Already Dead by Charlie Huston (Orbit Books)

If somebody asked me to summarize the experience of reading Already Dead by the popular author Charlie Huston in just one sentence, I would probably say it is like watching the Sin City movie with its grittiness and (morbid) humor and From Dusk to Dawn back-to-back while on some speed. I have not done that myself, before you ask, but I imagine it would be like that. At least both of them have Quentin Tarantino in it, that’s saying a lot. However saying that does not give Charlie Huston’s effort enough credit, credit he clearly deserves all. So now better put it this way, if you like the a for mentioned movies, Already Dead is just made for you! And it will blow your head off, quite literary. Got your attention now? Hell yeah, fuck it, let’s meet up with that guy Joe Pitt.

Already Dead is the first of the Joe Pitt books, a series of books spanning five novels revolving around the vampire and (kind of) detective Joe Pitt. He is one of those guys who keep themselves moving – already dead – by sucking up the blood of people that surround them. Because see- Joe has been infected with the Vyrus, which turned him instead in a vampyre. Saying that is kind of fucked up, now that would be an understatement. Because, you know, there’s a little problem. That Vyrus just happens to need that damn blood to keep all the functions in the body running straight. And when it’s denied that – well then, simply put.. Hell breaks loose. And you do not want to be near that, when that happens. Except we want, us readers.
As the story kicks off, Joe Pitt is hunting down some shamblers, some random goths you have been infected with the bacteria that turns on some lust for, well.. brains. So we are talking zombies here. Or as the Society would like me to put it, VOZ’s. Victim of Zombification. And that does not make these shamblers very smart, because they are about to mess with Joe. After the messing around, Joe discovers some bite marks in the necks of now completely dead corpses. One more thing leading him on a trail to the carrier of that filthy bacteria spreading around in his neighborhood. But who the fuck wants to spread a fucking zombie disease around? Why? Joe has the find out. Even more as things get more messed up, when one the biggest, meanest vampyre clans get involved, the Coalition. And their representative, Dexter Predo, is one hell of a nasty bastard to deal with. Especially since his status of independency, Joe doesn’t give a shit about being part of the Coalition, the Society or the Enclave, is threatened to be teared down. So to keep things his way, Joe has the dance to the man’s piping for the moment and fulfills the errand they hand over to him. The daughter of a prominent New York family has gone missing, and her recent fascination for vampyres makes Joe Pitt the ideal man for the job. Damned if Joe knows things are going to be fucked, he’s determined to get the bottom of it.

Now as you probably have already figured out, this is by no means your average Interview with the Vampire story, vampires struggling with their immortal life dying poetic deaths. No this the raw, hard-boiled action in New York downtown. Welcome to the real world. That being said, there is a lot of positive things to say about this novel.
When we have flipped over the very first page, there’s already one thing we notice – the style of the prose. It is gritty, right down the bone and exactly what you want when picking up a hard-boiled book like this. Not many fancy descriptions, but very action oriented. ‘Fast’ paced is not even the right word, it’s more like adrenaline rushing. And to get back at the Anne Rice comparison, in the first few pages Joe Pitt already uttered the word fuck more than we probably will ever encounter in all Rice’s bibliography. Personally, I loved it all. It did not feel like the author was trying to hard to be cool with cool characters. The book is actually written in the present tense, which kind of surprised me at first. I guess I’m more ‘attuned’ to the past tense, a common feature in fantasy works nowadays, but this all worked out quite well. You hardly notice it after a few pages, because Charlie Huston is so busy blowing your socks off. Because like the prose, the action is raw and uncut. Combine that with the pace and you have a novel that is capable of keeping you on the edge of your seat all the time. And I mean it, this is a real page-turner. The length of the story (around the 280 pages) is long enough; would that Huston had stretched it a little longer I think I would have admitted to a feeling of satiation. The plotline is thin, not many subplots involved for that matter and is neither very complex nor engaging. It is safe to conclude that this read is – in that aspect – not too pretentious. Then again, it does not need to be, because the entertainment value of this books makes up for anything you might find less engaging. If you treat it that way, there is really no possible way you could get disappointed.
The thing I found lacking the most was the characterization of the cast – other than Joe Pitt. Even for a reader like me, who does not read too much crime related novels and more of the fantasy/science fiction works in his spare time, it was not too difficult to detect the different archetypes. Vampires from the gangs like the Society and the Coalition could well be all the same in terms of personality. Only the Enclave clan was the exception on the rule but that was more because of their typical philosophy on vampire life than outstanding characters. In addition, Evie (supposedly the girl closest to Joe Pitt) was used too much as a device to show that Joe had still a streak of humanity. Then again, we have Joe – who is quickly charging up the ranks of my most favorite characters – on who Charlie Huston did an excellent job giving him as a unique personality, creating depth without overusing emotional issues and let him just plainly kick the asses of other characters. Something he is born to do.

So like I said, treat this novel as a fun, engaging and astoundingly entertaining read and I can guarantee you that you will not be disappointed. Joe Pitt seriously kicks the asses of most other vampires that I have encountered before in this genre. What’s even better that the next novel, No Dominion, has been released already over in the US and the UK, so no need to wait. The third one, aptly titled Half The Blood Of Brooklyn, will released in december of this year. Huston promised us that it would make ‘perfect reading for the holidays’. Rating this book is going to be one tough nut to crack, mainly because I find it so hard to compare to other works I have read this year. I can’t decide whether this a solid eight or is creeping towards the nine out of ten. I do think there is some room for improvement regarding the plotlines and characterizations, so I decided to rate this book:

Eight/ Eight and a half out of Ten