Glen Duncan – By Blood We Live -on the shelf this week!
Glen Duncan writes books with bite. We learned this in his first-of-three novel, The Last Werewolf, with a charming tourguide named Jake, who also grows fur and kills things- just once a month, though. A great guy in every other respect. So Glen did what any respectable novelist would do with a popular and engaging main character – he killed Jake off. So does that mean there aren’t any more werewolves? Not to worry, Jake had a girlfriend. Well, a couple. (I said he was charming.) The second book, Tallula Rising, followed one of these newly fanged and surprisingly pregnant women, and fortunately Tallula was every bit as fierce and interesting as Jake. And then of course there were vampires. (They are like peanut butter and chocolate.)
The third and final (?) book in this series has Tallula and her pack (to coin a phrase) chasing after her kidnapped children, fighting against the forces of the Vatican, various vampires, and random humans that get in their way. And since they are werewolves, they have to stop down once a month to extremely kill things. This is not a book for the squeamish, or vegetarians.
Duncan’s characters are clever and biting (sorry.) My favorite part was the absolute contempt the vamps and the wolves have for each other – I am also a sucker (again, sorry) for vampire politics and there is plenty to enjoy.
I spoke with Glen about getting to write your own version of the Bible, the importance of things that smell, and also shamelessly begged him to write more about these characters. For bestial murderers, they’re awfully good company.
Photo Credit: Richard Whitehead
