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My Dead Body (Joe Pitt #5)

4.07 of 5 stars 4.07 · rating details · 1,566 ratings · 141 reviews

As the concluding volume of this highly acclaimed series opens, Joe has spent a year splashing around in the city's sewer system, protecting the perimeters of the ground on which his love, Evie, now lives.

Above ground, Manhattan's Vampyre clans have at last abandoned any claims on civility and have finally sprung fully for each others' throats. But as Vampyre civil war ra...more

Paperback, 300 pages

Published by Orbit (first published 2009)

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Jul 21, 2012 Carol rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, male-lead, urban-fantasy, vampires

I'm re-reading this book, and have decided this series--and particularly this book--has a carol-simile.

Once, in the early witching hours of the morning when absolutely nothing good happens, I got called out of bed to respond to a roll-over car accident out by Highway N. My partner and I jumped in the ambulance and raced to the scene, still half-asleep, ambulance lights and siren flaring in the darkness. The car had rolled off the road, but the scene was obvious from a mile away, lit up by white-...more I'm re-reading this book, and have decided this series--and particularly this book--has a carol-simile.

Once, in the early witching hours of the morning when absolutely nothing good happens, I got called out of bed to respond to a roll-over car accident out by Highway N. My partner and I jumped in the ambulance and raced to the scene, still half-asleep, ambulance lights and siren flaring in the darkness. The car had rolled off the road, but the scene was obvious from a mile away, lit up by white-hot spotlights and the strobes of police cars. Officers doing a search had found a teen thrown from the car, sprawled in the matted corn, limbs askew, barely conscious. He was in a halo of light, rimmed with an expanse of corn, enough to get lost in. As I knelt, crushing stalks under my knees, I took his head in my hands to hold his spine straight until my partner could apply a collar. He might have moaned as we worked. For his mother, for a cigarette, for a drink--who could tell? I could smell the sweetness of alcohol on his breath as I watched his breathing. When we shifted and wrapped his body, buckling him to the hard plastic longboard, I heard the deep thuk thuck of the helicopter blades as they slowed.

The Charlie Pitt series is a lot like that scene. Violence, stupidity and noble intentions; life and struggle; purpose and accidents; tension and inevitablity; darkness lit by flashes of white and red lights; poetry and philosophy in short choppy bites. Impressive and uncomfortable. The high of adrenalin coupled with tragedy.

***************************
The finale in the Joe Pitt series satisfactorily brings it all together and leaves a warm afterglow. Truly, I wasn't sure it would. The beginning was rocky; Joe is apparently taping a chronicle of events, and of all things, laughing as he narrates. What?! Joe doesn't laugh. Maybe, at most, a dry chuckle or a bitter half-curve applied to the lip. It felt awkward. However, I stayed with it and it took off like one of Joe's matches flaring in the dark. Chubby comes to call and request a favor, dangling the chance for Joe to break even, and setting it with a sharp hook. Joe is dragged in despite himself, and soon finds himself traversing Manhattan looking for Chubby's missing daughter and her Vampyre lover.

Once again, the underbelly of New York comes alive, particularly the beginning when we follow Joe through his new turf, and the following subway sequences. I can just about feel the grime and hear the rumble of the train from Joe's shack. Every time Joe meets that pasty white Enclave skittering through the shadows, I shiver.

The overall action sequence felt a little re-hashed, but it worked well. It's the finale, and appropriate both in term of the plot and the arc of Joe's life, and frankly, it's satisfying to revisit the gang. Digga, Percy, Amanda, Sela, Phil, Lydia, Terry and Hurley, Predo, the Count. They all get a chance to wax philosophical, and what do you know--they all have some surprising insights that are true to character. Digga is my clear favorite, but Hurley's period accent and mindset runs a close second. The relationships have developed enough over the course of the series that it's not a replay--more of a jazz riff, escalating to a dramatic conclusion. Huston is not afraid to play hardball with his characters; like Hamlet, the stage is littered with bodies by the end.

And damn if the writing doesn't keep grabbing me:

"I'd say I was thinking about Evie, but that would be redundant. She's my white noise. Always there, crackling static in my brain. Inescapable. Mostly you tune it out. The second you focus on it, it drowns out everything else."

