Already Dead (Joe Pitt Series #1) [NOOK Book]

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Overview

Those stories you hear? The ones about things that only come out at night? Things that feed on blood, feed on us? Got news for you: they’re true. Only it’s not like the movies or old man Stoker’s storybook. It’s worse. Especially if you happen to be one of them. Just ask Joe Pitt.

There’s a shambler on the loose. Some fool who got himself infected with a flesh-eating bacteria is lurching around, trying to munch on folks’ brains. Joe hates shamblers, but he’s still the one who has to deal with them. That’s just the kind of life he has. Except afterlife might be better word.

From the ...
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More About This Book

Overview

Those stories you hear? The ones about things that only come out at night? Things that feed on blood, feed on us? Got news for you: they’re true. Only it’s not like the movies or old man Stoker’s storybook. It’s worse. Especially if you happen to be one of them. Just ask Joe Pitt.

There’s a shambler on the loose. Some fool who got himself infected with a flesh-eating bacteria is lurching around, trying to munch on folks’ brains. Joe hates shamblers, but he’s still the one who has to deal with them. That’s just the kind of life he has. Except afterlife might be better word.

From the Battery to the Bronx, and from river to river, Manhattan is crawling with Vampyres. Joe is one of them, and he’s not happy about it. Yeah, he gets to be stronger and faster than you, and he’s tough as nails and hard to kill. But spending his nights trying to score a pint of blood to feed the Vyrus that’s eating at him isn’t his idea of a good time. And Joe doesn’t make it any easier on himself. Going his own way, refusing to ally with the Clans that run the undead underside of Manhattan–it ain’t easy. It’s worse once he gets mixed up with the Coalition–the city’s most powerful Clan–and finds himself searching for a poor little rich girl who’s gone missing in Alphabet City.

Now the Coalition and the girl’s high-society parents are breathing down his neck, anarchist Vampyres are pushing him around, and a crazy Vampyre cult is stalking him. No time to complain, though. Got to find that girl and kill that shambler before the whip comes down . . . and before the sun comes up.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble Review
The vampire mythos gets a healthy dose of attitude à la Raymond Chandler in Charlie Huston's singularly cool Already Dead, a savage and sardonic novel that blends blood-sucking fantasy and horror elements with the hard-boiled style of noir thrillers.

Joe Pitt is a vampyre living in post-9/11 New York City. On an island ruled by all-powerful and very politically diverse vampyre clans -- the Coalition, the Society, the Enclave, et al. -- Pitt is a loner, surviving by doing various odd jobs for clan bosses. When he becomes indebted to the Coalition and is strong-armed into finding the runaway daughter of a biotech magnate, the undead amateur detective begins a treacherous mission that will lead him through the dark underbelly of Manhattan and pit him against brain-eating zombies, drug-addicted squatters, warring vampyre factions, and his most base desire: the need to feed.

