Stalking the Vampire: A Fable of Tonight (Hardcover)

~ Mike Resnick (Author)
Key Phrases: curie pie, little vampire, John Justin, Vlad Drachma, Odd Peter (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Resnick's often hilarious sequel to Stalking The Unicorn continues the offbeat investigations of PI John Justin Mallory, now a permanent resident of an alternate Manhattan. Mallory suspects that his new partner, eccentric Col. Winnifred Carruthers, has been victimized by a vampire, and that the guilty party is her nephew, Rupert Newton, recently arrived from Europe. Before the night gets much older, Newton himself turns up dead, and Mallory assembles his motley crew of allies to track down the killer. This time, his team includes Scaly Jim Chandler, a dragon with hopes of making it as a pulp author, and a vampire who prefers tomato juice to blood. Readers with a taste for supernatural whimsy will find much to enjoy. (Aug.) ""
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Review

"Mallory remains a great character, the classic world-weary knight in trenchcoat armor, with a strong supporting cast...It's clear Resnick is having fun with the characters, setting, and mystery itself. Readers who enjoy a lighthearted caper through familiar-but-not territory will find this a pleasant read. Recommended." -- Gumshoe, August 2008 "Mike Resnick has created a fine character in Stalking the Unicorn and carried him forward. Mallory is a detective who would be a cliche if Resnick hadn't meant him to be one. He's every detective Humphrey Bogart or ever played. For me, a guy who loves detective stories (and especially 1940s noir pictures), this is the perfect blending of the genres. he's based on every successful detective who's ever made it to page or screen. That's one of the fun bits, finding all the stuff that you know Resnick put in his pocket from others' noir leavings .It's an awesome little thing. [Stalking the Unicorn] certainly reads better to the detective fan in me than the fantasy fan in me. Mallory is awesome. He's a real detective, a hard-bitten dick who does it all. I just love him, [in Stalking the Vampire] even more than I did in the first novel. So, there's no question that Mallory has more legs to him. Resnick could give us a long series of Mallory novels, and it'll never be Mallory that'll lets us down." --Some Fantastic, August 2008 "Urban Fantasy. Detective Wizard(s). Mafioso Sorceress. Vampire Hunter. P.I. in Fantasyland. Paranormal Romance. Whatever you call it, books with some or all of those elements is one of hottest subgenres of Speculative Fiction today. This just goes to show that Mike Resnick was ahead of the ballgame considering his first John Justin Mallory novel, Stalking the Unicorn, was originally published in 1987. Terrifically entertaining novel. a welcome re-addition to the Urban Fantasy subgenre that is so popular right now. Adorned with a terrific pulpy cover by Dan Dos Santos, the physical book has a great look and feel. Even better, Resnick and Pyr published simultaneously with this reissue, Stalking the Vampire, which is next on my plate. Hopefully, we'll see even more Mallory stories." --SFFWorld September 2, 2008 (also mentioned at Rob's Blog o'Stuff blog). "This sequel to Stalking the Unicorn reintroduces us to Resnick's straight from the pulps PI...The humor is reminiscent of Robert Asprin's Myth series but written through a Raymond Chandler lens." -- Sacramento Book Review, September 2008 "With affectionate riffs on vampires, romance, fantasy, and crime fiction, Resnick crafts another funny, inventive, distinctive and sneakily surprising tale. More, please!" --Interzone, Issue 218, October 2008 "It's obvious that Resnick had fun writing these lighthearted Mallory stories and with Stalking the Vampire, that enjoyment easily spills over to the reader.2 --SFSignal, October 2008 "Like the previous novel, this book is full of humour, puns, and innuendo. Resnick definitely has a skewed outlook on life and for a bit of light reading, you cannot go far wrong with this series. May there be many more of them." -- SFcrowsnest.com, Issue 183, February 2009 "I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this book is easily the funniest bit of fantasy detective fiction I've read all year. Mike Resnick is a master of rapid-fire dialogue and comedic timing, and he applies these techniques to great effect here. If you happen to be looking for a comedic blend of fantasy and mystery, you can't go wrong with Stalking the Vampire. It's a well-told story with a solid plot, excellent characterization, an entertainingly strange setting, and plenty of laughs, worth the price of admission." -- SF Site, February, 2009 "His hunt takes him to a creepy mortuary, to a Zombie's bail, and to the lairs of the undead in this fine novel of intrigue." -- California Bookwatch, The Midwest Book Review, January 2009

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 268 pages
• Publisher: Pyr (August 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591026490
• ISBN-13: 978-1591026495
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #300,961 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hard boiled PI, with about a 25 degree twist to the strange, November 15, 2008

By	Dave in Missouri - See all my reviews

John Justin Mallory, a tough, wise-cracking Big City PI who prefers brains and assistance to guns and brass knuckles, and uses a fast $5.00 bribe rather than a fast smack to the face.
Good thing, since some of these hoods aren't overly affected by bullets or fist fights, but everyone could use a saw buck.

He works the streets of a Manhattan that is recognizable but takes some strange loops and curves from time to time.
Familiar places have names that aren't quite what he remembers, and streets sometimes appear only when you're actually looking for them.

These streets are infested with trolls selling things. If only the things they were selling were even remotely things you'd want to buy.
Businesses are surpassingly weird...but quite useful at times.

Resnick has a writing output like Niagara Falls, but of them all, I like John Justin and his friends and enemies the most.
With lots of good plotting, some inside jokes, and people you'd recognize, it makes for a enjoyable, memorable read.
This is one you'll want to read again.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enthusiastically recommended to fans of fantasy, humor, and mystery, November 8, 2008

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Freelance detective John Justin Mallory returns in Stalking the Vampire: A Fable of Tonight, the long-awaited sequel to veteran fantasy and sci-fi author Mike Resnick's Stalking the Unicorn. Mallory has now had ample time to become familiar with his new home of an alternate-universe Manhattan, where goblins are always trying to hawk useless wares, the street directions change if you look at them the wrong way, undead horrors are people too, and a demon responsible for most of the suffering in the world considers Mallory the next best thing to a personal friend (the view is not exactly mutual). Now, a vampire - a vicious, murdering vampire, not one of the more laid-back, five-to-nine working stiffs - has targeted Mallory's partner's nephew, and Mallory has to find and stop the fiend before All Hallows' Eve comes to a close! Aided by the morally ambiguous catgirl Felina, the short and selfish vampire Bats McGuire, and wannabe best-selling mystery writer dragon Nathan ("Scaly Jim" to no one but himself), Mallory must pit his brain against undead brawn that's at least seventeen times stronger than human brawn! Written in a flippantly humorous style perfect for bringing to life a city filled with thousands of fantastic distractions, Stalking the Vampire: A Fable of Tonight is enthusiastically recommended to fans of fantasy, humor, and mystery.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thank you, June 23, 2009

By	Shala Kerrigan (Anchorage) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

For getting this out on Kindle so soon after I hit the "I'd like to read this on my Kindle" button.
I read the first book, Stalking the Unicorn years and years ago when it first came out, and while I was making a list of my favorite fantasy detective stories, I found this one.
John Justin Mallory is a Manhattan detective who found himself in an alternate fairyland type Manhattan with monsters, demons and other mythological beings and creatures. He has a partner who was a very well known hunter of monsters and a cat-girl office cat who's attitude is very catlike.
It's as much rollicking good fun as the first book with just as unlikely a cast of characters. The story is solid and enjoyable, and John Justin Mallory is a detective you feel sorry for and root for during the book because of all the troubles he's seen. The dialogue is quick and funny, at times laugh out funny.
Looking forward to the 3rd book in this series!