Already Dead (A Joe Pitt Novel)

Reads like a dime store detective novel, but not as well written. Apparently he doesn't like quote marks, so he makes up his own punctuation. Starts out like a detective trying to catch some evil creatures, and rapidly turns into an explicit gay porn novel, while remaining dull and boring.

This book starts off interesting, but halfway through I was bored out of my mind. The plot became too complicated with random characters and weak connections to events. I kept reading hoping it would get better, but it never did. The motivation for the characters were ridiculous, especially concerning the vampire turfs, zombie virus, and incest.
Easy to read, yet awful, wretched story.

This book was extremely difficult to get into on several levels.

For one, the writing style was jumpy and distracting. I do not mind the usage of no punctuation for the dialogue between characters, but basically there is no context given to said dialogue so you are trying to figure out what the heck is happening.

Secondly, the main character, Joe Pitt, is unsympathetic and quite annoying (trying his best to be some pseudo Quentin Terrentino style character). The narrative follows Joe Pitt as he, as a vampyre, tries to figure out the current epidemic in New York. You often in a novel can only go so far as your main character, and basically this guy is trying to be way too cool and without much substance. He is a jerk, very pedestrian, and easily forgettable.

In addition, the violence was over-the-top ad nauseum (I mean, come on now). By page thirty or so, we have been hit with so much gore and blood that is somewhat ridiculous.

And speaking of over the top, the profanity is that and then some, and really gives the dialogue and style a juvenile/sophomoric quality and adds little depth to the book. This made me care less about the plot, which was a bit of a mess as well.

There were many times I just put this book down because it was a slog to try and finish. Perhaps this is a genre thing for me, because I’m guessing that urban fantasy is just not my cup of tea.

Definitely an underwhelming book and reading experience. This book is definitely a big fail, in my opinion.

It would be easy to paint Charlie Huston's supernatural pulp tour-de-force as a gimmick -- vampire detective in a gritty, Dashiell Hammett-like world -- but it's so much more than a cheap pastiche of crime fiction. Joe Pitt is an interesting character in a twisted version of New York, and the book far exceeds the basic premise. I do have to say there's a zombie angle here that may make people roll their eyes, but this book was released well before the zombie fad became trite. It's also handled with some amount of intellect, so it doesn't just feel like a b-movie plot, what with the inclusion of both vampires -- 'scuse me, vampyres -- and zombies.

'Already Dead' has all of the elements of a good hardboiled novel, but it also pushes the envelope a little bit further than most books in the subgenre. For example, the ironic relationship between Joe Pitt and a certain female character only underscores the directness the book takes with its more mature subjects. In fact, the whole book is really quite direct in its handling of violence, sex, emotions. Like a good noir protagonist, Joe Pitt is reflective of his current situation, but his inner turmoil and cynicism feel authentic, not just something obligatory to make the character feel gritty, or whatever.

Charlie Huston's prose nearly cuts the page in half, it's so sharp. The dialogue is perfect. Descriptions are apt but never flowery. And the book moves, man. It's an entirely compelling book, from the first knuckle-crunching scene to its bloody climax. It's not a book for fans of sensual vampires, and the subject matter is even intense for hardboiled devotees. Give it a shot, even if you like one genre or the other. There's a good chance you'll end up falling headlong into the Joe Pitt series. And, while I do think the later books kind of miss the mark in one way or another, 'Already Dead' is one hell of a quick, immersive story.

ALREADY DEAD by Charlie Huston.

STORY BRIEF:
Joe is a vampyre living in New York City. His vampyrism requires him to drink blood which he usually purchases but sometimes takes directly from humans without killing them. He also drinks and eats human food. The vampyres have divided Manhattan Island into several geographical areas. The vampyres north of 14th street belong to the gang called Coalition - ruled by Predo. Other vampire gangs are Society, Dusters, and Enclave. Terry rules the Society. Joe used to work for Terry but quit and is now a rogue, but his home is in the Society area.

A shambler (called the Feeder) is infecting people with a flesh-eating bacteria. The victims of this bacteria kill other humans by eating their brains. Joe wants to find the Feeder and kill it.

Predo calls Joe with a "request" that Joe help Marilee Horde. Her fourteen-year-old daughter Amanda is living on the streets and won't go home. Joe agrees and gets beat up a lot as he travels into different gang territories.

REVIEWER'S OPINION:
I want to be entertained, but this was more of an "ugh" "ow" feeling than entertainment. I wasn't captivated. I wasn't drawn to the characters. Although I was intrigued with Lydia (a minor character later in the book) and could have been drawn to her if she had been developed more. Too many characters were mean and brutal to each other. This is not a genre for me.

The book is narrated in first person by Joe. He has good motivations, but he acts like an uncaring tough guy. It has the sound of the hard-boiled private detective noir fiction. As I listened to him speak I kept trying to define his style/attitude. The words I came up with are cynical, hard-swearing, annoyed, resigned, I don't care, whatever, tough guy. The Washington Post describes Joe as "shades of Raymond Chandler, Hunter Thompson, and Quentin Tarantino." The environment is urban grittiness.

My biggest confusion was about the gang names (Coalition, Society, etc.). That wasn't clear to me until after I finished the book and saw the map on the store's Look Inside the book. I didn't know they were all vampyres and the names were gang names. I thought they might be different "types of paranormal creatures" which they were not. That's the downside of listening to the audiobook and not seeing the map (as opposed to reading the book).

Someone steals Joe's stash of blood so he is starving for blood and in pain. His pain is like torture, cramps, and drug withdrawal. For much too long, the story keeps getting interrupted by Joe's terrible pain. For example A says something. Joe thinks about his pain. B does something. Joe thinks about his pain. The result was interrupting the story too much and for too long which annoyed me.

