A Bad, Bad Man

A Bad, Bad Man

Joe Pitt is one bad dude.  But he is one bad dude that does appear to have somewhat of a moral compass.  Much like me, I’m sure you will find yourself instantly liking Charlie Huston’s gritty, chain smoking and hardboiled main character Joe Pitt in the Joe Pitt Casebooks series.  I liken Joe Pitt to a Clint Eastwood “Man with No Name” type who doesn’t take anyone’s side but his own and will align himself with a group if there is an angle in it for himself (just replace Eastwood’s poncho with a leather jacket and his cigarillos with Lucky’s and you have Joe Pitt, oh and take away the cowboy hat).  Pitt is what you call a freelance, someone who is willing to do some dirty and no so dirty jobs for a price; one day he might look into a domestic situation for someone and the next day he might break someone’s kneecaps for a loan shark.   Huston has published 5 books in the series and while I have only read the first two and am currently getting started on the third, I have yet to be disappointed and am actually quite impressed.  Huston’s writing has a great vibe that reminds of those classic crime noirs produced by Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and early Robert B. Parker.  The stories take place in New York with Pitt living amidst powerful groups and organizations that secretly control the various sections of the City.  Being caught in the middle of a constant turf war with no allegiances can sometimes be a full-time job for Pitt, especially when he has other things on his mind, namely scoring human blood.  Oh yeah, did I fail to mention that Joe Pitt is a vampire and the turf war is between rival factions of vampire clans.  I know what you are thinking: Oh great, another vampire novel and quite honestly I don’t blame you.  However, I must tell you that you are going miss out on a great series.   If you’re willing to give it a shot, the first book in the series is titled Already Dead and the Library has copies of this publication in multiple formats.  Derektbpl