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Richard Harlan Miller
Gray Dog Press, 2011

In an expensive downtown Spokane condo lives a predator. You wouldn’t guess it from his expensive wine, conservative clothes, classical music, and penchant for nature and historical TV programs, but Darius is part of a group who must drink the blood of humans.

They don’t use the v-word, turn into bats, or sleep in coffins, but the bloodsuckers in All You Can Eat live a very long time and prefer the night. As one of them, Darius hunts in Seattle, with victims carefully selected and seduced from an online dating service.

His stable, if occasionally violent, life goes awry when he falls for a potential victim, Susan, and receives a visit from old comrade and fellow hunter Luke. The story turns on another ancient and powerful member of their kind who compels Darius and Luke to attend a counterculture festival in rural western Montana, set up as a feeding ground and scene of some shadowy plans.

Miller, who works for WSU’s Center for Distance and Professional Education, gives readers a well-constructed twist on the classic horror genre with sharp dialogue and darkly humorous passages. Thanks to his years around the Northwest, Miller sketches the culture and quirks of the region from Seattle to Montana as a fine background for his first novel.