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.
