Shake the Devil Off: A True Story of Murder that Rocked New Orleans by Ethan BrownPublisher: Henry Holt & Co
About the book: A charismatic young soldier meets a tragic end in this moving and mesmerizing account of the war in Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, and no-safety-net America
Zackery Bowen was thrust into two of America’s largest recent debacles. He was one of the first soldiers to encounter the fledgling insurgency in Iraq. After years of military service he returned to New Orleans to tend bar and deliver groceries. In the weeks before Hurricane Katrina made landfall, he met Addie Hall, a pretty and high-spirited bartender. Their improvised, hard-partying endurance during and after the storm had news outlets around the world featuring the couple as the personification of what so many want to believe is the indomitable spirit of New Orleans.
But in October 2006, Bowen leaped from the rooftop bar of a French Quarter hotel. A note in his pocket directed the police to the body of Addie Hall. It was, according to NOPD veterans, one of the most gruesome crimes in the city’s history. How had this popular, handsome father of two done this horrible thing?
Journalist Ethan Brown moved from New York City to the French Quarter in order to investigate this question. Among the newsworthy elements in the book is Brown’s discovery that this tragedy—like so many others—could have been avoided if the military had simply not, in the words of Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, “absolutely and completely failed this soldier.” Shake the Devil Off is a mesmerizing tribute to these lives lost. (Barnes and Noble)
By Blood We Live edited by John Joseph Adams
Publisher: Night Shade Books
About the book: Vampires. They are the most elegant of monsters--ancient, seductive, doomed, deadly. They lurk in the shadows, at your window, in your dreams. They are beautiful as anything you've ever seen, but their flesh is cold as the grave, and their lips taste of blood. From Dracula to Twilight, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to True Blood, many have fallen under their spell. Now acclaimed editor John Joseph Adams brings you 33 of the most haunting vampire stories of the past three decades, from some of today s most renowned authors of fantasy, science fiction, and horror.
Charming gentlemen with the manners of a prior age. Savage killing machines who surge screaming from hidden vaults. Cute little girls frozen forever in slender bodies. Long-buried loved ones who scratch at the door, begging to be let in. Nowhere is safe, not mist-shrouded Transylvania or the Italian Riviera or even a sleepy town in Maine. This is a hidden world, an eternal world, where nothing is forbidden...as long as you re willing to pay the price.
Edited by John Joseph Adams (Wastelands, The Living Dead), By Blood We Live is 245,000 words of the best in vampire fiction. Thirsty? By Blood We Live will satisfy your darkest cravings... (Amazon)
About the author: John Joseph Adams is the editor of the anthologies By Blood We Live, Federations, The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Living Dead, Seeds of Change, and Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse. Forthcoming work includes the anthologies Brave New Worlds, The Living Dead 2, The Mad Scientist s Guide to World Domination, and The Way of the Wizard. He is also the assistant editor at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.
He is a columnist for Tor.com and has written reviews for Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, and Orson Scott Card s Intergalactic Medicine Show. His non-fiction has also appeared in: Amazing Stories, The Internet Review of Science Fiction, Locus Magazine, Novel & Short Story Writers Market, Science Fiction Weekly, SCI FI Wire, Shimmer, Strange Horizons, Subterranean Magazine, and Writer s Digest.
He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Central Florida in December 2000. He currently lives in New Jersey. (Amazon)
Aunt Dimity: Vampire Hunter by Nancy Atherton
Publisher: Penguin
About the book: The original paranormal detective returns in the latest installment of a beloved mystery series
Lori Shepherd's life in England couldn't be more tranquil or more satisfying— except for one thing. Her five- year-old twins have started school, and Lori fears they'll catch everything from the flu to fleas. What they do come home with, however, is worse: a report of a pale, cloaked figure with bloodstained lips lurking in the woods.
Lori is skeptical at first but soon grows concerned enough to consult with her late (but not entirely departed) Aunt Dimity and her dear friend Kit Smith. The vampire-hunting trail leads to Leo, a charismatic vagabond who just returned to England after a self-imposed exile, a bitter old crone named Lizzie Black, and finally to Aldercot Hall, where a mysterious murder took place forty years ago. With Kit and Aunt Dimity's help, Lori uncovers the secret that will shock everyone—including herself—about the true identity of the twins' vampire.
With its placid English countryside setting, eccentric characters, and lighthearted charm, Atherton's newest novel will enchant cozy mystery aficionados and the many loyal readers of the Aunt Dimity series. (Barnes and Noble)
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