Joe gets beat up frequently as he travels in the different gang territories. He can't fight back because he's outnumbered wherever he goes. He's resigned to it and just suffers through it. I guess that's the nature of being an independent rogue. But it isn't a fun storyline for me. Throughout the story he was reacting to things rather than making things happen. Wherever Joe went he was a helpless victim at the mercy of the gangs. I'd prefer seeing someone walk into a gang territory and win once in a while - whether he wins by smarts, weapons, or other buddies helping him, doesn't matter. I just don't like hanging with a guy who keeps getting beat up. Yes he survives it all and has success at the end, but it wasn't a fun trek for me. Also part of his success was due to luck, not of his making, again the reactionary method.

Daniel is a member of the Enclave. I was confused about Daniel's interactions with Joe. I wanted to know more about Daniel's motivations and Joe's nature relating to that. It's possible that may be developed in the sequels.

DATA:
Unabridged audiobook length: 9 hrs and 5 mins. Narrator: Scott Brick. Swearing language: strong. Sexual language: moderate. Number of sex scenes: 2 brief scenes, 1 male-male, 1 male-female attempted rape. Setting: current day New York City. Copyright: 2005. Genre: paranormal mystery crime fiction (possible urban fantasy).

1. I hate vampire stories.

2. For a vampire story, this one is pretty good. Its not stuck on the teenage romance theme so many of them skirt around. This is more a brutal thuggish noir story in the guise of a vampire story.

Huston is a very gifted writer. You can tell that he has read countless mystery thrillers and has a love for this silly vampire genre. You can see that he has studied those mystery/thrillers with a keen eye. & with that knowledge he has crafted a tight novel that should in theory fall apart and suck, but does not.

In a lot of ways, the entire novel 'Already Dead' can be summed up as an introduction. I have not read the rest of the books in the series yet, but I have a feeling that this story is where the characters are fleshed out, that this is where we are given the diagrams of vampire clan hierarchy and that the stories to follow will not delve so deeply into this realm because they have already been explored. I say it reads like an 'introduction' because it felt more like Huston was setting the stage for what is to come rather than putting it all into this one story.

The story itself is a little convoluted. The pace is brisk and the writing is superior, but upon conclusion, when you look back at what you read, you realize that there really isn't anything there. The whole plot is based on happenstance and the luck of characters being in a place at the opportune moment. I dont appreciate the author slacking on the detective angle of the story and instead just having characters come into play at exactly the time they need to in order to further the plot.

A few things I did not like. First, the fact that Joe Pitt gets knocked out 3 different times. That Huston says there are 4000 vampires in New York requiring a pint a week. To keep that up your talking 10's of thousands of drained humans being found every year. Its just not plausible. The girl running away from home like that... on and on. This story has a lot of holes. But you dont have to notice them if you dont want to. Once again the writing is good enough to bypass any doubts and suck you back into the story right away.

Im looking forwards to reading the next installment. This was fun, flawed, & in the end enjoyable.

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, as well as the well-fleshed out vampire
clans. Each of these clans controls a separate geographic area of New
York and each has its own culture, from the standard-trope rich and
powerful "crime family" Coalition to the satirical Society (whose goal
is to achieve vampiric integration into the larger society and whose
members have lengthy discussions as to the politically correct term to
use for zombies). These clans add a lot of interest to the story, and
Mr. Huston's skill avoids having the Coalition devolve into stale
cliche or the Society becoming embarrassing slapstick.

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."

Honestly, I'm not big on vampires. Never have been. I didn't think much of King's Salem's Lot (I know a lot of people consider it vintage King but it's one of my least favourite King novels), I have no interest in the recent Twilight phenomenon (not being a teenage girl) and I'd rather eat shards of glass than read an Anne Rice novel.

And yet, I really liked Already Dead. I appreciate the modern reworking of the vampire legend, removing the supernatural element and substituting a medical explanation (albeit a completely far-fetched one). Huston's "vampyres" are victims of a "vyrus", an infection that gives them an irresistible craving for new blood, while at the same time cleansing the blood of all impurities, preventing them from aging, healing most injuries and illnesses, and giving them heightened senses and greater strength. They can eat garlic (if so inclined), see themselves in mirrors, and surround themselves with as many holy crosses as they like however they need to consume new blood in order to survive and are extremely sensitive to light (in an `accelerated skin cancer' kind of way).

Huston's first two novels were crime fiction and this is probably the reason why I liked Already Dead so much. Essentially, it's a crime novel with vampires and zombies. Huston writes brutal, cynical novels about the seamy underbelly of life and he uses his edgy, irreverent style to re-invent both the stodgy world of the vampire novel and the traditional PI crime story.

The plot: Joe Pitt is a rouge vampyre who refuses to join one of the competing clans that control the vampyre world in Manhattan. He is a free agent of sorts who is hired from time to time by the clans to solve problems and deal with situations that could expose the vampyre world. A common assignment is to track down and dispose of zombies (often referred to as "shamblers," or in the politically correct jargon of one of the clans, "victims of zombification"). Joe is given an assignment by the Coalition (the largest and most powerful of the clans) to find the runaway daughter of a Manhattan socialite. The hunt for the missing girl has a connection to another of Joe's assignments, to find the carrier infecting zombies all over Manhattan. Things get complicated when Joe finds himself in the middle of warring clans, someone steals his stash of blood, and it becomes clear that he is being used as a pawn by the power brokers of the vampyre world.

This novel isn't for everyone. The violence can be gruesome and the story line does involve sexual abuse of minors. But this fresh spin on the vampire myth and PI novel is sure to attract new fans to the author.