Huston, who has already wowed mystery and mainstream fiction readers with his breakout novels, Caught Stealing and Six Bad Things (down-and-dirty suspense thrillers featuring ill-fated bartender-turned-outlaw Henry "Hank" Thompson), is primed to blow the socks off of yet another genre audience with Already Dead, a novel that introduces a rousing new twist on one of literature's oldest and most popular myths. Simply put, this is an absolute must-read for dark fantasy, horror, and mystery aficionados, as well as mainstream fiction fans looking for something a little off the beaten path. All categorization aside, Huston's genre-transcending, pedal-to-the-metal novel is a thrill ride of the highest order -- gloriously nasty! Paul Goat Allen
Patrick Anderson
Huston deserves hardcover publication and will get it soon enough, but it's probably true that this book's core audience is among the young, the cool, the hip and the unshockable. Of course, it's also suitable for those of any age who have the wit to appreciate clever, hard-edged writing. As I said when reviewing Six Bad Things, there are echoes of Raymond Chandler in Huston's work and of Hunter S. Thompson, too. Among the new voices in 21st-century crime fiction, Charlie Huston, as much as anyone I can think of, is where it's at.
— The Washinton Post
More Reviews (3) Fewer Reviews
Publishers Weekly
After two hard-boiled hits, Caught Stealing and Six Bad Things, Huston does an irresistible and fiendishly original take on the vampire myth. Manhattan is teeming with the undead, the island divided into often-warring vampire clans such as the Society, the Hood and the Enclave. The most powerful is the Coalition, whose goal is to protect its members from public scrutiny and persecution. Rogue PI Joe Pitt (aka Simon), who like all vampires is infected with a virus that requires him to drink blood regularly, is hired by Marilee Horde, a prominent New York socialite, to locate her runaway teenage daughter, Amanda, who may be slumming with homeless goth kids in the East Village. Meanwhile, a "carrier" is on the loose, infecting its victims with a bacterium that turns them into brain-eating zombies. The Coalition wants Pitt to find and destroy the carrier, since the carnage the zombies are causing brings unwanted attention to the undead community. Huston has fun playing with the conventions of the genre, creating his own hip update that will appeal to fans of Quentin Tarantino and Buffy the Vampire Slayer alike. (Dec.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
Joe Pitt is a Vampyre on a mission. He inhabits the seamier side of Manhattan, but he knows how to survive. This tough-talking rogue knows all the city's players but refuses to join the various clans of undead. From time to time, however, he does a job for the main group, the Coalition. His latest task is to locate Amanda, the daughter of a wealthy and rather sordid individual named Dr. Dale Edward Horde. To find her, Joe must survive assaults by zombies (hungry humans afflicted by a body-rotting bacterium) and the nasty machinations of his own ilk. Huston's intricate, fast-paced, Chandleresque vampire-crime story has plenty of action, violence, and raw language. An excellent story but not for the squeamish in public libraries. [The novel will include a map of Huston's Vampyre New York City underworld.-Ed.]-Patricia Altner, Information Seekers, Columbia, MD Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
The Vampyres are coming, the Vampyres are coming. Vampyres, not vampires, though the difference isn't always apparent. At any rate, they're more than just coming, they're here, sucking it up throughout Manhattan, four to five thousand of them, a bloodthirsty bunch. Joe Pitt is one of them, but atypical. Oh, he's undead all right, and he does need to transfuse on a regular basis, but all who know him recognize his special qualities. Both Vampyre powerhouses-the mighty Coalition and the smaller, more radical Society-would love to have him suit up in their colors, but Joe's no follower. He's simply a man who "gets things done," he says. So sometimes he's a detective; other times, a murderer. This particular time, he's the one who'd better find Amanda Horde, or risk the ire of Dexter Predo, the Coalition's mean-spirited Machiavelli. Amanda's the 14-year-old daughter of rich, influential Edward Horde, who, while not undead himself, counts A-list Vampyres among those eager to do him favors. And since he's important to the Coalition, he's important to Joe-the ruthless Predo knows exactly where Joe hides his yummy 10-pint blood stash. Finding Amanda, however, will test Joe's mettle. It's an arduous search, during which he'll earn a fresh batch of enemies and a practically non-stop array of prolonged and sadistic beatings. Huston (Caught Stealing, 2004, etc.) does his best here, but how can you really like a bloodsucker?

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780307414519
  • Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
  • Publication date: 12/18/2007
  • Sold by: Random House
  • Format: eBook
  • Pages: 288
  • Sales rank: 105,194
  • Series: Joe Pitt Series , #1
  • File size: 756 KB

Read an Excerpt

I smell them before I see them. All the powders, perfumes and oils the half-smart ones smear on themselves. The stupid ones just stumble around reeking. The really smart ones take a Goddamn shower. The water doesn’t help them in the long run, but the truth is, nothing is gonna help them in the long run. In the long run they’re gonna die. Hell, in the long run they’re already dead.

So this pack is half-smart. They’ve splashed themselves with Chanel No. 5, Old Spice, whatever. Most folks just think they have a heavy hand at the personal scent counter. I close my eyes and inhale deeper, because it could just be a group of bridge and tunnelers in from Jersey or Long Island. But it’s not. I take that second breath and sure enough, there it is underneath: the sweet, subtle tang of something not quite dead. Something freshly rotting. I’m betting they’re the ones I’m looking for. And why wouldn’t they be? It’s not like these things are thick on the ground. Not yet. I walk a little farther down Avenue A and stop at the sidewalk window of Nino’s, the pizza joint on the corner of St. Marks.

I rap on the counter with the ring on my middle finger and one of the Neapolitans comes over.

—Yeah?

—What’s fresh?

He looks blank.

—The pizza, what’s just out of the oven?

—Tomato and garlic.

—No way, no fucking garlic. How ’bout the broccoli, it been out all day?

He shrugs.

—Fine, give me the broccoli. Not too hot, I don’t want to burn the roof of my mouth.

He cuts a slice and slides it into the oven to warm up. I could eat the tomato and garlic if I wanted to. It’s not like the garlic would hurt me or anything. I just don’t like the shit.

