Bloodlines

Williamson (The Book of Webster's) goes for the jugular in this unusual vampire tale set in contemporary New York City, but he misses the vein. Marshall Madison, a vampire, is caught by his wife Deborah attempting to ``vampirize'' their son Thaddie. A series of events leads to Deborah's suicide, Marshall's disappearance, Thaddie's move to foster parents and his sister Caroline's adoption by Brooklyn taxi driver Jake Spencer and his wife. When Thaddie runs away (to an abandoned hotel where he lives with a pack of rats), everyone begins to search for him, including Marshall, who kills anyone who gets in his way, and Jake, who enlists the help of a group of hack friends. When focusing on vampirism and Thaddie's growing realization of what he is to become, this novel is absorbing, but it lacks the horrifying realism that marked The Book of Webster's. With stilted, old-fashioned dialogue and anticlimactic, unsatisfying fates assigned to Marshall and Thaddie, this fresh approach to the vampire mythos is unlikely to set off nightmares. (Nov.)