Reader Anne Kimbol has taken it upon herself to put together this Joe Pitt primer that covers characters and events from the first three books in the series.

Thanks, Anne!

WARNING!!!WARNING!!!WARNING!!!WARNING!!!WARNING!!!WARNING!!!WARNING!!!WARNING!!!

SPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERS

WHILE INCREDIBLY USEFUL AS A REFERENCE TOOL, THIS PRIMER WILL SPOIL ANY NUMBER OF PLOT POINTS IN THE FIRST THREE JOE PITT BOOKS.  IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THOSE BOOKS AND PLAN TO IN THE FUTURE, SCROLL PAST.  LOOK AWAY.  MOVE ON DOWN THE ROAD.  NOTHING GOING ON HERE, PEOPLE, GIVE THE MAN SOME AIR.

Outline/Summary of Charlie Huston’s First Three Joe Pitt Books (Already Dead (AD), No Dominion (ND), and Half the Blood of Brooklyn (HBB))

 

Purpose: To serve as a reminder for readers of what happened in the first three books, including information on important characters and clans. This is in no way a substitute for reading the books and is only to be used as a memory jog when reading Every Last Drop

 

 

Characters

 

Name	Book of First Appearance	Information	Status at End of HBB
Joe Pitt	AD	Real name Simon; Rogue before re-joining Society; generally uses violence as a problem-solver; 6’ 3” and strong; uses size and strength for intimidation when needed	In the Bronx; has managed to piss off basically everyone in Manhattan and a large part of Brooklyn; Alive/vamp
Philip Sax	AD	Junkie Renfield used as an informant and messenger boy by Joe and clans	Alive/uninfected and as well as Philip ever is
Dexter Predo	AD	Head of Coalition security, uses Joe when it is convenient	Alive/vamp and well
Terry Bird	AD	Saved Joe when he was first infected; head of the Society; ex-hippie type who uses violence when convenient; likes to wax poetic; more signs in ND that Terry is working behind the scenes with Predo and is after power more than anything else; not clear whether everything he does with Joe is to use him or just most of it	Alive/vamp
Tom Nolan	AD	Head of Society security; found out to be Coalition spy; was dealing anathema downtown; claims Terry set him up	Dead (in ND) – sent into the sun
Lydia Miles	AD	Member of Society and head of Gay, Lesbian and Other Gendered Alliance;	Alive/Vamp
Hurley	AD	Member of Society security; very big; not terribly bright; very loyal to Terry Bird	Shot up by Sela and Joe but alive/vamp
Evie	AD	Joe’s girlfriend; HIV-positive bartender when they meet; in hospital during HBB before Joe removes her and brings her to Daniel	Alive/vamp; Enclave member; Joe tried to strangle her to save her from the life
Marilee Horde	AD	Hired by Joe to find her daughter in AD; rich; connected in both infected and normal worlds; infected with zombie bacteria by her husband after she tries to keep him from their daughter	Dead (AD) – killed by Joe after infected with zombie bacteria
Leprosy	AD	Squatter Joe uses for information; has nasty dog named Gristle	Dead (AD) – killed by Joe after infected with zombie bacteria
Dale Edward Horde	AD	Rich; connected inside and outside infected world; creates zombie-bacteria-carrying dentures and infects people with it; wants to research vyrus but Predo won’t let him; likes young girls	Dead (AD) – killed by the Wraith
Daniel	AD	Head of the Enclave; believed to be the one who will survive in the sun; can tell by looking at people whether they are Enclave and whether they can survive being infected	Dead (HBB) – did not survive walking into the sun
Wraith	AD	Leaves behind an absence of smell, darkness, and cold; believed by Daniel to be what comes from dead vampyres; had some sort of deal with Daniel (exact details unknown but stole Joe’s blood when Daniel wanted him to experience starvation during AD)	Still around/feared by those who know of it
Luther X	AD	Founder of the Hood	Killed before AD begins
DJ Grave Digga	AD	Took over the Hood after Luther died; militant	Alive/vamp
Chubby Freeze	AD	Internet porn director; somewhat friendly with Joe and with the Hood	Alive/uninfected
Sela	AD	Pre-final-operation transvestite (has breasts and a penis); hooks up with Amanda Horde	Alive/infected
Amanda Horde	AD	Gets caught up with vampyres through her parents and her father’s attempt to create a zombie epidemic; saved by Joe and has a big-brother-type crush on him; very rich; Sela’s girlfriend; will take over parents’ company at 18 and research vyrus	Living in Coalition turf, but wants to form own clan called Cure; believes she can find a cure for the vyrus
The Count	ND	Rich guy with science background; vamp; brought into Society by Tom – really another Coalition spy; Joe infects him on the bad dose of anathema	Starves out his addiction and is working to be head of Enclave
Blackie	ND	Runs after-hours bar and drug den	Alive
Papa Doc	ND	Big player in the Hood area; runs the Pool which hosts dog fights and other events	Alive/vamp
Percy	ND	One-armed barber; vamp; Joe’s contact in the Hood when he goes up to investigate the anathema; says Luther killed himself; undercover with Enclave	Presumed alive/vamp
Mrs. Vandewater	ND	Lives in the Coalition outpost near Columbia; infects students and drains them to make the anathema; she wants to start a war and take all of Manhattan back as Coalition turf	Has eye bitten out by Joe and is hooked to the bad dose of anathema by him during ND, no update on her in HBB
Candy Man/Solomon	HBB	Owns a candy store upstairs and runs a blood business downstairs; stocked by the Coalition; killed in what is initially believed to be a Van Helsing attack and later believed to be revenge for selling non-kosher blood to the Gibeahans
Stretch	HBB	Leader of the Freaks, brother-in-law of Moishe; father of Vendetta and Harm; real name Abe	Killed by Lydia (HBB)
Glasseater	HBB	Eats glass as part of Freak carnival act	Killed during arrow attack (HBB)
Strongman	HBB	Part of Freaks	Killed by the Chosen (HBB)
Hatter	HBB	Part of Freaks	Killed during arrow attack (HBB)
Vendetta	HBB	Freak member; daughter of Stretch; real name Hannah	Commits suicide (HBB)
Harm	HBB	Freak member; daughter of Stretch; real name Sarah	Commits suicide (HBB)
Axler	HBB	Member of the Chosen; Moishe’s son; kills Selig	Killed by Moishe (HBB)
Selig	HBB	Member of the Chosen; a rabbinical student; Chaim’s brother	Killed by Axler (HBB)
Chaim	HBB	Member of the Chosen; Selig’s brother	Killed during arrow attack (HBB)
Matthew, David, and Hesch	HBB	Members of the Chosen	Killed during arrow attack (HBB)
Rachel and Leah	HBB	Lucys for the Chosen  (uninfecteds)	Unclear
Moishe	HBB	Head of the Chosen; Axler’s father; kidnaps Lydia	Killed by Joe when rescuing Lydia (HBB)
Joseph	HBB	Former Enclave member; infected by Daniel; had a discipline problem and killed a number of Enclave members before being kicked into the sewers; is now a believer in the Enclave cause	Alive/infected