"Not that she's done me wrong. Just that she radiates danger with a half-life of forever."

"If it go that far. Which I ain't sure about as yet. Possibility people could all have a sudden attack of gettin' they's shit together. Never know."(less)

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Nov 15, 2009 Kemper rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, vampires

- Hey, Charlie Huston. Can I ask you a question?

- Sure, Kemper.

- First, I’m a big fan. Your new breed of neo-noir writing is a blast to read in both your crime and horror novels.

- Thank you.

- No problem. I gotta admit that I thought the Joe Pitt character was probably one of your weaker creations for a while there, though.

- Why? You didn’t like the idea of a tough guy Vampyre getting caught up in various turf wars between rival clans in New York?

- No, I was good with that. I just have this pet p...more

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Apr 27, 2012 Leslee rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. 2 stars. Okay, wow. So much I want to discuss in this review. The final novel in the Joe Pitt series, where finally the over arching plot gets solved and all the various factions come together in the turf war to end all turf wars.

The series continues with its downward spiral into an overly complicated plotline and muddled characters that show no discernible reasons for their actions except 'we need to kill and/or use Joe Pitt'. Honestly I was left wondering why does everyone think this guy is s...more 2 stars. Okay, wow. So much I want to discuss in this review. The final novel in the Joe Pitt series, where finally the over arching plot gets solved and all the various factions come together in the turf war to end all turf wars.

The series continues with its downward spiral into an overly complicated plotline and muddled characters that show no discernible reasons for their actions except 'we need to kill and/or use Joe Pitt'. Honestly I was left wondering why does everyone think this guy is so great? Aren't there any other dudes who they can use? Joe Pitt can't be the only once rogue vampire. He doesn't have any special abilities except it seems to be constantly pummelled on and then hide himself and then ally himself to yet another powerful villain who gives him a second (third, fourth, fifth) chance for some reason.

I still have no idea what really divides any of these major groups. We have the coalition, which want to maintain the status quo. Ok, I get that. I can understand why they would want to do that, it makes sense for vampyres not to want to rock the boat if they have a good thing going.

You have the 'Society', which for some reason *claim* that they want to go public and eventually reveal themselves to humans. But Terry Bird, the leader, seems to not really want to do that because he has so many opportunities to do so and constantly says 'well I want to do it later'.

Then here's the 'Hood', which honestly, don't seem to have any discernible raison d'etre except that hey, guess what - all these dudes be black dudes who are the worst gangsta stereotypes you can imagine.

The Enclave are interesting but fail again in execution. You have these monk type vampires, supposedly so uber powered and skilled that everyone is scared to tangle with them, but they don't do anything but sit around in an empty warehouse. By the end they actually all kill each other rather than actually doing any damage. Why is Evie, Joe's once girlfriend who had aids, somehow the savior of these Enclave types? Why do they listen to her? Why didn't they just kill her if she was making waves and the big boss the Count never trusted her?

Finally you have the 'Cure', lead by Amanda, that sweet girl that Joe rescued in the first novel, who is only in her early twenties, has never gone to med school, and yet somehow is capable of solving a decades old puzzle of what makes the Vampyre virus tick that the coalition had hundreds of people working on this whole time. She's sitting around splicing together genes and making whole new breeds of Vampyre all while sitting in a fortress tower under seige and threat from the Coalition. Huh? What? Who you say? Confused yet?

The noir tone just seems so out of place in this final novel which really is just a straight up action novel more than anything else. In the end, everyone seems to die except for - wait for it - Joe! And his Twu Wuv! How nice and romantic and happy and completely un-noir-like!

So many disappointing things about this final book. So many things that don't even make any sense. Why does everyone suddenly become so stupid? Why is Joe, who now only has one eye, and 7 fingers, able to kill and manipulate everyone? Why do people keep listening to him and believing him after he's double crossed them countless times?