Plot Summary: Joe Pitts lives on the island of Manhattan with 4,000 other vampyres who have carved it up like a pizza pie. There are coalitions and then there are rogues, like Joe. Pitts eeks out his existence by doing odd jobs for both sides, but he's living on the edge, and it's hard to cultivate his own blood supply without someone dropping the hammer on him. When some zombies make a mess in his backyard, the most powerful heavies give Joe the task of hunting the zombie carrier down. This is a job offer that he cannot refuse, and he cannot afford to fail.

This was a snappy piece of horror with touches of old fashioned film noir. It was easy to get caught up in Joe Pitts slum speak, and the machine gun cadence of his speech. He lives in the underbelly of New York, where they think, speak, and act quickly or they'll die. Since Pitts is a vampyre, being quick isn't his problem. Being a rogue vampyre with no allegiance in the middle of a cold turf war is what lands him in trouble.

There's very little romance or glory for the vampyres in this world. They may have superior sight, scent, speed, and strength, but they have no other special skills to help them slake their bloodlust. If a vamp starts leaving drained bodies around the city, the various coalitions will stake the offender in the sun. As an outsider, Joe must tap his own blood, always being careful to leave no trace on a donor, or leave no body. It added some serious tension to the plot, and I liked the twist, because most books act like getting a pint of blood a day would be a snap. This novel treats it like a real challenge.

There's no doubt this is a true horror story. Things get way too ugly and gory to consider this a fantasy, however for fans who want something drenched in darkness, this would be a good series to try. Joe has a retro code of honor, and I like those throwback characters who find themselves in this less glamorous day and age. He's also the quintessential conflicted soul; a vampyre who tries to live as a man. Joe has a poignant relationship with an HIV postitive woman named Evie, and those were the moments that make Joe so compelling. He's a monster who tries to protect the innocent, even from himself.

Noir Writing
adj.
1. Of or relating to the film noir genre.
2. Of or relating to a genre of crime literature featuring tough, cynical characters and bleak settings.
3. Suggestive of danger or violence.

Gentle readers should note that this book contains, in tasteful amounts of course, and integral to the story, violence, blood, gore, paranormal beings, cross dressers, burnt out Hippie Vampire leaders, more violence, and kinky sex. But wait, it gets even better.

Do you know over 4000 thousand Vampyre, attached to various clans like The Society, The Coalition and The Dusters live, work and drink in Manhattan ?
Trying to remain unattached and pick up a payday of a few pints of Blood, Vampyre Joe Pike takes care of " problems " for the Clans. And Joe is not a Really Nice Person. Funny, tough, honorable and a smart mouth, but Not Nice. Not even a little.

If Anne Rice Vampires are your trip, Tri Chic in velvet smoking jackets, sipping 100 year old sherry while babbling their soulful tales just keep going; because if you tool up with a tape recorder next to Joe, anti hero of "Already Dead" he`ll likely break your arms before inviting you out back for a drink or two. On you of course.

The other, more articulate reviewers below have pretty much covered the plot, so all I want to say is this: There is some seriously good writing going on here.

Huston has created a fully formed character in Joe Pike, as you follow him and his friends through the gritty streets of New York, he`ll charm, infuriate, depress and excite you, and make you laugh. Your going to like him and hate him, root for him to win and not care if he gets his fangs kicked in, and that`s just in the first 100 pages....

Besides, you got to like an author whose ultimate threat is staking you out in a New Jersey Mall parking lot to watch the Sun come up. I live in NJ. Believe me....you don`t want that.

Buy this Book and read it.

Death would be easier for vampire-detective Joe Pitt if he'd join up with one of the vampire organizations that rule New York. The Coalition owns the center of Manhatten and they've got plenty of money and access to blood. Further south, though, where Pitt lives, The Society has resources that could help him. (Pitt definitely doesn't want to join up with the crazy vampires of The Enclave--vampires who insist on starving themselves of blood in a weird hope that they'll thus overcome the 'Vyrus' that turned them into vampires. Being independent, a rogue, has some advantages, though. Pitt manages to work for multiple groups and keeps himself supplied that way.

When Pitt runs into a group of zombies, he realizes something has been added to the equation. Zombies aren't unknown, but they don't tend to run in groups. Somewhere, there's a vombie master, and the Coalition instructs Pitt to terminate him at once. Then there's the beautiful woman looking for her daughter. Could the girl have simply run away to enjoy the goth scene, or is there more going on? When Pitt's emergency blood stash vanishes, and rumors of a wraith start to circulate, he finds himself in a world of trouble--with none of the vampire organizations ready to help.

Author Charlie Huston creates a powerful blend of hardboiled detective story and vampire urban fantasy. Pitt is a strong and sympathetic character as he strives to keep his independence, to discover the truth, and to keep the zombie master from converting more innocent people.

Huston's New York is a strange and fascinating place--physically it's the same New York ordinary humans see, but the social overlay of Vampire society lets us see the city through different eyes. Pitt's loner habits and his tendency to slap people around to find the truth definitely bring the best of the old hardboiled detective stories to mind.

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.

Already Dead is the first novel of Charlie Huston's that I have read. After finishing, I am excited to read his first two books.

Already Dead follows Joe Pitt, a vampyre who is sort of an errand boy for just about any of the different vampyre clans that occupy Manhattan. Pitt is a great main character. He is basically exactly like a detective in a noir mystery, sort of like a Philip Marlowe. In his narration, Pitt provides some great sarcastic humor to follow along with the gruesome action. To not give anything away, all you need to know is that Pitt is hired to find the daughter of a rich family, and her case becomes linked with a "carrier" who is going around Alphabet City infecting people with a zombie virus. The book is fast-paced and a really fun read. Dialogue is quick, interesting, and witty. The action, while it might be a little too violent and descriptive for some, fits right in with the overall vibe of the novel. That Alphabet City is a dirty, evil place where the ends justify the means.