           

Clans

 

Name	Book of First Appearance	Turf	Information	Status at end of HBB
The Coalition	AD	Uptown – from 14th to 110th, river to river,	Very powerful; big supply of blood that no one knows where they get; believes in the vyrus theory of vampyrism; wants to keep vampyres secret from normal society; ruled by 12 member Secretariat	Had emissaries in Brooklyn with no apparent success; sighted in Queens;
The Society	AD	East Side between 14th and Houston	Basically p-c group; want to bring vyrus public	Key members shot/beat up by (and returned the favor) Joe, but alive
Hood	AD	Manhattan above 110th	Mostly if not entirely black	No contact during HBB; largely intact at end of ND
Enclave	AD	West Village	Starve themselves; become incredibly strong; believe someone will manage to survive in the sun and that the vyrus is spiritual/supernatural	Count is working to become leader since Daniel died; Joe threw a Molotov cocktail in the warehouse to make a point
Dusters	AD	Part of area below Houston	Basically a motorcycle gang	Intact; friendly with Joe but not able to help him too much due to political heat
Chinatown Wall	AD	Part of area below Houston	Small clan	No real information ever provided on their status other than their existence
The Docks	HBB	Red Hook area in Brooklyn	Affiliated with Labor; largely killed after turning down Society offer of an alliance	No longer intact
Freaks	HBB	Coney Island	Group that puts on a dark and twisted carnival-type show; gets Joe and Lydia over to Brooklyn and involved with the Chosen	All members dead
The Chosen	HBB	Gravesend and surrounding areas in Brooklyn	Orthodox Jewish clan; believed to be ancestors of the Tribe of Benjamin and the Gibeahans; working to take over Brooklyn which is what pushes the other Brooklyn clans to start approaching Manhattanites	Many if not all members dead

 

Very Basic Plot Summaries

 

AD – Joe gets hired by the Coalition to investigate instances of zombie activity; the Horde family is involved as the father created the bacteria and fake teeth to spread the zombie disease; Joe meets the Wraith who is working with the Enclave

 

