Half the Blood of Brooklyn

Starred review from October 29, 2007
Huston’s third Joe Pitt vampire novel (after Already Dead
and No Dominion
) takes his Manhattan-based hard-boiled hero on a dangerous trip into the undead communities across the bridge in Brooklyn. The various vampire clans in New York are on the brink of conflict. Leadership has fallen apart, and to make things worse, a “Van Helsing” is running amok and has recently murdered a longtime supplier of contraband blood. Worst of all, Pitt’s AIDS-stricken girlfriend, Evie, is in the hospital failing fast. Once again, he’s faced with an almost classical dilemma: infecting her with the vampire virus will destroy the illness that’s killing her, but she’ll be a vampire. Sent to Brooklyn to meet with a rogue clan of carnival freak vampires, Pitt ends up battling a group of radical Jewish bloodsuckers called the lost tribe of Gibeah. As always, Huston’s formidable writing chops are on full display: his action scenes are unparalleled in crime fiction and his dialogue is so hip and dead-on that Elmore Leonard should be getting nervous.

December 15, 2007
Vampyre PI Joe Pitt serves as the enforcer for the Manhattan vampyre Clan Society. Its leader, Terry, offers a zenlike philosophy in trying to woo other groups of the Vyrus-infected to unite with his own. When the Docks Clan rejects Terry, it becomes Joe's task to rid the earth of such scum, which he carries out with gory delight. If he has one soft spot, it is for Evie, a young woman dying of AIDS. A gift of his blood might cure her, but it could just as easily kill her. While weighing this heavy decision, Joe must deal with a freakish clan in Brooklyn that has close connections to a violent, prayerful group who consider the passing of the blood to its descendants a religious obligation. Well written and fast-paced, this third installment in Houston's Joe Pitt Casebooks noir series (after "Already Dead"; "No Dominion") features all the hard-boiled action of the previous titles. While definitely not for the squeamish, it is recommended for public libraries where urban fantasies are popular.Patricia Altner, BiblioInfo.com, Columbia, MD

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2007
The third Joe Pitt casebook clocks in some 30 pages lighter than the second one, but it still drags in spots where earlier entries in this New York City vampyre series kept flying as fast and nasty as bats out of hell. Even when the story gets talky and the plot starts running dry, though, its still more entertaining and creative than most contemporary PI tales. Pitt is now heading up security for Manhattans Society clan, which hopes to bring all the worlds bloodsuckers and suckees together as one. With a clan war brewing, he is first sent looking for allies in Brooklyn. There, Pitt finds a band of undead Coney Island freaks under assault from a family of Orthodox Jewish vampyres who put the bite only on kosher victims. Huston kicks the gore meter up to 11picture a midget Dracula biting through his own intestines with a set of metal denturesbut this still has the tooth marks of a transitional chapter leading up to a wild free-for-all that should finally sate readers bloodlust.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)