While I wait I lean on the counter and watch the customers inside the joint. The usual crowd for a Friday night: couple drunk NYU kids, couple drunk greasers, a drunk squatter, two drunk yuppies on an East Village adventure, a couple drunk hip-hoppers, and the ones I’m looking for. There are three of them standing around the far corner table: an old-school goth chick, and two rail-thin guys, with impossibly high cheekbones, that have fashion junkie written all over them. The kind of guys who live in a squat but make the fashion-week scene by virtue of the skag they bring to the parties. Just my favorite brand of shitdogs all in all.

—Broccoli.

The Neapolitan is back with my slice. I hand him three bucks. The goth and the fashion junkies watch the two NYU kids stumble out the door. They push their slices around for another minute, then follow. I sprinkle red pepper flakes on my slice and take a big bite, and sure enough it’s too hot and I burn the roof of my mouth. The pizza jockey comes back and tosses my fifty cents change on the counter. I swallow, the molten cheese scorching my throat.

—I told you not too hot.

He shrugs. All the guy has to do all day is throw slices in the oven and take them out when they’re ready. Ask for one not too hot and you might as well be requesting coq au vin. I grab my change, toss the slice back on the counter and take off after the junkies and the goth chick. Fucking thing had garlic in the sauce anyway.

The NYU kids have crossed the street to cut through Tompkins Square before the cops shut it down at midnight. The trio lags behind about eight yards back, walking past the old water fountain with Faith, Hope, Temperance, Charity carved in the stone above it. The kids reach the opposite side of the park and keep heading east on Ninth Street, deeper into Alphabet City. Great.

This block of 9th between Avenues B and C is barren, as in empty of everyone except the NYU kids, their trailers and me.

The junkies and the goth pick up the pace. I stroll. They’re not going anywhere without my seeing it. What they want to do takes a bit of privacy. Better for me if they get settled someplace where they feel safe, before I move in.

They’re right on the kids now. They move into a dark patch under a busted streetlamp and spread out, one on either side of the kids and one behind. There’s a scuffle, movement and noise, and they all disappear. Fuck.

I jog up the street and take a look. On my left is an abandoned building. It used to be a Puerto Rican community center and performance space, before that it was a P.S. Now it’s just condemned.

I follow the scent up the steps and across the small courtyard to the graffiti-covered doors. They’ve been chained shut for a few years, but tonight the chain is hanging loose below the hacksawed hasp of a giant Master lock. Looks like they prepped this place in advance of their ambush. Looks like they may be a little more than half-smart.

I ease the door open and take a look. Hallway goes straight for about twelve yards then hits a T intersection. Dark. That’s OK. I don’t mind the dark. The dark is just fine. I slip in, close the door behind me and take a whiff. They’re here, smells like they’ve been hanging out for a couple days. I hear the first scream and know where to go. Up to the intersection, down the hall to the right, and straight to the open classroom door.

One of the NYU kids is facedown on the floor with the goth chick kneeling on his back. She’s already shoved her knife through the back of his neck, killing him. Now she’s trying to jam the blade into his skull so she can split it open. The junkie guys stand by, waiting for the piñata to bust.

The other kid has jammed himself in a corner in the obligatory pool of his own fear-piss. His eyes are rolling around and he’s making the high-pitched noise that people make when they’re so scared they might die from it. I hate that noise.

I hear something crunchy.

The chick has the knife in. She gives it a wrenching twist and the dead kid’s skull cracks open. She claws her fingers into the crack, gets a good grip and pulls, tearing the kid’s head open like a piece of rotted fruit. A pomegranate. The junkies edge closer as she starts scooping out clumps of brain. Too late for that kid, so I wait a couple seconds more, watching them as they start to eat, and listening to the other kid’s moaning go up another octave. Then I do my job.

It takes me three silent steps to reach the first one. My right arm loops over his right shoulder. I grab his face with my right hand while my left hand grips the back of his head. I jerk sharply clockwise, pulling up at the same time. I feel his spinal cord tear and drop him, grabbing the second one’s hair before the first one hits the ground. The chick is getting up off the kid’s corpse, coming at me with the knife. I punch the second junkie in the throat and let him drop. It won’t kill him, but he’ll stay down for a second. The chick whips the knife in a high arc and the tip rakes my forehead. Blood oozes from the cut and into my eyes.

Whatever she was before she got bit, she knew a little about using a knife, and still remembers some of it. She’s hanging back, waiting for her pal to get up so they can take me together. I measure the blank glaze in her eyes. Yeah, there’s still a little of her at home. Enough to order pizza and pick out these kids as marks, enough to cut through a lock, but not enough to be dangerous. As long as I’m not stupid. I step in and she thrusts at me with the knife. I grab the blade.