ND – Joe is hired by Terry to look into a drug being used by new fish/infectee; drug turns out to be blood from very new infectees being distributed by Vandewater; Tom is discovered to be a Coalition spy and is killed; Joe ends up taking the job as end of security for the Society; Joe tells Evie he is a black-market organ transporter

 

HBB – Brooklyn vampyres are trying to make alliances with Manhattan clans due to someone taking over Brooklyn; Candy Man is killed by possible Van Helsing; Joe brings a strung-out Count to the Enclave, and the Count becomes a member; Joe gets sent with Lydia to make a deal with a small Brooklyn clan and gets on the wrong side of the Chosen; Joe comes back and brings Evie to the Enclave where Daniel determines she is Enclave and takes her in before walking into the sun; Count infects Evie; Joe goes nuts and ends up kicked out of Enclave house; Joe gets picked up by Society and gets beat up a lot and sentenced to go out in the sun; Lydia calls Sela who saves Joe; Joe ends up selling information to Predo for money, blood, and guns before going to the Bronx

 

How baby stars are made, as reproted by NewScientist.

“The neighborhood around a black hole seems like no place to raise a star. Violent gravitational forces can rip gas clouds apart, making it hard for stars to condense. But astronomers have spotted evidence of very young stars in a ring of gas close to the heart of the Milky Way, where a massive black hole is thought to reside.”

LINK

What to do with Midtown Manhattan, as reported in the NY Times.

“What if “eating local” in Shanghai or New York meant getting your fresh produce from five blocks away? And what if skyscrapers grew off the grid, as verdant, self-sustaining towers where city slickers cultivated their own food?”

LINK

Newer and better ways to maim and kill, as repoted by NewScientist.

“A gun that fires variable speed bullets and which can be set to kill or to wound is being built by a US toy manufacturer. The weapon is based on technology used to control a toy rocket system.”

LINK

The Montauk Project, assorted links, with thanks to Hugh Gallagher.

Wikipedia:

“The Montauk Project was alleged to be a series of secret United States government projects conducted at Camp Hero or Montauk Air Force Station on Montauk, Long Island for the purpose of developing powerful psychological warfare weaponry.”

LINK

Wikipedia:

 “Camp Hero(also known as Fort Hero or the Montauk Air Force Station) was a military base at Montauk Point on the eastern tip of Long Island, New York.”

LINK

disinformation:

“You’ve got to love a story that is stranger than any fiction but claims to be the God’s honest truth. What could be more fabulously outrageous than the idea that your tax dollars have subsidized the demented experiments of an evil cabal of Navy brass, CIA shrinks, fugitive Nazis and Reptoid ETs?”

LINK

Yes, those are voices in your head, as reported by NewScientist.

“A US company claims it is ready to build a microwave ray gun able to beam sounds directly into people’s heads.”

LINK

 Potential new HIV treatment, as reported by NewScientist.

“Mice have been made resistant to HIV by sabotaging a gene in the blood cells that the virus normally infects.”

LINK

Em W. shares her New 20 list:

1)Castle Freeman, Jr., “Go with Me” — a slim, really lovely suspense novel about an independent, fearless young woman who stands up to the local blackheart with the help of a crew of Vermont country boys who hark back to Steinbeck’s “Cannery Row.”
2)Chuck Hogan, “Prince of Thieves” — boyhood pals grow up to become a gang of pro bank robbers in Boston in this terrific crime novel, Hogan writes like he was to the manner born.
3)Brian Hodge, “Wild Horses” — Vegas & parts west, funny, fast, well done fugitives-on-the-run novel.
4)Elizabeth George, “Write Away” — one of the literary masters of detective novels on her craft.
5)June Casagrande, “Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies” — didn’t you want clarity on when it’s “lie” and when it’s “lay,”  with fun and snide remarks about grammar pedagogues thrown in?
6)Betsy Carter, “Swim to Me” — young woman joins Weeki Watchi, FL underwater mermaid synchronized swim show.
7)WH Hudson, “Green Mansions” — because it’s about Rima, the bird-girl.
8)Antonya Nelson, “Nobody’s Girl” — wry, intelligent, beautifully written novel about a young teacher’s affair with a senior student in one of her classes, funny and so smart, not at all smarmy.
9)Denise Mina, “Slip of the Knife,” — okay, she’s not new to me, but she IS the best Irish female crime writer I’ve discovered.
10)Helen Humphreys, “Afterimage” — novel by a lauded Canadian about Victorian maid pursues photography.
11)Rory Stewart, “The Places in Between” — young British journalist walks across Afghanistan.  During the war. And lives to tell the tale.
12)Michelle Richmond, “The Year of Fog” — really scarey, haunting novel about a young woman who’s fiance’s 6-year old daughter is kidnapped from her care at Ocean Beach.
13)Daniel Woodrell, “Give Us a Kiss” — country tough, hillbilly wily southern gothic crime noir, a writer whose prose will sometimes stand right up on the page and dance.
14)Inger Ash Wolfe, “The Calling” — mystery/thriller
15)Jane Gardam, “The People on Privilege Hill” — short stories by a writer whom I consider the finest living female literary novelist in Great Britain, sardonic, sharp and just wonderful, cause I’ve read all her novels.  Like the inimitable “Bilgewater,” or “God on the Rocks.”
16)Pun Plamondon, “Lost from the Ottawa” — memoir by former White Panther and one-time resident on the FBI 10 most wanted list.  Michigan boy!
17)William Sutcliffe, “Whatever Makes You Happy” — three British women decide to move into their three 30ish son’s flats/homes to fix up their lives.  Every boy’s nightmare, every mother’s dream.
18)Galway Kinnel, “The Essential Whitman” — because I really can’t get myself to read Hemingway, and because of “the beautiful uncut hair of graves..” or “Is this then a touch? quivering me to a new identity…” and so forth.
19)Loren Estleman, “Frames” — this is a new detective series set in L.A. by one of America’s champion, most under-appreciated pulp noir detective crime writers, more of a wordsmith than Elmore Leonard, more of a poet than Dennis Lehane.
20)Charles Bukowski, any novel — cause Charlie H. recommends him.     

