Reviews & Excerpts

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Bite Marks Terence Taylor, St. Martin's Griffin, paper (400p) ISBN 978-0-312-38525-5

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Chapter 1

10:26 p.m. - Times Square, 24 December 1986

Snow falls on the just and the unjust alike, momma used to say.  Young and old, rich or poor, the open sky treats us all the same.  Nina hoped God felt the same way, that He was every bit as open-minded as His heavens when He looked down on Times Square.  That in His eyes a hooker deserved the same happiness as a housewife and had the same right as any mother to spend the holiday at home with her baby...

Publishers Weekly, 8/17/2009

Television writer Taylor pens a gritty, screenworthy supernatural noir set in 1980s New York. Out-of-control vampire Adam forces his lover, teen hooker Nina, to drink her five-month-old son's blood. In desperation, she revives the child as a vampire. Infant Christopher escapes Adam's clutches and winds up in the custody of some terrifyingly crazy drug addicts, threatening the precarious arrangement that has kept vampires secret for centuries. Determined to find Christopher and protect Adam, powerful vampire politician Perenelle, Adam's progenitor, teams up with her former lover, Rahman, an ancient vampire with his own agenda, while Nina's brother hunts for his nephew. Disparate, well-articulated motivations drive the various players in their race to save vampires and humans from one another. Truly enjoyable and imaginative, this thrilling, convoluted yarn is sure to delight any vampire fan. (Oct.)

BOOKLIST, 9/1/2009

Taylor mingles traditional vampire lore with the story of a relationship in trouble. New Yorkers Stephen and Lori, an artist and a writer, are breaking up badly while having to deliver a contracted coffee-table book on vampires. Concurrently, a brutal vampire kills a young woman, brings her back to life, and forces her to feed on her baby. The vampire baby escapes, putting all of New York’s vampires at risk. Stephen and Lori blunder on the truth about the baby, reluctantly ally with those who think dead humans can spill no vampire secrets, and wind up battling monsters and dealing with highly intensified emotions simultaneously. This is a vampire novel worth reading.

— Frieda Murray

Blood Pressure Terence Taylor, St. Martin's Griffin, paper (416p) ISBN 978-0-312-38526-2

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Chapter 1

3:32 p.m. - East Village, 19 July 2007

Christopher had never been sick a day in his life.

It was a running joke in the family.  There wasn’t one kid or parent they hadn’t carried to the emergency room in the middle of the night, at one time or another, except Christopher.  They’d made jokes about his good health all through his childhood, had even accused him of bringing a few family pets back to life before they could be buried.  They made jokes, the neighbors made jokes, teachers made jokes, but beneath all the laughter was something darker.

There was fear...

Publishers Weekly, 2/17/2010

Set in 2007, 20 years after the events of 2009's Bite Marks, Taylor's adrenaline-laced sophomore effort finds the once-evil Adam Caine practicing psychotherapy as Dr. Abel Lazarus; Lori trying to finish writing a biography of Zora Neale Hurston before succumbing to cancer; her former lover Steven struggling with a stalled career; and their daughter, Joie, filming performance art. They form a ragtag band of commandos with vampire Perenelle de Marivaux to combat the twin threats of the antivampire organization Clean Slate Global and supervamp Christopher Ross. Fascinating flashback sequences explore the Harlem Renaissance and prewar Berlin, and a powerful romance between young Joie and aging voodoo-practicing vampire Turner will melt readers' hearts. Taylor keeps readers enthralled while setting the stage nicely for the next installment in this complex, fascinating world. (Apr.)

BOOKLIST, 3/30/2010

The second Vampire Testament is set in New York a generation after the end of Bite Marks (2009). Christopher Turner, the baby saved at Bite Marks’ end, comes to the Apple for answers about his past. He meets Joie, Stephen and Lori’s daughter, and with her discovers that, working together, they have the power to cure vampires. But there are many who value their vampire powers and don’t wish to be cured. There is also a covert ops organization bent on ridding the world of vampires before they take over key governments—but can its leader be trusted? With plenty of action and intrigue, plus a fair bit of erotica, the yarn also has some sharply written sequences concerned with the value of choice and taking responsibility and is Taylor’s tribute to Zora Neale Hurston, who is a key character. Should certainly please seekers of imaginative, skillfully executed vampire stories.

— Frieda Murray

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