It's Halloween, and John Justin Mallory's partner, Winnifred Carruthers, has been so busy preparing for the biggest holiday of the year (in his Manhattan, anyway) that she seems short of energy and pale. Mallory is worried that she's been working too hard. Then he notices the two puncture marks on her neck
On this night when ghosts and goblins are out celebrating, detective Mallory must stalk the vampire who has threatened his assistant, Winnifred Carruthers, and killed her nephew. With the aid of Felina, the catgirl, Mallory and Carruthers investigate clubs and lairs that only seem to exist on this one night of the year.
His hunt takes him to Creepy Conrad's Cut-Rate All-Night Mortuary, where he questions the living and the dead; to the Annual Zombies' Ball, to learn more about the undead; to the Hills of Home Cemetery, where the vampire sleeps by day; and to Battery Park, where all of Manhattan's bats come to feed and sleep. Along the way he meets a few old friends and enemies, and a host of strange new inhabitants of this otherworldly Manhattan.
Locked in an intriguing battle of wits with the millennia-old vampire, Mallory has until dawn if he is to save his trusted partner.
Industry Reviews
"Mallory remains a great character, the classic world-weary knight in trenchcoat armor, with a strong supporting cast...It's clear Resnick is having fun with the characters, setting, and mystery itself. Readers who enjoy a lighthearted caper through familiar-but-not territory will find this a pleasant read. Recommended." -- Gumshoe, August 2008 "Mike Resnick has created a fine character in Stalking the Unicorn and carried him forward. Mallory is a detective who would be a cliche if Resnick hadn't meant him to be one. He's every detective Humphrey Bogart or ever played. For me, a guy who loves detective stories (and especially 1940s noir pictures), this is the perfect blending of the genres. he's based on every successful detective who's ever made it to page or screen. That's one of the fun bits, finding all the stuff that you know Resnick put in his pocket from others' noir leavings .It's an awesome little thing. [Stalking the Unicorn] certainly reads better to the detective fan in me than the fantasy fan in me. Mallory is awesome. He's a real detective, a hard-bitten dick who does it all. I just love him, [in Stalking the Vampire] even more than I did in the first novel. So, there's no question that Mallory has more legs to him. Resnick could give us a long series of Mallory novels, and it'll never be Mallory that'll lets us down." --Some Fantastic, August 2008 "Urban Fantasy. Detective Wizard(s). Mafioso Sorceress. Vampire Hunter. P.I. in Fantasyland. Paranormal Romance. Whatever you call it, books with some or all of those elements is one of hottest subgenres of Speculative Fiction today. This just goes to show that Mike Resnick was ahead of the ballgame considering his first John Justin Mallory novel, Stalking the Unicorn, was originally published in 1987. Terrifically entertaining novel. a welcome re-addition to the Urban Fantasy subgenre that is so popular right now. Adorned with a terrific pulpy cover by Dan Dos Santos, the physical book has a great look and feel. Even better, Resnick and Pyr published simultaneously with this reissue, Stalking the Vampire, which is next on my plate. Hopefully, we'll see even more Mallory stories." --SFFWorld September 2, 2008 (also mentioned at Rob's Blog o'Stuff blog). "This sequel to Stalking the Unicorn reintroduces us to Resnick's straight from the pulps PI...The humor is reminiscent of Robert Asprin's Myth series but written through a Raymond Chandler lens." -- Sacramento Book Review, September 2008 "With affectionate riffs on vampires, romance, fantasy, and crime fiction, Resnick crafts another funny, inventive, distinctive and sneakily surprising tale. More, please!" --Interzone, Issue 218, October 2008 "It's obvious that Resnick had fun writing these lighthearted Mallory stories and with Stalking the Vampire, that enjoyment easily spills over to the reader.2 --SFSignal, October 2008 "Like the previous novel, this book is full of humour, puns, and innuendo. Resnick definitely has a skewed outlook on life and for a bit of light reading, you cannot go far wrong with this series. May there be many more of them." -- SFcrowsnest.com, Issue 183, February 2009 "I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this book is easily the funniest bit of fantasy detective fiction I've read all year. Mike Resnick is a master of rapid-fire dialogue and comedic timing, and he applies these techniques to great effect here. If you happen to be looking for a comedic blend of fantasy and mystery, you can't go wrong with Stalking the Vampire. It's a well-told story with a solid plot, excellent characterization, an entertainingly strange setting, and plenty of laughs, worth the price of admission." -- SF Site, February, 2009 "His hunt takes him to a creepy mortuary, to a Zombie's bail, and to the lairs of the undead in this fine novel of intrigue." -- California Bookwatch, The Midwest Book Review, January 2009