What I love about this list is that other than Mr. Bukowski I havent read a single one of these authors.  I have some research to do.

Thanks, Em.

Continuing the previous post about knocking yourself out of a reading rut by comitting to a reading list of 20 books by authors you’ve not read before, Caleb W. shares his list: 

“The Rum Diary” by Hunter S. Thompson

“Psychosomatic” by Anthony Neil Smith

“Two-Way Split” by Allan Guthrie

“Saturday’s Child” by Ray Banks

“Bahamarama” by Bob Morris

“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” by Ken Kesey

“Hit Man” by Lawrence Block

“Deadfall” by Robert Liparulo

“Four Kinds of Rain” by Robert Ward

“Dark Passage” by David Goodis

“The Friends of Eddie Coyle” by George V. Higgins

“For Whom the Bell Tolls” by Ernest Hemingway

“About the Author” by John Colapinto

“I, Lucifer” by Glen Duncan

“Shotgun Opera” by Victor Gischler

“A Swell-Looking Babe” by Jim Thompson

“Rain Dogs” by Sean Doolitle

“Renfield” by Barbara Hambly

“Who’s Conrad Hirst” by Kevin Wignall

“The Business of Dying” by Simon Kernick

Caleb’s got some doozies on there.  “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, “A Swell-Looking Babe”. “The Friends of Eddy Coyle”, and “The Rum Diary” are all first class reads.  As are many of the others, I’m sure.  I’m still compiling my own list, and I can already see some changes I need to make based on titles I see here.  Man, how many times have I picked up “I, Lucifer” and put it back down?  That has to be on my list.

Reader Scott M. emailed me to share his story about being caught in an author rut.  Reading the same writers over and over, he knocked himself out of the rut by compiling a list of 20 authors whose work he’d never read before (with one technical exception).

Here, in no particular order, is Scott’s list as he shared it with me:

The Blonde by Duane SwierczynskiLessons from a Lifetime of Writing: A Novelist Looks at His Craft by David Morrell (I’ve read most of David Morrell’s books, but non-fiction was enough to make the list)  The Tomb (Adversary Cycle/Repairman Jack) by F. Paul Wilson The Blade Itself by Markus Sakey Blink by Ted Dekker Run by Douglas E. Winter Rain Fall by Barry Eisler The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch The Shotgun Rule by Charlie Huston 47 Rules of Highly Effective Bank Robbers by Troy Cook Gun Monkeys by Victor Gischler Storm Front (The Dresden Files, Book 1) by Jim Butcher The Book Thief by Markus ZusakWildwood Road by Christopher Golden Everlost by Neal Shusterman Vampire Junction by S. P. Somtow Dies the Fire by S.M. Stirling Rain Dogs by Sean Doolittle Life at These Speeds by Jeremy Jackson The Power of The Dog by Don Winslow

Scott says a few titles bogged down and he put them aside, but he replaced them with other new-author titles until he completed his twenty books project.

