The best way to describe a Charlie Huston book is to compare it to a speeding bullet. “Already Dead” and “No Dominion”, the first two instalments in the ‘Joe Pitt’ series, were both a one-pump shot of pure adrenaline. The third tale about the blood drinking thug in New York is no different, which is as it should be, ’cause that’s mainly what sets these books apart from the glorified vampire stories that keeps popping up. To be a vampire isn’t something to be envied; it’s a diseased and sickly form of life that makes people to terrible things to get what they need.

In other words, to be a vampire isn’t that much different from being a normal person. Nothing changes except your affinity for dark corners and a never-ceasing hunger for human blood.

Joe Pitt is in deep shit, some seriously deep and f*cked up shit. Well, of course he is - it wouldn’t be any fun if he wasn’t, now would it? A new threat to the cosy and placid daily lives of the Manhattan blood addicts has arisen, and things are starting to get nervous (as if they weren’t before…). New clans from ‘over the bridge’  are seeking to make friends with the big bad people on the island. They’ve never even wanted make small talk with the other clans before, so you can be sure that whatever is going down, it isn’t anything you’d want to take your kids to see. Joe Pitt gets the job of handling the negotiations, but things takes some unexpected turns, and Joe has to break out the big guns and start mowing the f*ckers down. You don’t want to mess with him when he’s in a mood. Like now, for instance:

You don’t want to play anything but nice with Joe Pitt when his girlfriend’s on the deathbed, dying from AIDS. That has the knack of pissing him off something fierce.

I might as well repeat some things that I said in my reviews of the other Casebooks. This series is very well written. The dialogue is snappy, the main character interesting and Huston knows how to make his books read like they’ve been doped up on amphetamines. The only problem I have with these books is that I think they’re too short, resulting in lacking characterization of the supporting cast and a somewhat (though only rarely) forced feel to the plot.

The good news about all this is that “Half the Blood of Brooklyn” does a very good job of expanding on the supporting cast. Especially Joe Pitt’s girlfriend gets more time in the limelight, which is a plus since she’s the most interesting character aside from the lead himself. The bad part about this is that I sincerely believe that this book should at least be twice as long. 220 pages of nearly all set-up and nowhere near enough play makes for a different read than its predecessors, but the book ended at the point where it really began.

I think we can all understand why Huston did it this way, but that doesn’t stop me from bickering about it. I want to read more about Joe Pitt, and these books could go on forever and I’d probably keep reading till doomsday drops an axe on my reading light. As it is, the series is projected for a seven books run, and the next one comes out at around the same time next year.

I’ll be waiting. Impatiently.

7,0 /10 (strong)