Why choose now, of all times, to reveal that Vampyres exist by getting cops to go to the Vampyre charnelhouse to save the human chattel? Why do Joe and Evie ride off into the sunset and think somehow by leaving New York that they will escape persecution? Haven't they ever heard of the internet? Don't they think that word is going to spread? Do they think that vampyres are only found in New York?

Why did I keep reading to the end of this book?

These are the burning questions people. Questions left unanswered by this severely disappointing book. (less)

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Aug 01, 2011 Kathy Davie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, urban

Fifth in the Joe Pitt urban fantasy series set in an alternate New York City, specifically Manhattan. And I think it's the last…

The Story
After Every Last Drop, Joe has been living in the sewers for the past year---a natural fallout after instigating war and massive distrust where Chubby finds Joe and begs him to find his pregnant, missing daughter. The father is a young vampyre and word is spreading that the child could be the hope for all vampires. Every group wants the child; few for that chil...more

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Mar 10, 2011 Amanda rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

My Dead Body is Charlie Huston's fifth and final entry in the Joe Pitt saga, a hard-boiled horror noir series about vampyre clans in modern-day Manhattan. The Island is divided into geographical territories run by various clans including The Society, The Coalition, The Hood, The Enclave, and other minor clans that are fictional paradigms of criminal enterprises as they exist today.

This sweeping finale leaves no question unanswered, and no character unvisited as Pitt makes the rounds with Terry...more My Dead Body is Charlie Huston's fifth and final entry in the Joe Pitt saga, a hard-boiled horror noir series about vampyre clans in modern-day Manhattan. The Island is divided into geographical territories run by various clans including The Society, The Coalition, The Hood, The Enclave, and other minor clans that are fictional paradigms of criminal enterprises as they exist today.

This sweeping finale leaves no question unanswered, and no character unvisited as Pitt makes the rounds with Terry Bird, Hurley, Lydia, Dexter Predo, Grave Digga, The Count, Evie, Amanda Horde and Sela. Readers new to the series who haven't read the first four books may find themselves lost in the complicated relationships that govern character motivations, though the novel is comprehensive enough to be read without prior a introduction. Huston's gripping, stylistic prose pulls no punches with casual descriptions of escalating violence, and Joe Pitt's outrageous and often reckless stunts keep the roller-coaster pacing one long thrill-ride.

The story opens as Joe Pitt's self-exile in the underground sewers of Manhattan comes to an abrupt halt when Chubby Freeze requests his help in finding his missing daughter, a human impregnated by a vampyre. The potential repercussions of a hybrid child are brewing unrest among the clans who alternatively view the unborn as a savior or their damnation. Pitt--well aware that to show his face in Manhattan after starting a war between the clans would be suicide--isn't inclined to take the job until Freeze hints that Evie, Pitt's old flame, wants him to find the girl.

Once on the job, Joe tracks the girl's whereabouts from one territory to another, finding himself pursued by old enemies--head of clans who want him dead--and reverts to his old habit of artful negotiation by playing one clan off another to serve his own ends. When the investigation leads him to The Cure--Amanda Horde's high-rise penthouse located in the heart of Coalition territory--Joe's gruesome discovery of her horrific medical research on the vyrus may well prove the end of vampyre kind.

Vampire fans will find the pulp fiction Joe Pitt series a unique departure from popular romantic fantasies like Twilight and Sookie Stackhouse. If you like your vampires with more of a bite, check out the first in the series, Already Dead.
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Nov 09, 2009 Tim Niland rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009-reads

Bringing Charlie Huston's wonderful series of supernatural pulp to a conclusion with a rollicking finish, this book was a joy to read. Joe Pitt is a Vampyre (infected by the AIDS like Vyrus in the bathroom at the punk haven CBGB's) and after the events of the previous books he has been driven (literally) underground, living amongst the hobos and the castoffs in the New York City sewer system. Contacted by a former acquaintance to which Pitt feels a debt, he surfaces once again in order to find t...more

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Jun 17, 2011 Will rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's hard to see a story come to a close, with characters with whom you've grown comfortable, but we must part from the tales of the Coalition, the Society, Clan Cure, and the minor vampyres in the other boroughs of NYC. What isn't hard is to see the winding down of the clock, the spiralling out of control of the warring factions, to see that among them, despite their differences, it was realpolitik played out, with each wanting what mattered most to them, and for Joe, that was protecting the th...more