Here are his replacement titles, and some others he’s moved onto since:

Looking For Alaska by John Green The Lion’s Way by Marco Marsan and Peter Lloyd Night Witch by Jack Priest Red Seas under Red Skies by Scott Lynch Acacia: Book One: The War with the Mein by David Anthony Durham (SF) The Blade Itself (The First Law: Book One) by Joe Abercrombie (SF) Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk **NEWCity of the Sun by David Levien The Wheelman by Duane Swierczynski The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie The Traveler by John Twelve Hawks The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum Black Irish by CASEY SHERMAN The Overlook by Michael Connelly

Personally, I’d never make it through a marathon like this.  Maybe a five-new-author list, but twenty would kick my ass.  But I love the concept of setting yourself a goal to inspire new reading habits.  Right now I’m on an all non-fiction diet.  Not at all my usual fare.

I’d be curious to see some other lists.  If you were going to try Scott’s 20-new-authors project, who would your writers be?  They don’t have to be “new” writers, just new to you.  And, yes, Scott’s exception counts: reading work by and old-friend writer in a different format can be on the list.  A collection of letters by your favorite novelist perhaps. 

I’m going to do some poking about for my own list and put it up here.  As new lists come into my email I’ll share them.

The great photo-documentarian of the streets’ lower depths, as covered by the NY Times.

“ON the north side of Broome Street, between the Bowery and Elizabeth Street, you can stand where a dead guy once lay. Of course in New York City you can stand on lots of spots where dead people once lay.”

LINK

The disturbing and painful phenomenon of knowing that you have been targeted for harassment.

 And assortment of sites related to Targeted Individuals, Electro Magnetic Attack, Voice to Skull, etc:

freedomfchs.com

“Millions of people across this country and the globe are being targeted for harassment in various forms by a growing number of harassment groups. Citizens are being watched, followed, monitored and tortured; their private lives invaded, ruined, and many kept in virtual isolation from friends and family.”

rhfweb.com

“I, Thomas Daniel Clark, am writing this statement to request that congress and other agencies in the US and USA government check into and end all public, secret, super secret, shadow governmental programs, and agreements made by outsourcing, to use surveillance, mind control, directed energy weapons, chemical and nuclear technologies, weather control technologies, or any other type of technology and program which violates the constitutional rights and/or harms the health, happiness and privacy rights of any US and USA citizen, which includes myself, family and associates.”

stopcovertwar.com

“Tired of isolation?  Looking to communicate with other Targeted Individuals?There are Millions of Victims out there.  The trick is to find them!”

 us-government-torture.com

“Once charged the implants can output low frequencies that will transverse the interior of the body. The implants can also emit higher frequency which will migrate to the body’s surface and cause heating of the skin; this effect is often misunderstood and thought to be from the directed energy itself instead of from an internal source.”

We may all be aliens, as reported by NewScientist. 

“Some fundamental building blocks of our genetic code might have come from outer space, according to a controversial new meteorite study.”

LINK

The stuff of nightmare-inducing horror stories, sent in by Katie B.

Defined on Wikipedia.

“Fetus in fetu (or fœtus in fœtu) is a developmental abnormality in which a fetus gets enveloped inside its twin and an entire living organ system with torso and limbs can develop inside the host.^[1] The abnormality occurs in 1 in 500,000 live births.”

LINK

Reported by ABC News.

“”He just put his hand inside and he said there are a lot of bones inside,” she said. “First, one limb came out, then another limb came out. Then some part of genitalia, then some part of hair, some limbs, jaws, limbs, hair.”"

LINK

The list of reasons to legalize it grows longer and sadder, as reported by the NY Times.

“ A massacre here two weeks ago has turned this once sleepy town into a ghostly emblem of the drug violence that has swept Mexico over the last year and a half, gutting local police forces, terrifying citizens and making it almost impossible for the authorities to assert themselves.”

LINK

Another sign of impending global doom, as reported by the NY Times.

“The bandit pulled his truck to the back of a Burger King in Northern California one afternoon last month armed with a hose and a tank.”

LINK

A creature that seems destined to be the inspiration for a new comic book villain, as reported by NewScientist. 

“Trichobatrachus robustus actively breaks its own bones to produce claws that puncture their way out of the frog’s toe pads, probably when it is threatened.”

LINK

Where the poor rich folks went to die, as reported by the NY Times.

“IT is the Grand Concourse’s grandest building, a broad limestone palazzo set back behind a wide grassy lawn between 166th and McClellan Streets in the Bronx.”

LINK

Shining a light, as reported by NewScientist.

“Viruses lurking in biological samples could be killed off with an intense pulse of visible light, new research shows.”

LINK

Just plain wondefully strange, as reported by the NY Times.

“The chemicals are kept apart in the plant tissue, but when the tissues are crushed (as when bitten by an insect) they mix and toxic mustard oil is produced.”

LINK