She looks from me to the knife. I’m holding it tightly, blood spilling out between my clenched fingers. The dim light in her eyes gets minutely brighter as something gives her the word: she’s fucked. I twist the knife out of her hand, toss it in the air and catch it by the handle. She turns to run. I grab the back of her leather jacket, step close and jam the knife into her neck at the base of her skull, chopping her medulla in half. I leave the knife there and let her drop to the floor. The second junkie is just getting back up. I kick him down, put my boot on his throat and stomp, twisting my foot back and forth until I hear his neck snap.

I kneel and wipe my hand on his shirt. My blood has already coagulated and the cuts in my hand have stopped bleeding, likewise the cut in my forehead. I check the bodies. One of the guys is missing a couple teeth and has some lacerations on his gums. Looks like he’s been chewing someone’s skull. Probably it belonged to the clown I took care of a couple days ago, the one with the hole in his head who tipped me off to this whole thing. Anyway, his teeth aren’t what I’m interested in.

Both guys have small bites on the backs of their necks. The bite radius and size of the tooth marks make me take a look at the girl’s mouth. Looks like a match. Figure she bit these two and infected them with the bacteria. Happens that way sometimes. Generally a person gets infected, the bacteria starts chewing on their brain and pretty soon they’re reduced to the simple impulse to feed. But sometimes, before they reach that point, they infect a few others. They take a bite, but don’t eat the whole meal if you get me. No one really knows why. Some sob sisters would tell you it’s because they’re lonely. But that’s bullshit. It’s the bacteria compelling them, spreading itself. It’s fucking Darwin doing his thing.

I check the girl’s neck. She infected the others, but something infected her first. The bite’s been marred by the knife I stuck in her, but it’s there. It’s bigger than the others, more violent. In fact, there are little nips all over her neck. Fucking carrier that got her couldn’t decide if it wanted to just infect her or eat her. Whatever, all the same to me. Except it means the job isn’t done yet. Means there’s a carrier still out there. I start to stand up. But something else; a smell on her. I kneel next to her and take a whiff. Something moves behind me.

The other NYU kid. Right, forgot about him. He’s trying to dig his way through the wall. I walk over to him. I’m just about to pop him in the jaw when he does the job for me and passes out. I look him over. No bites. Now normally I wouldn’t do this, but I lost a little blood and I never got to eat my pizza, so I’m pretty hungry. I take out my works and hook the kid up. I’ll only take a pint. Maybe two.

The phone wakes me in the morning. Why the hell someone is calling me in the morning I don’t know, so I let the machine get it.

—This is Joe Pitt. Leave a message.

—Joe, it’s Philip.

I don’t pick up the phone, not for Philip Sax. I close my eyes and try to find my way back to sleep.

—Joe, I think maybe I got something if ya can pick up the phone.

I roll over in bed and pull the covers up to my chin. I try to remember what I was dreaming about so I can get myself back there.

—I don’t wanna bug ya, Joe, but I figure ya gotta be in. It’s ten in the morning, where ya gonna be?

Sleep crawls off into a corner where I can’t find it and I pick up the damn phone.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Table of Contents

Interviews & Essays

Explorations Interview with Charlie Huston

Paul Goat Allen: Charlie, I have to tell you right off the bat -- in the almost ten years I've been reviewing books for B&N, I don't think I've ever heard as much raving pre-press buzz for one novel. After the wildly successful Caught Stealing and Six Bad Things, what was your motivation for releasing a vampire noir novel at this time?

Charlie Huston: Well, I wish I could say that there was some strategy here, but the truth is that it just kind of worked out like this. After I had finished both Caught Stealing and Six Bad Things -- but months before either had published -- I was looking to sell another book. (That's what happens after your advance money is gone!) There were certain limits on what kind of book I might be able to pitch to publishers at that time without raising the ire of my friends at Random House/Ballantine. Horror was one of them.

As fate would have it, Already Dead was a project I had at the back of a drawer. I fleshed it out, and my agent took it to my editor at Ballantine for a first-look courtesy and, quite unexpectedly, he liked it. The fact that it's being released after I have two straight thrillers already out there is utterly random. So I guess you could say that my motivation for releasing a vampire novel at this time is that I was trying not to starve too much about two years ago.

PGA: One of the beauties of this novel is its cross-genre appeal -- mystery, horror, and dark fantasy fans are all going to be attracted to a story like this. Was that a conscious decision on your part to write a genre-transcendent novel?

CH: Not at first. Initially I had the idea for a vampire story with a kind of tough-guy vamp at its center. Out the gate I was trying hard to avoid many of the standard noir P.I. clichés. At some point I flipped and went for the opposite. I started rereading Chandler and Hammett, actively trying to get that stoic, wisecracking kind of voice in my head. Eventually it started to flow pretty naturally. Embracing some of those hardcore noir conventions has been much of the fun in writing the books so far.