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Jun 27, 2011 Contrarius rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: urban-fantasy

Oh man, did I love these books or what. I may just be in the perfect mood too appreciate them, so I'm not going to make many objective statements about their absolute value, but at the moment this series really does seem to belong right up there with Cormac McCarthy, the best of Elmore Leonard, and the grittiest of Quentin Tarantino. In addition, the narration by Scott Brick really brought the characters to life -- especially the world-weary, self-despising, laconic Joe Pitt, who was voiced to p...more

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Nov 02, 2009 Dave rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In 2005 I was burned out on Vampire novels. Anne Rice’s books really weren’t my thing. I thought they were more romance novels than horror novels. And most of the other stuff out there was pretty derivative. Still TV shows like “Buffy” and “Angel” and comic book characters like Blade and Hannibal King from Marvel Comics “Tomb of Dracula” series had shown me that Vampires struggling against their nature to do soemthing good can make for some pretty compelling fictional characters.

It was that idea...more In 2005 I was burned out on Vampire novels. Anne Rice’s books really weren’t my thing. I thought they were more romance novels than horror novels. And most of the other stuff out there was pretty derivative. Still TV shows like “Buffy” and “Angel” and comic book characters like Blade and Hannibal King from Marvel Comics “Tomb of Dracula” series had shown me that Vampires struggling against their nature to do soemthing good can make for some pretty compelling fictional characters.

It was that idea and the fact that Charlie Huston had already written two kick ass crime thrillers that made me pick up the first novel in his Joe Pitt Casebooks seriees “Already Dead” and I’m so glad I did. It was the perfect blending of horror and everything I love about crime fiction.

In creating the world of Joe Pitt, it’s like Huston took the best elements of some of my favorite stories and made the ultimate cocktail. I see elements of films like “Blade 2″ and “The Warriors”, classic private eye fiction, Richard Matheson’s “I Am Legend”, and Garth Ennis’s comic “Preacher. If you like any of those things you’ll love what Huston does with vampires or vampyres as it it’s spelled in Pitt’s world.

The Joe Pitt casebooks take place in a world where vampyres are real. They’re not supernatural creatures, but there is a hint of the supernatural running through the series. They have been infected by a virus that makes them hunger for blood and amps up their physical abilities allowing them perform some amazing feats. These Vampyres have gathered together to form clans, with different perspectives on how to make their way in the world.

The specific setting of the Joe Pitt books is New York City. The island of Manhattan has been divided up by a number of opposing clans. The two most powerful are the wealthy and secretive Coalition, who want to blend in and keep the world of Vampyres a secret. And The Society, a band of revolutionaries and rebels who use violence and intimidation in hopes of one day achieving their ultimate goal of a world where man and Vampyre can exist in harmony.

Joe Pitt has history with both of those clans and because of that he doesn’t want anything to do with them. Like all noir anti-heroes trouble has a penchant for finding him. This usually happens as a result of a private detective style job Joe takes to make ends meet. Sometimes he has to hurt and kill a whole lot of people to succeed at those jobs and stay alive. The one guiding light of Joe Pitt’s world is his girlfriend Evie, an HIV infected bar tender.

Now that I’ve set up Joe’s world I’m going to to attempt to do a spoiler free review “My Dead Body” the fifth and final book in the series. Joe Pitt’s story evolves over the course of the first four novels: the previously mentioned “Already Dead“, the second volume “No Dominion”, the third book “Half the Blood of Brooklyn”, and the fourth book “Every Last Drop.”

By the time “My Dead Body” begins, Joe Pitt is in the darkest of all places, underground. He’s ignited a full scale war between the major Vampyre clans of the city, and his beloved Evie doesn’t want to see him. He’s eking out an existance in the sewers of New York City. An old associate finds him and asks him to look for his daughter who disappeared into the chaotic Vampire underworld. Pitt agrees because he learns that Evie wants him to take the case.So he sees this as an opportunity to fight his way back to the one good thing in his life.