However, this is definitely not a horror novel. Just because the main character is a vampyre, doesn't mean it's a vampyre book. The vyrus which infects Joe Pitt is merely his backstory, and provides an interesting twist on a story that really could have been told using just normal human characters.

The only reason I'm not giving Already Dead 5 stars is because of the ending. While it did wrap everything up, it felt a little bit rushed and contrived. But the last 20 pages don't ruin a great, entertaing read.

I discovered Charlie Huston recently and quickly devoured the Caught Stealing trilogy and The Shotgun Rule. I liked them all. Huston has an uncanny way of building likeable elements into the most reprehensible characters. I find myself identifying with all his protagonists, and love the pace of his work. I actually sent him an e-mail on his website after reading his first book and he replied within a day with a "thank you". Very cool.

Now to Already Dead. I have never been a fan of the vampire genre, so this was a stretch for me; but as usual with Huston, I ended up flying through the book. It is a great read. This one is more of a mystery than his other books, with a good number of twists and turns before reaching its conclusion. Huston also introduces a lot of different variants of the traditional vampire through factions and gangs, which was great. And although Already Dead is the first in a series, I didn't feel like I was left hanging by its conclusion.

I can't say anything negative about Huston, because he is unapologetic in his violence, I just need a break. His books are extremely raw and visceral, and Already Dead is no exception. His protagonists tend to get beaten almost to death, and it can be emotionally draining. I will finish this series, but after I read some lighter stuff, like some Christopher Moore or something.

I'm not the type of reader who immediately thinks that vamp-noir is going to be brilliant. Even before the sparkly books that shall not be named, vamps just aren't usually my favorites, but Huston is held in high regard amongst my friends so I checked his book out.

It might be damning with faint praise, but this book would be perfect for a short flight. It's definitely hard to put down as the story becomes more and more engrossing. The character development is natural and makes for some very interesting arcs. But despite featuring a sort of undead gumshoe as the protagonist, this story isn't all that fresh or original

In tone, it's reminiscent of the Skin Trade, though without Martin's creepy atmosphere. The protagonist really isn't much different than a Harry Dresden or a Vlad Taltos. Huston is a good enough writer, with plain prose but an engrossing story, that I wish this book had been a little more ambitious. This is a fun book to read, but I think Huston is capable of much more.

This is simply a great book. Forget the pseudo-noir, pulpish, tongue in cheek way that Huston writes. Forget the memorable characters, fully developed landscape, and the numerous below the belt and brutal violence...Forget everything except the fresh, original and great storytelling and you will STILL be happy.

I would say, being a man, that men will probably like this book better than women because it is full of adrenaline, action and all the cool background mysteries that draw us guys to comic books and tv shows like LOST - but women might dig it too.

This is 180 degrees opposite of the lush, monotonous, overly romanticized, boring vampire tales of Anne "Dial it in for a paycheck" Rice and this book has opened the door for MANY more sequels.

I am a huge horror fan and usually enjoy books by Brian Keene and Norman Partridge and others, but many horror writers just copy each other and it really takes a toll to find a good voice in horror. If you like Keene, or Partridge (or Will Christopher Baer)you will love Huston.

I'm still dying laughing about the reviewer who said:

"Simon Green, Laurel K. Hamilton or Jim Butcher" had been writing books like this for years. LOL. What an insult to Huston and a ridiculous bit of dishonesty by the reviewer. Those 3 writers, while talented, write mainly cheesey, monotonous, mass market, by the numbers variations of standard mystery stories. Huston's voice outshines them all combined. That is like comparing Duvel to Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Huston also has an informative, updated, and fun website:

[...]

Charlie Huston caught my attention with Six Bad Things. It was so good that I bought Caught Stealing and enjoyed it immensely. When I received Already Dead I settled in for a scintillating read and got it.

It was not, however, what I expected after reading his first two hard-boiled releases. The twist is that Huston successfully switches genres in Already Dead, from hard-boiled to vampires--and he does it with panache.

Joe Pitt (not his real name) is a reluctant vampyre who became infected as a result of a sexual encounter and is required to regularly drink blood. He prowls Manhattan where the island is over run with the undead. The city has clans who are warring and Pitt becomes involved with the Coalition who wants him to destroy the carrier of a bacteria that turns its victims into brain-eating zombie monsters. Ick! The zombies are so sloppy they're drawing unwanted attention.

At the same time Pitt is hired to locate a socialite's daughter who may have traveled from "her neck of the woods" to Pitt's "neck of the woods." And that makes him right for the job.

I like Joe Pitt. He has a subtle sense of humor and I couldn't help smiling once in awhile because Huston populates Joe's life with some interesting facts. Joe can eat garlic (it's just pretty repulsive to him). And he can see his reflection (albeit he's a much younger man in the mirror). Holy water and crosses don't seem to cause him any difficulties; he actually drank holy water once. He smells the zombies before he sees them, and he'd so enjoy moving to the suburbs if he thought he could last there. There are so many strip malls and such.

I'm not typically a fan of anything vampire. But Huston's writing gives an established genre a new twist in this crisp, fast-paced read. It is violence and gore that you want to experience even as you consider turning away.

Huston is a rising star in both hard-boiled and vampire novels. His characters are full-bodied and multi-dimensional, the plot is scintillating and the prose has a rhythm from right out of an old detective novel. You'll want to keep the lights on and peer around corners for a long while after reading Already Dead.

Armchair Interviews says: Charlie Huston's Already Dead is a must read for the fans of the undead. If you read the opening scene you'll be hooked. Actually, I'd read an advertisement if Charlie Huston wrote it. He's that good.