PGA: Speaking of Raymond Chandler, I've read that he called his iconic protagonist, Philip Marlowe, his alter ego. How similar to -- or different from -- Charlie Huston is Joe Pitt?

CH: [We're] not similar at all. Joe is a tough, capable, and pretty damn smart loner who wants nothing from no one. I'm a pushover. I can barely cross a street without being run over; I'm dumb as a stump, can't sleep when my wife is away, and live for my family and friends. But the drinking blood thing and all that kind of stuff, yeah, that's pretty much all me.

PGA: After creating such a memorable realm -- the vampyre underworld of New York City -- and such cool characters, there have to be several more projected Joe Pitt novels in the future, right? (I'm crossing my fingers as I ask this…)

CH: I can assure you at least one more. I've already written a sequel called No Dominion that will come out next year [2006]. If I have my way I'll write a total of five or six. I pitched the Joe Pitt Casebooks as a terminal series. Which isn't to say I plan on killing Joe off at the end. Just that I have a single major story arc that's running through all the books and that will conclude at the end of the series. Each book will also have a self-contained plot that can stand on its own. Like I say, that's the plan. The reality will have to wait.

PGA: When I first read Caught Stealing and Six Bad Things -- and now Already Dead -- I immediately connected with that adrenaline-fueled, ultra-violent, and ultra-graphic pulp fiction narrative style. Did pulp fiction have a dramatic effect on you during your formative years?

CH: Yes, but most of the pulp I was reading as a kid and a teen came in the form of fantasy, science fiction, and comic books. I read a lot of Sherlock Holmes around then, but that was about it for me and mysteries. At some point in my early 20s I read The Maltese Falcon for the first time. I went on a Hammett binge and from there to a Chandler bender. I know it's somewhat more than obvious, but those guys are still the masters. Nothing I've read in the genre since has hit me as hard as they did. And I don't think it's just "first kiss syndrome." You can pick up The Dain Curse or The Long Goodbye today, and they stand just as tall as they ever did.

PGA: Was being a writer always a dream of yours? If not, what were some of your career aspirations?

CH: Truth is, being any kind of writer was never a dream of mine. I have always written, and I was veeeeeery briefly a creative writing major; but the idea of publishing or making a living at it was never something I thought about too much. I remember looking at the submission guidelines for some SF magazines in the '80s, but that's about as close as I came. I spent most of my college years planning to be a teacher before graduating and pursuing an acting career while supporting myself as a bartender -- which tells you right there how the acting career turned out.

If you want a clear picture of how I came into the publishing business, you have to imagine a hapless drunk orphan stumbling into a bad neighborhood he's never been in before and being pulled out of the way of a speeding delivery van by a stranger who turns out to be a rich and generous long-lost uncle who takes him home and makes him his heir. Wait a minute, there might be a story in that…hmm…what if the orphan was hit and killed by the van and the uncle was a mad scientist who put him back together and resurrected him? Dickens meets Shelley! Genius! Someone get my agent on the phone!

PGA: Who are some of your favorite authors now?

CH: Right now I'm reading White Noise by Don DeLillo, who is a longtime favorite of mine. I'm also a fan of Ian McEwan and loved Saturday. Cormac McCarthy makes my eyes bleed and was actually very much on my mind when I was writing Caught Stealing. Not that you'd know that by reading any of my books. Those guys jump right to mind because I've read them all recently. Also on the list, but in no particular order: Jack Womack, Patricia Highsmith, Jonathan Lethem, Chuck Palahniuk, Alan Furst, Elmore Leonard, Richard Price, Charles Bukowski, Graham Greene, William Gibson, James Elroy (but just the L.A. Quartet books and some of his nonfiction), and, or course, Hammett, Chandler, and Hemingway. Hemingway is new for me. I somehow made it through nearly 40 years of life without reading any of his books. What's cool about that is seeing in retrospect the huge impact he had on American prose in general and hard-boiled prose specifically. That clipped, "just the bare facts" style of his became the signature voice of noir fiction. Cool.

PGA: I have to ask: when will fans of Henry "Hank" Thompson be able to get their hands on the sequel to Caught Stealing and Six Bad Things?