What follows is a fast paced, blood soaked, action packed, horrific, morally murky, poignant and fun story that takes place all over one night. Pitt is a charismatic underdog. You love him because of his quick wit and his endurance. Both are on display here. Pitt undergoes a ton on physical punishment in this book, but he keeps going. You also really feel and understand the love that keeps him going. It makes him easy to root for. And Huston bring Pitt’s story to a satisfying conclusion.

He also wraps up the stories of most of the book’s reoccurring characters in nice and interesting ways. Characters that are given especially cool arcs in “My Dead Body” include: Lydia Miles, a prominent Society member and leader of a cell of lesbian Vampyres, and Hurley the Society’s massive chief enforcer.

“My Dead Body” is more than just cool character moments though. You get a three way battle between members of the Coalition, The Society, and the mutated horrors of an insane researcher out to cure the virus. You get Joe Pitt fighting to stay alive and put down all the evil in his world, as well as anything that stand between him and Evie.

Huston doesn’t tie up everything in “My Dead Body”. He leaves some things for the readers to decide, which I think ultimately makes for more satisfying reading anyway. All of these elements combine to make “My Dead Body” the best book in the Joe Pitt series and a hell of a send off for the character and his fascinating world(less)

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Jun 04, 2012 Julie H. rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: vampire-fiction

I have had Charlie Huston's Joe Pitt books on my to-read list for some time, and was thrilled to have finally come across one of them. I scooped it up, only to discover after-the-fact that I had just read the final book in the series. I'm not at all disappointed, as I'm glad to have gotten the wider sense of Huston's story arc without having invested the time in a style that isn't my cup of tea. Mindful that the very things I didn't care for will be precisely to someone else's liking, I wanted t...more

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Jan 15, 2010 Matthew Stepp rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010-reading-list

Personally, finishing the series at five books seems like the right thing to do. Anymore and it becomes either too ridiculous (even for a story about vampyres, but how could Joe Pitt keep getting shot and cut up and still live) or stale (more story arcs like Half the Blood of Brooklyn wouldn't be a good thing, in my opinion).

My Dead Body deviates from the theme of the previous four by being structured almost like a final journal entry of a person before death. Pitt even comes off as ready and wa...more Personally, finishing the series at five books seems like the right thing to do. Anymore and it becomes either too ridiculous (even for a story about vampyres, but how could Joe Pitt keep getting shot and cut up and still live) or stale (more story arcs like Half the Blood of Brooklyn wouldn't be a good thing, in my opinion).

My Dead Body deviates from the theme of the previous four by being structured almost like a final journal entry of a person before death. Pitt even comes off as ready and waiting for death, which is a stark contrast to his previous headstrong survival for the sake of being with his girl Evie (now a vampyre of the Enclave Clan).

While it may not seem possible, the action scenes are even more brutal and fast paced while the dialogue surrounding the main tangential characters (Predo of the Coalition, Terry of the Society, and Amanda of the Cure Clan) is very witty and suspenseful. All of the great prose of the preceding books is still here, but on steroids at times.

The only weakness of the story is how quickly (even with the additional 50 or so pages Charlie Huston gives to the story compared to the others) Pitt runs through cleaning up all loose ends. Intriguing characters like Percy, Lament, and Chubby Freeze are handled very quickly and without regard for any previous connection the reader may have had with them. In hindsight, though, this could be chalked up to an ode to how Pitt views the people around him, but that may be a stretch.

By the end though, you should take a breathe and realize how many twists, turns, and plot results have taken place on each page. It really is quite a ride and even though many interesting characters seemed to be glossed over, the combined story arc of Predo, Terry, and Amanda is excellent and quite memorable. Compare how much occurred in the equivalent of ~1300 pages of text to how many series seem to drag on and on without consequence (I'm thinking of Robert Jordan here).

A highly recommended series for anyone looking for an intense, no holds bar crime drama with a good shot of vampyre fantasy and politics involved.

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May 07, 2010 Neil rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What a series!

