A bizarre epidemic is sweeping New York City. Doctors can only watch as victims fall prey to a very unusual blood disorder. They become unable to eat solid food, are extremely sensitive to daylight and they have an irresistible need to drink human blood. As panic, bloodlust and death grip the city, a few begin to consider the unimaginable: Could the old folktales and legends be true? Could the epidemic be the work of vampires? Their search for the truth will lead them to shadowy realms where very few dare to go. They will seek help from both the living and the dead. And they will realize that their worst fear was only the beginning.

My name is Merri Walters. I'm twenty-seven years old. Two years ago, I suddenly went deaf... My teaching career ended and my fiance walked out. I survived -- and learned to lip-read. I grew very good at it. Maybe too good. So here I am, two years later, starting my new life as a cold-case file clerk turned undercover agent for the police. My task: Infiltrate the mansion of a ruthless crime boss and read his deadly plans off his lips. My contact to the outside world: Detective Steven Barlow, a tough cop who's convinced I'm on a suicide mission. And in a way, he's right -- because if I'm caught, I'll be dead without ever hearing the bad guys coming....

Belfast. January 2005.Acting Detective Sergeant John O'Neill stands over the body of a dead teenager. The corpse was discovered on the building site of a luxury development overlooking the River Lagan. Kneecapped then killed, the body bears the hallmarks of a punishment beating. But this is the new Northern Ireland - the Celtic Tiger purrs, the Troubles are over, the paramilitaries are gone. So who is the boy? Why was he killed?O'Neill quickly realises that no one cares who the kid is - his colleagues, the politicians, the press - making this case one of the toughest yet. And he needs to crack this one, his first job as Principle Investigator, or he risks ending up back in uniform. Disliked by the Chief Inspector and with his current rank yet to be ratified, O'Neill is in a precarious position.With acute insight, Matt McGuire's cracking debut exposes the hidden underbelly of the new Northern Ireland, a world of drug dealing, financial corruption and vigilante justice.