Already Dead (2005)

In his vicious third novel, Charlie Huston carves out an alterna-Manhattan where clans of bloodsuckers rule over various fiefdoms. Joe Pitt, a loner private eye ''Vampyre,'' specializes in playing these various groups against each other until he's asked to investigate the zombies roaming his neighborhood and the disappearance of a rich Goth girl. A heady mix of noirish hard-boiled dialogue (''I'd offer you guys some coffee or something, but I don't like you. So.'') and East Village scumminess (dive bars, junkies, and Internet pornographers), Already Dead is a refreshing rejiggering of vampire mythology. While the ending is confusing and anticlimactic, the world that Huston creates is both brutal and vividly realized.