I'll qualify just a bit by saying I don't think that as an individual book this is the best of the batch. Others will probably disagree, but I think that as the concepts got bigger, this series became difficult to sustain. We could talk about it, and you might have a better theory about it than I do, but I know I don't entirely understand what happened to Joe Pitt in the end or where his world is going. While it's interesting on a philosophical level, I don't really get what Huston...more

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Oct 28, 2009 Ryun rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If literary characters have feelings, it’s a fair bet to say none of them is especially glad to end up in Charlie Huston’s books, because nobody comes out of them intact. Whether the abuse he inflicts is emotional or graphically physical, characters sitting in this imaginary green room know that they’re in for it when they hit the page. And while this is true across all of Huston’s output, things are especially tough for the denizens of his Joe Pitt casebooks, being set in a New York City lousy...more

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Jan 13, 2010 Cathy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ebook-read, fantasy, paranormal, read-in-2010, urban, vampire, zz-challenge-bcc-fantasy-2010, ebook-owned

The end of a very dark and violent series. Neither bothered me as much a some of the suspense mysteries, there was never a moment that made me feel afraid or anxious. It's just a series about a guy with his own moral code living and working in a very dicey situation, one that allows for a lot of violent acts and some pretty cowardly too. Joe's a mixed bag. There are a few things he will not do, and a few things that he'll do anything for. Those things alternately disparage and redeem him as a ch...more

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May 01, 2012 Gabriel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ok, slow start aside (100 pages before the thing really starts moving), this book had just about everything that has made this series really fascinating. Joe Pitt possibly "thrashing at sea/misguiding others with his clever plans" while getting more beaten than Harry Dresden ever was; romance; plans within plans within plans; quadruple crossings ... some of which are just coincidental; ties to the earlier books in the series creating a wonderful story arc and more.

I think the previous one is the...more

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Aug 03, 2011 Lyricsninja rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-and-reviewed

Really interesting. I loved the way the story was told, and that you didnt feel like you were missing anything integral, given this was the 5th book of the series. I'm also quite surprised at how good it was, considering I'm very skeptical of the genre. Charlie Huston does a great job of making Joe Pitt seem larger than life, but in the same he is more human than ever (even though he is a Vampyre that is). The storytelling element being from Joe's perspective is also really interesting since you...more

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Nov 30, 2009 Daniel Parsons rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A brilliant end to a fantastic series, this fifth and final Joe Pitt casebook ties together (most of) the loose ends from the previous instalments, giving all the weird and wonderful characters a part to play. Joe Pitt himself, one of Charlie Huston's finest creations, has always had a special place in my heart - he is extremely self-deprecating (calling himself an asshole all the time) whilst being heroic in an anti-hero/unconventional way, and I was *very* pleased that Lydia gets a real chance...more

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May 07, 2010 Kevin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 04, 2010 Brendan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Figured I'd read the last Joe Pitt Book. Figured I loved the first, second, and fourth ones.

And yeah, I admire the way Huston writes and the way he dared to open this story up and make it bigger with every book.

Didn't figure on this: My Dead Body is the best book Huston's ever written. Couldn't put it down. Even half dead and one-eyed, Joe Pitt is a badass.

Don't want to spoil anything. Think that ruins the book for some people. Let's just say having read the Hank Thompson trilogy, I figured I k...more

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Feb 22, 2010 Karlo rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, mystery-detective

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Aug 17, 2012 O'Brian Gunn rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Joe Pitt series has been one of my favorites for years; I can read this series over and over again. I don't remember quite how I stumbled on this series, but I'm glad I did. With so many novels out there geared toward vampires, it was nice to read a different take on the genre. Instead of mystical, vampyrism in Charlie Huston's world is more of a virus, in the vein of Blade or Underworld. Combine that with staccato sentences, the underworld king of anti-heroes and an intriguing plot set in N...more

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Mar 17, 2010 Ian Mathers rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010

It says more about me than Houston that I liked this one slightly less than the last two, much darker Joe Pitt books. Not that My Dead Body is sweetness and light - it's got the one section of Huston's work thus far that actually made my skin crawl, and Joe pays a high and sometimes gruesome price for being his own man. But it is, as I suspected, the end of his story, and that ending isn't quite what I expected or wanted. That ending doesn't violate the story's internal plausibility or anything...more

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Dec 11, 2009 Steve rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, inlibrary, thriller

Huston surrenders his Joe Pitt series to a series of tortuous twists of plot and weak character ploys.