A Vampyre struggles to stay alive without a blood supply in Charlie Huston's paranormal noir, ALREADY DEAD.

Every great hero has his nemesis, and for Vampyre Joe Pitt it's Dexter Predo, the head honcho of one of New York's Clans. Joe, meanwhile, goes it alone, though he has his acquaintances, and a HIV-positive girlfriend - which means he has a valid excuse for not exchanging bodily fluids that may or may not infect others.

So what's with the brain-eating zombies, and what do they have to do with the Vampyre? Joe investigates, and when a wealthy couple enlists his help to find their teenage daughter, he soon learns the two cases are linked - ickily so. We're talking a gentleman predator with a penchant for teen girls - whether they are his daughter's best friend, or his daughter herself. And since the man's wife is an alcoholic, Joe doesn't know who to believe, and it's not surprising that the case leads back to Dexter Predo.

Admittedly I was in a terrible mood for the first half of the book, and thus had trouble connecting. Adding to my difficulties was the use of em-dashes instead of quotation marks, and the complete lack of chapter breaks, which took me a long time to get over. But if you can do that, then you'll be hoping to encounter the second Joe Pitt novel, NO DOMINION, in the near future.

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

This was a great non-nonsense Noire Detective urban fantasy. I tend to prefer my magic more spectacular and my scenes more descriptive but for the minimalist style that this author was using this was lots of fun and I would read another in the series. The interesting thing about this book was that the vampires were still very much like people in gangs, they argued with each other over stupid stuff, they had a militant organization to worry about, and pretty much everything else normal people do. It was a nice change from the "over the top vamps" who are supper powerful and invulnerable. The main character also had a real, unapologetic relationship with his HIV-positive girl friend but that didn't play a major role in the story, the sex stuff was in memory and pretty tame. I am not the kind of reviewer who is going to outline the plot, if you want that read the blurb and if you have read enough Noire Detective works with a paranormal/urban fantasy bent they are similar... find out who is did something or where someone/something is. This is one of those "find out who is" creating zombies and why. Cool.

I enjoyed the humor a great deal.

- Well, you have a point there, Tom , the term zombie does put the onus for their actions on them and implies blame. So what was the term?
- VOZ, Victim of Zombification.
Lydia finally pipes in.
- I'm still opposed to the use of the word victim.

Negatives:
The formatting however wasn't easy to follow, the lack of quotation marks made me forget, from time to time that someone was speaking.
The main character did end up kidnapped a lot and he did spend a lot of his time playing one faction off against the other or trying to avoid them.

The author deserves credit for weaving together a character Joe Pitt, who is a combination of Humphrey Bogart, Harrison Ford, and...well, name your favorite vampire.

What I enjoyed about the book was the question of what it means to live, and what it means to die, as brought out by a clan of ascetic vampyres who gain super powers by remaining on the verge of death. Then, the plot brings about those same kinds of powers in our hero.

I am somewhat averse, though, to novels in which some mastermind seems to know exactly what the protagonist will do and when he'll do it, so that all things fall together just exactly as they were "supposed to." This happens with the leader of the Enclave in this book, and it takes away from the balance of the novel.

Everyone in this story has an angle. My one problem with this book was how tangled and crossed up those angles got. What kept me reading was the one strand that barely held everything together, the main character Joe.

If you can like Joe and his style of walking and talking you through this complex web of angles, then you'll make it through "Already Dead." Thanks Joe, there were times when I wasn't sure I'd make it, times when the story took a turn and I missed my connecting train. But through it all I knew I could count on Joe to explain the unexplainable and get me through to the next station.

This book is full of peoples, places and situations that are not for the faint of heart. There's beatings, murders, sex and plenty of blood. Oh, and there's Vampyres! Its a dark world of survival. And where better for it all to happen but in the city that never sleeps, Manhattan; where half the real world population move about like Shamblers anyway.

3.5 stars

I've never read an account of vampires (nor other creatures of the night) that seemed so grounded in reality and just plain believable. With the same noir flavor of the Hank Thompson books (or his later efforts) and an incredibly interesting take on vampire lore, this is a book not to be missed!

Joe Pitt is the quintessential down-on-his-luck P.I. ... except he also has to drink blood to survive and serves a different clientele than most. Great read!!

Ever think about taking a break from the Twilight series or your favorite vampire themed television show? Charlie Huston puts a new spin on the bloodsucking brothers of society. Author of other top sellers, including Six Bad Things, Huston portrays New York City as a community with a deadly disease spreading through the streets in his novel, Already Dead. This suspenseful story keeps your senses on high alert as main character Joe Pitt finds himself involved in the Manhattan underworld.
The author was born in Oakland, CA and now resides in Los Angeles. His career as an author has specialized in crime novels and superhero comic books. Along with his own stories, Huston has written for Marvel comics, helping to recreate the character "Moon Knight." His impressive resume makes him one of the best in the business as his novels are read and loved by crime novel fanatics everywhere.
Already Dead, which was published in 2005 by Ballantine Books, is the first of five stories that Huston groups into a series informally referred to as the "Joe Pitt Casebooks." The series follows the accounts of Joe Pitt and his exciting life within the clans of New York. Joe admits, "I look at my life, and I find it lacking. But it's my life. I creep a little closer to the edge every day. One day the edge will crumble under my feet and I'll fall," (268).
The other stories from the casebooks include No Dominion, Half the Blood of Brooklyn, Every Last Drop, and My Dead Body. The first of the five features two sides of Joe's vampire lifestyle. The clans of the New York City underworld take in Joe to help track down the daughter of a wealthy man from Manhattan. Joe is put to this test and must also find the source of the "Shamblers," a disease in which victims experience zombie like symptoms. He must balance his life in the underworld and in the real world in order to survive.
Meanwhile, Pitt maintains a relationship with a girl named Evie who is HIV positive. Her boyfriend could cure her virus through his vampirism but chooses not to in the fear that the side effects would harm Evie. Joe does not even let his girlfriend know about his vampirism at all simply to protect her. The main character is caught up in this dilemma which makes the novel an interesting and heart pounding read.
The novel is written with descriptive dialogue that helps to define the relationship between characters. The people in Joe Pitt's life each serve a different purpose and each capture a different essence of the man's hectic life. The author creates a suspense that leaves you eager to turn the page and nervous to find out what happens next.
Huston toys with the reader's emotions as the plot unfolds turning Already Dead into a must read for those thirsty for a good vampire story.

