire fiction, you needn't stray too far. Huston's got something for you.

I've read the Henry Thompson series by Charlie Huston as well as Already Dead. They're all really solid novels. What makes them stand out is the narrative tone that the author takes with his leads. You really get a feel for what is going on inside of their head which puts you into the action. That being said, I wouldn't bother reading this novel without having read Already Dead. It's a vampire novel but a toned down, gritty New York almost crime noir novel. And its good. I'd say that this novel had a few rough spots but overall, you're not going to be able to put it down. It's the continuing saga of Joe Pitt. It's got a fairly well fleshed out Vampire world in New York which is fun. I'd imagine that the author is going to continue to flesh it out in future novels which I will definitely have to read.

Joe Pitt is the classic pulp fiction tough guy. Part private investigator, part leg breaker, all renegade. Joe Pitt is also a "vampyre". Welcome to Charlie Huston's contemporary New York, a city where by night the undead walk among us, holed up in darkened Manhattan apartments by day. But But Houston's Dracula is about as similar to Bram Stoker and Transylvanian and bats as blood is similar to Kool Aid. Huston's blood-lusting wraiths of Manhattan are victims of an AIDS-like "Vyrus", aligned in cults operating in uneven detente in a twisted JR Tolkien nightmare society. Pitt, while living in the Greenwich Village turf of the politically correct and activist "Society" clan, remains independent, a rogue agent allowed to exist on the fringes of vampire-dom thanks to his rep for ridding the neighborhood of undesirables. So following last year's "Already Dead", the tight-lipped Pitt returns, short of cash and more than a few "pints" low. It seems there is a new vampyre high loose on the streets of New York, wrecking some havoc within the clans. Pitt, desperate for work and in need of a new stash of hemo for the fridge, takes a contract from the Society clan's boss to track down the source of the strange and dangerous new drug. This leads Pitt to "the Count", a spoiled rich kid from Columbia playing vampire, complete with a trio of usually stoned vamp brides. Pitt's search for the stuff takes him north to Harlem and "the Hood" clan, home of the feared DJ Grave Digga and his Ecco Rhin-clad homeboys. With this backdrop, Huston spins a vicious - if somewhat convoluted tale - of inter-clan politics, setups, treachery and, true to the author's own rep, nonstop action. While "No Dominion" is not a sequel per se, it would be best to read "Already Dead" first, filling in some of the holes that Huston chooses not to repeat (at the risk of slowing down this episode). Like his offbeat subject matter and anti-hero, Charlie Huston's lean prose, uncluttered by ordinary convention like chapters and quotation marks, follows no rules and, at least in terms of style, has no equal. Hip, irreverent, brutal, sometimes even thought provoking, Huston is not for everyone. But "No Dominion" is further proof that Huston, while unorthodox, is in a class of his own, and a very short list of today's top crime writers.

The Vyrus causes those exchanging bodily fluids to become Vampyre and for the most part they are divided into two groups: the Coalition and the Society. The Coalition wants to remain underground while the society wants come out in the hopes that human scientists can find a cure for the Vyrus. Joe Pitt belongs to neither group and is considered a Rogue, one who needs blood and money for the rent and to help his HIV girlfriend get the drugs she needs to stay alive because he won't turn her. At a bar, Joe sees a new Vampyres flip out and he ends up taking him out. Terry the leader of the society says that is happening more and more to newbies. He hires Joe to find the person supplying the drug and during Joe's investigation he learns someone has found a way to keep the virus alive in the blood outside a host for a short period of time. The newbies shoot up and get a tremendous high. The answers lie in the Coalition land not controlled by the Hood but they will do Joe no good unless he can stop the mastermind from carrying out a diabolical plan that is nothing more than a power play in vampire politics. Charlie Huston take on the vampire mythos is fascinating, original and believable because in his universe it is a blood disease. Joe Pitt loves Evie and he takes a job that almost kills him not only for his own needs but because he wants to get the medicines she needs so she can live. He hates being a Vampyre and wants nothing more than for someone to find a cure but he believes the Vampyre groups have their own interests that come before the needs of the individual. Joe Pitt is Phillip Marlow with a blood addiction. Harriet Klausner