CH: The final book in the trilogy is written. It's called A Dangerous Man. My understanding is that it will be released in the fall of next year. In the meantime, I've got a fun side gig with Marvel Comics, writing a series based on their '70s classic "Moon Knight" that will premiere in April 2006. And I update my web journal (www.pulpnoir.com) every week, which includes some behind-the-scenes peeks at unpublished Joe Pitt material.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 3.5
( 255 )

Rating Distribution

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See All Sort by: Showing 1 – 20 of 256 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted May 25, 2006

    OK

    Although the characters and plot isn't particularly orginal or unique, it is however a very fast and easy read, a real page turner, a book for those don't nedd to get too involved with the characters.

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted February 11, 2010

    A Different Kind Of Vampire Story

    I'm not into all the vampire stories that seem to be so popular right now, but this one looked different, kind of off-beat. Well,off-beat it was, but in a good way. At first, it was a bit hard to follow, as Mr. Huston doesn't use quotation marks to denote dialogue. He also explains things after the fact. For example, the main character, Joe, takes a phone call from Evie, but it's not explained who Evie is (Joe's girlfriend) until later. This happened several times in the book. At first, it was pretty annoying; not knowing for sure what a reference meant, or who someone was, but then, after I got used to this being the way the book was written, I got into it. I was pleasantly surprised by the story and the fact that I liked it enough to want to check out the other Joe Pitt stories in the series.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted January 19, 2009

    more from this reviewer

    Half-baked

    This story just didn¿t grab me. The concept of this story was good but the delivery fell short. I only finished this book because I had nothing better to read. I can accept predictability in a story but this book seemed adolescent at times. The plot seemed empty and trivial. I didn¿t find the main character impressive in the least and I definitely will not be reading the rest of the series. Thank goodness I got this book from the library.

    1 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted February 15, 2008

    Gritty, entertaining, humorous

    In this modern day tale of vampyre clans in manhattan, Joe Pitt is a sort of freelance vampyre renegade who does various jobs for the multitude of vampyire clans and organizations in Manhattan and the outlying burroughs. A new vyrus hits the streets that turns people into shamblers (think of them like zombies but more functional than the ones you see in zombie flicks) and Joe Pitt takes on the task of finding out where the vyrus originated from, and who is spreading it around. The book reads more like a screenplay than a novel and Author Charlie Huston has a very endearing and entertaining writing style and storytelling method. Don't assume that this is your typical cheesy vampire novel. Joe Pitt himself is the kind of character you'd probably hate in real life, but love in fiction. He's a witty, smart-mouthed, wise cracking bad*ss who will gladly take a thrashing just to run off at the mouth - and love it. The setting and tone of this trilogy is very Noir. I'd love to see these books become films. Overall, a very fun read and definitely a hard to put down page-turner.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted November 28, 2011

    Charlie Huston *is* the Real Deal

    Once upon a time, before the world went askew and "Urban Fantasy"
    became a metaphor for "Paranormal Romance", you could get the real
    thing (i.e. your fantasy mixed with a shot of urban grit by way
    of Hammet and Chandler). You could take it neat, as in Glen Cook's
    "Garret, P.I." stories, extra dry from Simon R. Green's "Nightside",
    light in Kate Griffin's "Midnight Mayor", mixed with some high-class
    "litracher" with Jonathan Lethem's "Gun, With Occasional Music", or
    served up with some ground glass hidden in the ice with Charlie
    Huston's "Joe Pitt" stories.

    Here's the genesis of this series, and it's among the better of them.
    The vampire best fits the mold of the noir detective, being forcefully
    separated from the rest of humanity and having the darkness as their
    natural habitat. Mr. Huston does an excellent job of making us feel
    that separation while delivering some of the best uber-Chandleresque
    prose in the genre.

    The mystery within the story is not overly sophisticated, but then
    neither are most of the ones in the real world. If you don't over-
    complicate your story you can avoid resorting to ridiculous (and
    mood-breaking) coincidences and those fuel-inefficient deus ex machinas
    to resolve them. Mr. Huston's focus stays on the quirky characters and
    steam-rolling action throughout.

    Not for the faint of heart nor for those looking for sparkling vampires
    or swooning sexual encounters between human females and misty-eyed Goth
    vamps, this book and its successors suit when you just aren't feeling
    all that magnanimous towards your fellow humans on any given cold, gray
    day. On those days, slip your Government Model .45 into your shoulder
    holster (with a round in the chamber and the thumb safety "off") and go
    out into the mean streets of Noir York with Joe Pitt as your guide.
    You'll come back cathartically refreshed and ready to resume acting
    like you're a normal human being.

    Although it was in regards to Mr. Huston's earlier "Six Bad Things",
    Peter Straub's summation certainly applies here: "This is one mean,
    cold, slit-eyed mother of a book, and Charlie Huston is the real deal."