Charlie Huston delivers a superb story as a life on the edge. On the surface it is a fast paced, hard-boiled, vamprye detective story. With a Raymond Chandler style that DELIVERS on many levels. The writing is excellent, the story line holds, the plot thickens, but its what the author achieves that is most striking. A pleasure to read and when the last line comes, its on come line. This is not a gamble in an unusual genre, but a sure come bet, with an author that takes you to hell and back. A winner! Pull up yours stakes into whatever you were going to read. Place them into "The Already Dead". Go live on...... the..... e........d..g...e.... with Joe Pitt!

Vampyre clans have sliced up control of the island of Manhattan into territories and have settled into an uneasy detente. The wealthy corporate types of business sector, the militants and hippies in the village, the new-agers on the west side, etc. Joe Pitt is a rogue: not belonging to any clan but affiliated with several and desired by many. He's not a detective by trade, but a "fixit guy," much like Repairman Jack in F. Paul Wilson's series. He "takes care of things" for people. Often he's "taking care of business" for one clan in another clan's territory. He's doing this very thing, tracking zombies in Alphabet City, when he gets called in by one of the clans and asked to perform a favor he cannot refuse. A non-Vampyre teenage girl has run away from home, and Joe has to track her down. In his investigation, he discovers that this girl and her family have much closer ties to both the Vampyres and the zombies than he imagined.

Huston has created an interesting world in which vampires and zombies "live," stripping away some of the basic mythology and replacing it with pseudo-science that at least sounds like it makes sense on the first reading. His style is suitably noirish while also appealing to the literary crowd. His prose is tight, taut and... decently paced. While the plot moved along pretty briskly, there were moments where the suspense stopped and he had to explain how things worked in his world. And the denoument of the story was sixty pages, which is easily fifty-five more than is ever needed in a thriller, and seemed to exist only to page Huston's thin page count.

The book was entertaining enough, as pulpish as it was. But there wasn't anything particularly new or original. Elements of this book that may be cutting edge in mystery or crime writing are standard in fantasy, even cliche. There's even a name for the sub-genre: urban fantasy. Huston isn't doing anything that Simon Green, Laurel K. Hamilton or Jim Butcher haven't already done to great success. They just get shelved on the other side of the store.

In my humble opinion Huston knocked this book out of the park. He writes in a style all his own, that is dark and beautiful. Sometimes it's hard to understand who is saying what with his style of writing. But once you find how he flows it's much easier. Huston is a fantastic writer, the next step of evolution in the horror scene.

If you're a first time Huston reader I would recommend The Shotgun Rule. I think it's easier to get a feel for how he writes, however this would be a close second. There is a lot of gratuitous violence and language in his writing so I would not recommend this for children or anyone that may find it offensive at all.

The hero of this series, Joe Pitt, is essentially muscle for hire. He does odd jobs and just tries to stay under the radar. Until someone hires him for a job that sends him deeper into the rabbit hole then he would have liked. Joe is, for lack of a better word, an a-hole. He's a rough guy but yet so easy to love.

The whole series is written in essentially a monologue, all you know is what Joe knows. It really draws you in and puts you in his mind. By the time I finished, I was ready for a cigarette... and I don't smoke. (Joe is a heavy smoker)

I met Charlie Huston while participating in a Comic-Con panel discussion about using monsters as protagonists. Charlie claimed that he had begun by writing a normal pulp novel, but that his main character got beaten up so badly and so frequently that he shouldn't even be walking, let alone getting into new scrapes. (This has been a perennial problem in pulps. Philip Marlowe gets knocked out or drugged at least twice a novel, but it never seems to bother him much.) How did Charlie solve the problem? By creating a whole new genre, vampire noir.

Joe Pitt is a vampire in a Manhattan secretly infested with vampires. Joe's Problem? He has several, actually. First, there's that zombie roaming his neighborhood. Then there's the grief he's catching from his girlfriend, Evie. Finally, someone has stolen his blood stash, someone who can walk through walls.

Part of Huston's genius lies in his ability to take classic fang-lit premises and run them to their logical conclusions. Take the notion that vampires live among us as a wealthy elite secretly controlling society, a thematic staple of the Blade comix and movies. Huston's embellishment? Yes, there's a vampire group that behaves like a corporation. But there are other groups, too. Vampire bikers. Vampire monks. Vampire mafia. He even gives us a collection of leftist vampire radicals, who provide some of book's funniest scenes and dialog. Or take Richard Matheson's notion that vampirism is caused by a virus. Matheson never speculated about whether this virus could be transmitted in ways other than biting. Huston does, and his answer is the cause of Joe's lady trouble.

But all of this is trivia for horror nuts like me. Anyone could pick up Already Dead and still get one heck of a read because it's real charm lies in its prose and in its characters, especially its supporting characters. There's Chubby Freeze, the pimp trying to improve his vocabulary with a word-a-day calendar. There's Lydia Miles, the feminist vampire who insists on finding a politically correct term for Zombies. There's Hurley, the sweet-tempered Irish thug who is much older than he looks. There's Daniel, the dangerous and enigmatic leader of the vampire monks, who has granted Joe membership whether he wants it or not. And at the heart of the story there is Evie, Joe's troubled girlfriend.

