Stalking the Vampire: A John Justin Mallory Mystery

For getting this out on Kindle so soon after I hit the "I'd like to read this on my Kindle" button. I read the first book, Stalking the Unicorn years and years ago when it first came out, and while I was making a list of my favorite fantasy detective stories, I found this one. John Justin Mallory is a Manhattan detective who found himself in an alternate fairyland type Manhattan with monsters, demons and other mythological beings and creatures. He has a partner who was a very well known hunter of monsters and a cat-girl office cat who's attitude is very catlike. It's as much rollicking good fun as the first book with just as unlikely a cast of characters. The story is solid and enjoyable, and John Justin Mallory is a detective you feel sorry for and root for during the book because of all the troubles he's seen. The dialogue is quick and funny, at times laugh out funny. Looking forward to the 3rd book in this series!

This book is a great sequel to Stalking the Unicorn. I hope this becomes a series.

John Justin Mallory, a tough, wise-cracking Big City PI who prefers brains and assistance to guns and brass knuckles, and uses a fast $5.00 bribe rather than a fast smack to the face. Good thing, since some of these hoods aren't overly affected by bullets or fist fights, but everyone could use a saw buck. He works the streets of a Manhattan that is recognizable but takes some strange loops and curves from time to time. Familiar places have names that aren't quite what he remembers, and streets sometimes appear only when you're actually looking for them. These streets are infested with trolls selling things. If only the things they were selling were even remotely things you'd want to buy. Businesses are surpassingly weird...but quite useful at times. Resnick has a writing output like Niagara Falls, but of them all, I like John Justin and his friends and enemies the most. With lots of good plotting, some inside jokes, and people you'd recognize, it makes for a enjoyable, memorable read. This is one you'll want to read again.

Freelance detective John Justin Mallory returns in Stalking the Vampire: A Fable of Tonight, the long-awaited sequel to veteran fantasy and sci-fi author Mike Resnick's Stalking the Unicorn. Mallory has now had ample time to become familiar with his new home of an alternate-universe Manhattan, where goblins are always trying to hawk useless wares, the street directions change if you look at them the wrong way, undead horrors are people too, and a demon responsible for most of the suffering in the world considers Mallory the next best thing to a personal friend (the view is not exactly mutual). Now, a vampire - a vicious, murdering vampire, not one of the more laid-back, five-to-nine working stiffs - has targeted Mallory's partner's nephew, and Mallory has to find and stop the fiend before All Hallows' Eve comes to a close! Aided by the morally ambiguous catgirl Felina, the short and selfish vampire Bats McGuire, and wannabe best-selling mystery writer dragon Nathan ("Scaly Jim" to no one but himself), Mallory must pit his brain against undead brawn that's at least seventeen times stronger than human brawn! Written in a flippantly humorous style perfect for bringing to life a city filled with thousands of fantastic distractions, Stalking the Vampire: A Fable of Tonight is enthusiastically recommended to fans of fantasy, humor, and mystery.

The Manhattan that private investigator John Justin Mallory lives in is quite different than the one he used to reside in; the one on our earth. Some of the differences are insignificant like Madison Round Garden, people visit the Museum of Unnatural History, and the American Civil Liberties Union is the American Civil Freedom Organization. However, other variances are yellow elephant taxies and humans mingling with such beings as vampires, goblins, and shapeshifters, on my; having the same rights as humans have. Mallory is in his office when he realizes his partner Winifred Carruthers has punctures on her neck and her nephew Rupert says he thinks he was bitten by the vampire Aristotle Draconis. After Rupert dies, Mallory tracks down Draconis with the help of the cat-girl Felina, the dragon Scaly Jim Chandler who is a mystery writer and the timid vampire Bats McGuire. They learn that Draconis was trying to save Rupert from Vlad Drachma Vlad leads the troupe on a merry chase as they seek his coffin, but no one seems to know where it is yet their goal is to destroy a millennium old serial killing vampire. This tale is a tongue in cheek dark humor novel that will have the audience believe Mike Resnick cast a spell to alter Manhattan where magic is a science and creatures from mythology use public transportation. Readers will enjoy this alternate reality urban fantasy that is elephantine different from Mr. Resnick's novels as he satirizes the sub-genre. Full blooded (at least for now) Mallory is terrific as he adapts to a new world order while retaining his old world values like loyalty. Harriet Klausner