Still, Huston manages two things very, very well: Cripsly crackly dialog and drop dead action that hits you like a car wreck; Neither allow you to take your virtual ears or eyes away even though sometimes you want to.

This series started off great -- unique vision,unique character; it then went thru some just ok plots, but emerged in the last two books with a kind of undead going thru the pain an...more

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Mar 15, 2011 Jimmy rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Honestly, this book was a 2.5 stars. There was so much backstory, which to me, seemed more interesting than the novel I was reading. Now coming to good reads, I see this is Pitt#5? Joe Pitt being the protagonist in MDB. I could go looking for the four previous releases but I'm onto many other things.

If you're looking for a decent vampire story, something not mired in romance and smoochy-smoochy give this a look. Definitely something you can bang out in a day or two. Maybe even a weekend, dependi...more

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Jan 21, 2013 Maduck831 rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: completed-joe-pitt-series

I'm giving this four (4) stars out of an overall enjoyment of the series, however, feeling feel this is more a 3.5 stars.

I don't know, I can't help but think I was "cheated" a bit in this series, i.e. it could've been so much more. I just feel that a lot was left unsaid. Huston does a great job of creating a "different" take on vampyres (i.e. virus, how some have it some don't, not everyone can be turned, the idea of supply/demand, the clans) and then just glosses over the surface of it. For ex...more

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Mar 31, 2012 gert rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

its over. le sigh....

great continuation of joe pitt's story. even more winding, ever changing twists, multi-layered characters and a great blend of humour and creepy.

enough reviews include erudite descriptions of motivation, blah, blah, blah. so i won't bother. what i will say is that as much as i loved this book - i loathed the ending. and by ending, i mean literally - the last couple of pages. a little too iffy. i suppose that was the point - the reader can decide wtf joe and evie end up doing...more

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Nov 09, 2009 Laura rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror, urban-fantasy, vampires

The final novel in a series has a lot to measure up to, and in my opinion the last Joe Pitt novel didn't live up to its four predecessors. I am a big fan of Charlie Huston - and his Joe Pitt character in particular - but both of them seem to have lost their edge in My Dead Body.

Dead Body picks up a year after the events in Every Last Drop and while most of the threads are picked up again, they aren't picked up in a way that is consistent with the books that came before. Most of the characters fr...more

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Jun 26, 2012 Tasula rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the final book of the Joe Pitt vampire in NY series which started with Already Dead. Joe is conned into trying to find Chubby's daughter, who got pregnant by a vamp and ran off. All the players want the kid for different reasons- so Joe goes through the usual hell trying to rescue her. I didn't like this book as much as the others, I thought there was a little too much chatter, but it was still good, and I needed to know how Huston was going to wrap things up.

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Jan 16, 2010 Erica rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

After absorbing abnormal amounts of vamp fiction, YA and paranormal romance this year, Joe Pitt has been my refreshing exception. At the author's own admission inspired by Raymond Chandler and Elmore Leonard, I've never read anything quite like it--mainly because I don't normally read crime or noir fiction, I suppose.

Soulful, fantastical, dark, funny, spiritual, ultra-violent, sexy, endlessly suprising and inventive. With a surprisingly satisfying series ending in book 5.

A great thing to read if...more

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Jan 19, 2013 Curtis Macon rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was my least favorite of the Joe Pitt casebook. I can't however, put my finger on why. Perhaps it was the unnecessary plotline involving Chubby's daughter. Perhaps it was the less than satisfying end. Perhaps it was my annoyance that, after asking why Vampyres didn't just spread out if there was a blood shortage, Vampyres spread out with apparent ease on the verge of being exposed.

Whatever it was, this gets 3.5 stars from me. It was an unsatisfactory conclusion to what was otherwise a grea...more

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My Dead Body (Joe Pitt #5)

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