Like all noir protagonists, Joe must struggled simply to keep what he has. In Joe's case, that's independence from the various gangs. Any of them would take him in, and all of them want him dead for his refusal to join. Joe's need for Evie and a semblance of a human life is the true source of all his problems. And he can't even tell her about it for fear that he'd lose her.

Parents, please note, this book is not appropriate for young children or even faint-hearted adults. It contains violence, strong language, and people (well, vampires) with gender issues. I recommend this for teens who are already reading horror but haven't yet graduated beyond Steven King and Anne Rice.

I met Charlie Huston while participating in a Comic-Con panel discussion about using monsters as protagonists. Charlie claimed that he had begun by writing a normal pulp novel, but that his main character got beaten up so badly and so frequently that he shouldn't even be walking, let alone getting into new scrapes. (This has been a perennial problem in pulps. Philip Marlowe gets knocked out or drugged at least twice a novel, but it never seems to bother him much.) How did Charlie solve the problem? By creating a whole new genre, vampire noir.

Joe Pitt is a vampire in a Manhattan secretly infested with vampires. Joe's Problem? He has several, actually. First, there's that zombie roaming his neighborhood. Then there's the grief he's catching from his girlfriend, Evie. Finally, someone has stolen his blood stash, someone who can walk through walls.

Part of Huston's genius lies in his ability to take classic fang-lit premises and run them to their logical conclusions. Take the notion that vampires live among us as a wealthy elite secretly controlling society, a thematic staple of the Blade comix and movies. Huston's embellishment? Yes, there's a vampire group that behaves like a corporation. But there are other groups, too. Vampire bikers. Vampire monks. Vampire mafia. He even gives us a collection of leftist vampire radicals, who provide some of book's funniest scenes and dialog. Or take Richard Matheson's notion that vampirism is caused by a virus. Matheson never speculated about whether this virus could be transmitted in ways other than biting. Huston does, and his answer is the cause of Joe's lady trouble.

But all of this is trivia for horror nuts like me. Anyone could pick up Already Dead and still get one heck of a read because it's real charm lies in its prose and in its characters, especially its supporting characters. There's Chubby Freeze, the pimp trying to improve his vocabulary with a word-a-day calendar. There's Lydia Miles, the feminist vampire who insists on finding a politically correct term for Zombies. There's Hurley, the sweet-tempered Irish thug who is much older than he looks. There's Daniel, the dangerous and enigmatic leader of the vampire monks, who has granted Joe membership whether he wants it or not. And at the heart of the story there is Evie, Joe's troubled girlfriend.

Like all noir protagonists, Joe must struggled simply to keep what he has. In Joe's case, that's independence from the various gangs. Any of them would take him in, and all of them want him dead for his refusal to join. Joe's need for Evie and a semblance of a human life is the true source of all his problems. And he can't even tell her about it for fear that he'd lose her.

Parents, please note, this book is not appropriate for young children or even faint-hearted adults. It contains violence, strong language, and people (well, vampires) with gender issues. I recommend this for teens who are already reading horror but haven't yet graduated beyond Steven King and Anne Rice.

If you'll forgive the obvious comparison, "Already Dead" reads like a modern-day Dashiel Hammett novel. With vampires.

Joe Pitt, the story's protagonist, is similar to the hero (or anti-hero) in scores of other hardboiled fiction: skinned knuckles, thick skin, and lousy luck. On top of that, he's nearly immortal. As long as he drinks a pint of human blood every couple of days.

The tone is pure pulp, and so of course there is the tough-as-nails protagonist, the sexy temptress, and a supporting cast of other undesirables and ne'er do wells. While this is a genre that's already been well-plumbed, Huston manages to keep the familiar from being boring. He observes most of the conventions of the pulp/crime novel genre without being constricted by them. He also manages to interweave elements of the supernatural and the gothic without making the story confusing or silly.

The only complaint I have with this novel is purely stylistic. Huston doesn't use normal means of dialogue attribution; instead of quotation marks and a narrative break indicating which character said what, Huston chooses instead to use a paragraph break and a long dash before each character's dialogue, with no attribution. For quick, back-and-forth verbal exchanges between two characters, this works well, and may actually read a little more realistically than the longer, more "monologue" style of dialogue found in most novels. However, since Huston doesn't actually use any dialogue attribution, it can be difficult to keep track of whose turn it is to talk, and thus to be sure who's saying what...especially if a conversation consists of MORE than two characters. Again, this is a stylistic complaint, and in the end, the excellent story makes up for any such shortcomings.

Overall, it was an enjoyable read. It lacked the depth that I sought. I don't know exactly what I was looking for, but this never went beyond a macho, superficial level for me. At times, too macho. The chicks in tight t-shirts and pig-tails serving up beer, the interactions between the main character, Joe and his associates - it all gets to be "I'm such a big, cool, bad-ass" a little too often. At least for me. When C. Huston tries to write from a woman's perspective, or what he thinks one of those might be, it can be cringe-inducing.

