Skarlet

August 6, 2012
Emson (the Vampire Babylon trilogy) feeds fresh blood to the vampire genre in this visceral hybrid of plague, panic, and the paranormal, which launches a series worth watching. Unlikely allies and ferocious monsters populate a world gone mad with blood thirst as ancient conspiracies are realized through contemporary greed and corruption. Nightclub bouncer and disgraced ex-soldier Jake Lawton becomes a chief suspect when a lethal designer drug kills a group of clubbers, including Jake’s estranged girlfriend, Jenna. He teams up with Christine Murray, a vindictive journalist, to unearth an ancient conspiracy as the dead rise to feed on the living. Furious pacing doesn’t preclude harsh poetic imagery as human greed blurs lines between friend and foe, victim and victimizer. Lawton’s personal crises enrich the splattery carnage, and the plot is lent pathos by a misguided human population as dismal as the undead. The vampires of this energetic and philosophical fable are the rotting, deadly creatures of folklore, and a refreshing change for readers who weary of the sexy undead.

October 15, 2012
First of a projected trilogy set in London, this very exciting novel involves a disillusioned Iraq War veteran, an illegal drug with horrific side effects, and an ancient society hidden away for centuries but now planning a major resurgence. Jake Lawton, a former military man, is working as a bouncer at a nightclub when several people die after taking a new recreational drug. Later, the dead begin to rise and feed off the living, and Jake realizes that the cityand, by extension, the worldcould be wiped out by a plague of vampires. Fast paced, with sharply defined characters and a very clever historical explanation for the modern-day vampires (it involves ancient Babylon and Alexander the Great), the book should find a large audience. It's worth pointing out that this is no vampire romance; it's an out-and-out horror story, dark and brutal and thrilling.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)