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  • Posted July 5, 2011

    Great Mystery Noir

    This is a great mystery noir. It has vampires and zombies but for all that it's still a regular noir tale of the seedy side of Manhattan. It's not any more graphic or violent than an R-rated film. If you don't wacth R-rated movies then you probably wouldn't want to read this, but other than that no worries. The only knock I have about this book is that the author doesn't use quotation marks to denote dialog. That gets annoying really quickly, but the writing stlye makes it easy to understand who's talking. Worth the money if you like film noir.

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  • Posted December 7, 2010

    Smoking, hot book!

    This series of book is the hottest vampire books you can read. If you like gritty, hip, and graphic books - all of these are must reads! I could barely put these books down. Someone should turn this series into box offices showstoppers. I could see Keifer Sutherland in the role of Joes Pitt - hard-edged, loner who could get the nasty job of staying ahead of all these Vampyre clans while trying to keep his blood supply in stock!!

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  • Posted November 21, 2010

    more from this reviewer

    Highly reccomended- I couldn't put it down.

    Great book, easy read, not like other panzy vampire series or sissy twilight novels. In your face gritty novel. If you like Goodfellas, Sopranos, or any other stories alike, you will enjoy this series. Guaranteed!

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  • Posted May 15, 2010

    more from this reviewer

    Interesting read.

    I love vampire series mostly because they are portrayed as romantic horror fantasies. This book is not the case. It's an interesting portrayal of a vampire having to fit in among the living and dealing with situations we deal with every day. Think I will definately consider continuing with this series.

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  • Posted May 10, 2010

    It was ok

    It was ok for a free book.I'm not sure I'm going to pursue the series. It's basically a noir mystery type book with vampires. Not bad. Give it a try - it might be right up your alley.

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  • Posted April 15, 2010

    A little too violent and graphic

    This ebook was very violent and graphic. The mystery aspect had me interested, but I wouldn't recommend this to anyone. I don't plan to read any more of the series.

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted March 1, 2010

    more from this reviewer

    I Also Recommend:

    25192054914 53939270020 9780441018239 43396216143 9780486411095

    A different sort of vampire tale

    In watching the "behind the scenes" video about how TrueBlood on HBO came about, Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse novels) stated that the vampire genre has come very far since the days of 'Dracula' and that writers could now "change the rules" of the vampire world. Charlie Huston did just that - he added his own twist on vampires and zombies. It's an interesting story, but I could tell that it was written by a man. I'm not a reader of comic books, but I've seen movies based on comic books and - in my own estimation - this book sort of reads as I believe a comic book novel would.

    At first I thought this book was being told after the apocalypse, but then I realized that it was just being told from the perspective of someone who's underground - or, rather, someone who's not in the middle- or upper-middle class. This tale is narrated by the main character, Joe Pitt (not his real name) and his life as a Vampyre. It takes us through a journey in New York where there are "sectors" and "clans" and Joe's just trying to get by. He's hired to do a job (that he sort of mucked up in the first place) and there are many twists and turns that make the story interesting. There were a few things I didn't enjoy in this ebook: the em-dashes indicating that someone was speaking. I found it difficult to ascertain who was speaking a few times and the lack of chapters or blank space indicating that the current scene is over.

    The end of the story is a little gruesome and graphic - those faint of heart should be warned. However, if you're reading vampire novels you're probably not easily squeemish. This story was well written and I will probably get the second book in the Joe Pitt series.

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  • Posted February 7, 2010

    more from this reviewer

    Vampires With A Twist

    Joe Pitt, the lead character in Already Dead, is a vampyre. He lives in a city where the vampyres have split into various gangs. They jockey for power while hiding their identity from regular humans. Pitt is like a vampyre detective. He's a rogue vampyre who refuses to affiliate with any one gang. And so he works for them all.

    The story was fast moving and well-written. There's mystery, suspense and humor to go along with the bloody paranormal stuff.

    I downloaded the e-book on my Reader. Huston does not use the typical dialogue format, with quotations and tags to tell you who is speaking. Instead, he uses dashes to indicate dialogue with no tags at all. These paragraphs sometimes ran into each other and consequently made it difficult to follow conversations and pick out what was spoken and what was not. This was a distraction for me. Aside from that, I enjoyed the book.

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  • Posted February 5, 2010

    more from this reviewer

    Not bad...

    I downloaded this as a free story for my Nook. I thought this was a very interesting take on a Vampire story. As a fellow New Yorker, it was fun to hear the author discribe the streets downtown and the people of that time. It gets a little "soap opera-ish" towards the end, but I loved the way the character was written and the people he encounters during the mystery he is trying to solve.

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  • Posted January 26, 2010

    Great book...

