Reviews for EVERY LAST DROP have begun.

Warning, there are some SPOILERS in both reviews.  Scroll past if such things bother you.

“In his fourth outing, rakish New York vampire Joe Pitt leaves the series’ “casebooks” nomenclature in the

dust. This toothsome tale is no variation on the P.I. genre; instead, Huston imaginatively, logically

explores the limits of the world he’s created for Pitt to haunt. If a virus that forced its hosts to seek blood

for sustenance gave rise to competing secret clans that kept members fed in exchange for allegiance,

wouldn’t a rising population of infected require development of a secure supply chain lest the drained

bodies of victims started piling up on the Manhattan streets? Wouldn’t a threat to that supply destabilize

the entire clan structure? And how would the established clans react to an upstart group promising to find a

cure—thus stripping the old guard of its power? The answers to these questions might pierce even Pitt’s

leather-tough heart as he takes readers on another darkly entertaining ride. Meanwhile, his nights of acting

as unofficial clan go-between might be drawing to a close as the saber-rattling and brinksmanship escalates

toward an all-out vampire war. We can hardly wait.”

-Booklist

and

 “In this fascinatingly flawed fourth episode in the bloody horror-noir chronicles of New York vampire PI Joe Pitt (after 2007’s Half the Blood Of Brooklyn), relations between the city’s vampire clans are unraveling. The Cure is researching antidotes to the ravenous vampire-creating Vyrus, while the better-nourished Coalition seeks the Cure’s downfall and the Society plays both sides. Dodging death threats and brokering shaky deals, Pitt shuttles among all three until he learns the Coalition’s secret, a revelation so volatile that it may lead to all-out war. Huston supplies terse dialogue and convincing gore in expertly pitched prose, but the beautifully cinematic nastiness doesn’t quite mask a key difficulty: Pitt’s enemies set their hate aside too easily at his appearance, and their rational behavior is at odds with the emotional intensity (and sheer implausibility) of the climax. Newcomers may find the relationships difficult to parse, but those familiar with the series should be enthralled.”

-Publisher’s Weekly

By the way, while I think it’s obvious why I’m pleased with the  Booklist review, but I should also note that the criticism leveled in the PW review is warranted.  The book is flawed.  I mean, all books are flawed, but this one in flawed in ways that I should have had a better handle on.  I think the nature of the main flaw is different from what PW zeroed in on, but they definitely have a good case.  Anyway, after the book is out for a few months, I’ll write a bit more about what I think went wrong and why.  In the meantime, I also think the book works just fine.  Flaws aside, the goods arrive on time.

-c