Rather slow paced, and the narrative jumps around alot. I would only recommend this book to hardcore vampire novel fans. ( )

Adam Caine, a vampire less than a hundred years old, enjoys his sadistic streak when it comes to victims, especially building up hopes and dreams then tearing them to shreds and savoring the aftermath. Take Nina, for instance. He forces her into prostitution, gets her addicted to heroin, and then turns her into a vampire to watch her destroy her own five-month-old child. Things, however, do not go as he planned; once transformed to a vampire, she does feed on her child, but brings him back before Adam can destroy her. Now, an infant vampire crawls loose somewhere in New York City, and Adam must seek help from the woman who changed him into a vampire before the Triumvirate finds out and the secret world of vampires becomes known to the humans.

Meanwhile, estranged lovers Steve Johnson and Lori Martin try to piece together their latest book focusing on vampires. The ad they placed in the Village Voice brings in only one serious response, but they haven't heard from her -- a young woman named Nina who claims to have firsthand knowledge -- and are about to give up on her, until her brother Jim shows up on Steve's doorstep. When they learn of her violent death, Jim convinces them to help him find her killer, not realizing until too late the monsters they must battle to avenge Nina are real.

With his first novel, Terence Taylor offers a great addition to the vampire genre. He keeps with the traditional mythos, coming out only at night, feeding on human blood, controlling human minds, but also draws from other vampire tales. His Autochthones -- a race of vampires living in the tunnels beneath New York's subway system -- worship a creature similar to Bram Stoker's White Worm. He adds new twists to vampire history, as well, turning such events as the crash of the Hindenburg into a cover up for vampires trying to cross from Europe to the States, and creating a system of government to maintain order between their world and the human world.

Taylor tackles something I've always wondered: what would happen if a vampire becomes infected with HIV. THe HIV begins to slowly destroy an infected vampire,which is what happens to the nest created by Baby, but Taylor's creativity comes into play when describing what happens when an infected vampire bites a victim. They die, only to rise sometime later as a vampire zombie, of sorts, with the infected blood itself using the new body as a vessel to infect more people and other vampires. The scenes in which the blood passes are quite astonishing and imaginative, complete with exploding eyeballs and other goriness.

"Bite Marks" contains well-developed characters, too. Adam Caine (born Ferderic Hartwell) is evil personified: cruel, merciless, willing to do anything to get what he wants no matter who it harms -- as long as he remains untouched. HIs vampire mother, Perenelle de Marivaux, struggles to maintain a balance between her human identity and her vampire one, at times acting as peacemaker for Adam while secretly wishing him dead but switching at the drop of a hat to remorseless thoughts of death when Steve and Lori possibly threaten to reveal the vampires' existence. Steve and Lori act as I would expect any normal couple with relationship issues, trying to understand what happened between them while being thrust into something way over their heads and seemingly impossible.

My only detraction is the character of Claire St. Claire, a young female vampire, who was an accomplice to such a heinous crime -- even by vampiric standards -- that she was entombed for 50 years without food or contact. A great deal is made of her release from imprisonment early on in the story, but she disappears after that. As I made my way further and further into the story, I wondered when she would pop up, but she never did. Perhaps she'll appear in another story....

"Bite Marks" tells a fast-paced, fantastic tale, creating a new history for vampires in the New York while keeping the gore and horror many readers have come to expect from a vampire story. Fans of horror and of vampires will definitely enjoy this book as much as I did. ( )