I chose Already Dead by Charlie Huston to read because of its front cover. The cover is very twisted. What I first saw was an unattractive blood-colored cover. As I examined the front cover a little more, I then saw a very bright and busy city along with a man smoking a cigarette. The cover still didn't tell me much and I didn't feel that the book was a "must-read." I scanned the cover once more and I saw a very sharp tooth sticking out of the man's mouth. After thinking about the tooth I decided to take the book and read it. I predicted that the story would be about humans that are actually vampires and live in the cities. My prediction was very close. I guess you can judge a book by its cover. The five-star story Already Dead, takes place in modern Manhattan, New York with Joe Pitt, a Vampyre rogue. Vampyres are those who have been infected by the Vyrus. It will make you faster, stronger, bigger but not better. Joe Pitt is not happy about having the Vyrus. Besides having to get enough blood to feed the Vyrus, he needs to do tasks for the Coalition and the Society, two very different gangs. His latest tasks are causing him much trouble. He needs to find Amanda Horde, the runaway daughter of the powerful Hordes family and bring down the foolish brain-infected person who is blowing the Vampyres' cover. These two tasks are a lot harder than they seem, Joe Pitt has to overcome many different obstacles and complete the tasks before the Coalition brings the whip down. This vampire mystery thriller will keep your eyes on the book until you are done. Charlie Huston will bring you new feelings every time you read Already Dead. When I put the book down I wondered about how many major secrets there are that normal people do not know anything about. I love this book because right from the beginning until the end it will twist your mind. The book starts off with Joe chasing a zombie and ends with threats from the Coalition. Another reason why this book is great is because the book will give you no peace. In no part of the book will you ever feel relaxed. I strongly suggest this book to all mature readers and any person who likes thrillers.

Because Harry Dresden doesn't whine through 90 percent of the books he is in. Pitt spends the majority of the time whining and starving to death. Whining isn't drama, it isn't "edgy", it isn't suspenseful, and it certainly isn't harboiled noir. IT IS JUST ANNOYING. As is the protagonist being on the "verge" of starvation the entire book. That's a big verge. And when he isn't doing those things, he is getting beaten up. Might as well be reading reading PN Elrod. I cannot begin to explain how tedious a task it id getting through this book with that amount of moaning. Complaining doth not a tormented soul make man.

There was a sci fi show lotta years ago, about the main protagonist dying from from some biotech virus made by evil big Biotech. It lasted about 4 episodes. Why? Because no one wants to see some sickly pasty pale guy always dying but not ever being dead! We already had Philadelphia

And speaking of which, yea we get it, vampire is caused by a virus. The phrase "the virus" must appear in this book no less than 500 times. WE GET IT ALREADY! Way to pad your word count. Take out that phrase and you already get 50 percent less whining.

All of this wouldn't be so frustrating if there wasn't something of potential being wasted in this amateurish attempt that reads like bad fan fiction.

His world is compelling and some of the characters would be interesting if he fleshed out a few more dimensions. Tone down the graphic grossness to as there is no literary reason for it.

To sum it up, this is the worst book I have ever felt compelled to finish. Hence the extra star.

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. Overall, a good read.

THIS is the contemporary vampire vampire novel I have been waiting for and just didn't know it. While many vampire novels are veering more towards a romantic angle, Huston is bringing the archetype back into a down'n'dirty milieu. What Huston is doing with the undead isn't breathtakingly original - vampire detective, vampirism-as-virus, et al. - but his approach is. Huston comes from a hard boiled crime fiction background, and it makes a difference; the book crackles with a rough energy that is lacking in many of the fantasy/noir hybrids I've read. This is easily one ofthe best and most refreshing vampire novels I have read in years. Freakin' awesome.

This book is sort of like Andrew Vachss' Burke character met a bad ass vampire chick and they had a hell child named Joe Pitt. It's killer fun from start to finish, just like all the Joe Pitt novels. I've read them all, and they're just what the doctor ordered... if he ordered a dose of hard-boiled crime fiction with a double-shot of dark urban fantasy as a chaser. Read it.

I thought it ugly and sophomoric. Lots of graphic violence, cardboard characters whom you don't care if they are killed or not. Every action is signaled a mile ahead. The carnage is well-depicted - if that's what you care about. I would describe it as a mediocre Young Adult genre book with adult language and situations.

What could be worse than that?

Huston's novel, Already Dead, is a fun, breezy read. It is the progeny of the hardboiled detective novel and the contemporary vampire mythos. The humor is generally tongue-in-cheek, but it definitely made me smile to recognize the conventions of the genres that Huston plays with. His depiction of society's underside is surprisingly realistic and includes details that make me suspect that Huston has some interesting stories to tell about himself. For those expecting horror, don't let the vampiric subject matter fool you....this is definitely detective fiction and smacks more James Ellroy than of Stephen King. (WARNING: Plot Spoiler Ahead) I enjoyed the novel, but I got hung up on one thing: some of the tension between Pitt and his girlfriend hinges on the fact that they won't have sex because he doesn't want to accidentally make her a vampire and she doesn't want to infect him with HIV....apparently safe sex doesn't exist in this alternate reality.

I have been looking for good vampire books with a contemporary twist less the romance routine ... I liked the premise, NYC based, detective style, cartels/neighborhoods ... it appeared interesting ... however after a while I felt I was reading about junkies instead ... the whole vampire world here is almost victim driven. They are limited in their power and terrified to make use of them ... I understand it to a degree but the end result is that after a while they just lose your interest ... I'm skipping the second in the series as it seems to be headed in the direction of "Fat White Vampire Blues" and giving "Half of the Blood of Brooklyn" a shot ... if it is more of the same I'll pass ... so far nothing to compete with Fingerman's great Vampire book ...

Nobody writes hard cases like Charlie Huston. Joe Pitt is a tough, mean, lone wolf type with the ultimate addiction: blood. If you like the old ultra-violent and life one step up from the streets, you will find it here. However, behind the blood and swearing is a writer with a keen ear for dialog and shrewd grasp of human behavior. Vampires form cliques and tribes like regular people, and their evil is just human evil magnified by the power of their illness. Not for the squeamish or easily offended.