    One of the better of the vampire book movement...this one by a well-regarding hard-boiled style author who brings a new element to it. Excellent and well worth reading.

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  • Posted January 2, 2010

    I Also Recommend:

    9780345464781 9780345464798

    Fun, entertaining, enjoyable

    Already Dead is raw and edgy laced with humor, suspense, action, and thrills. Joe Pitt is a tough, gritty, street-smart PI infected with a Vyrus which forces him to feed on human blood and remain in darkness lest he wishes to die...except he's already dead. The story is thoroughly entertaining and will keep you guessing, aching for the conclusion. The dialogue is well written, humorous, and real. The characters are well developed each with their own flavor, enabling the reader to distinguish who is speaking without the use of quotation marks and "he said, she exclaimed...etc". It's a detective story with vampyres in Manhattan, a fresh new take on old favorites. Joe Pitt searches for the missing daughter of a bio tech researcher while tracking down a zombie. He's cool and clever, rolls with the punches and takes everything in stride. He can certainly hold his own, but every twist the story takes leaves you wondering how he'll get out of this jam. You'll find yourself sucked in the story, trying to figure out the truth along with Joe, but the ending will have you craving for more.

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  • Posted March 21, 2009

    more from this reviewer

    Good Parody of New York City Underground Culture

    This book reminded me of a combination of Blade and I Am Legend (the movie version)with a little bit of gang wars, in a new spin of the Vampire tale. Joe Pitt is a vampire who was infected by a virus during a sexual encounter. The virus makes the victim crave blood and rejuvinates the body from most wounds. The one drawback is that sunlight destroys the virus and thus kills its host.

    Pitt is a Grenwich Village rambler that stumbles on a "zombie-like" person that craves human flesh especially, brains. Anyone bitten by the zombie gets infected with what the zombie has and also becomes a zombie. This may all sound silly so far but it is not. After Joe's discovery he is set upon by warring clans of Vampires who control different parts of the city. The uptown clan seems to be very "unhappy" that Joe discovered this zombie and that he didn't "clean" his mess properly. Each vampire clan is concerned that the world will know they exist and want to keep a low profile.

    Pitt is recruited by a rich woman to find her missing teenage daughter. This causes problems between Pitt and her husband. Throughout the book Pitt seems to be taking lumps (there is the giant vampire Hurley who likes to put a hurting on him) and at one point is near death himself.

    There is a lot of symbolism to the underground culture in New York especially in the ethnic and gay communities. I pretty much enjoyed it.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted September 28, 2006

    Amazing combination of classic fifties novel and a darn good vampyre read

    There is one thing out there worse than a vampyre, or at least more annoying, a Shambler. In Already Dead, a Shambler(zombie) is wrecking havoc, leaving a trail of munched out brains across NY City's underground.Perturbed vampyre leaders call in Joe Pitt. Joe is not your average vampyre,for one, he is a rogue who does not belong to any vampyre clans, and two, Joe isn't thrilled about being a vampyre. The supper senses are okay but who wants to spend an entire afterlife doing everyone else's dirty work?

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  • Posted December 9, 2008

    more from this reviewer

    An intriguing vampiric investigative tale

    He looks like an ordinary man, can see his reflection in the mirror and has a girlfriend. She has HIV and won¿t make love to him but he doesn¿t tell her he¿s a vampire who can cure her by her drinking his blood but that would mean she catches the vampire virus and would become like him. The vampires group together in clans but Joe Pitt is an independent, working for the powerful Conclave and the Society.................... He sees zombies and follows them into a deserted warehouse and kills them all except the one human who wasn¿t bitten. His sense of smell is so strong that he smells a carrier, someone who transmits the disease but doesn¿t succumb to it. The Conclave asks him to come to their headquarters where their security chief tells him he has to find and kill the carrier that night or things will go bad for him. He is also expected to meet the wealthy and powerful human Merilee Horde who wants him to find her runaway daughter Amanda. During his investigation, he is hunted and almost killed so many times he loses count but he finally realizes that his cases intersect and someone wants to kill him to keep him from discovering what that junction point is and what is means for the vampires.................. ALREADY DEAD is an intriguing vampiric romantic investigative tale starring an interesting protagonist whose morality is different from those of humanity yet seems similar especially when it comes to his girlfriend as Joe proves he can love someone. The cast starting with the lead character makes the audience believe that the paranormal is normal while Joe¿s sleuthing is fascinating to follow as he struggles with both of his assignments. Charlie Huston provides an engaging supernatural who-done-it that readers will appreciate........... Harriet Klausner

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 24, 2010

    No text was provided for this review.

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