Morningstar

“Atkins knows how to tell a story and keeps this one thrumming with tension. Devotees of dark suspense will find it to their liking.”—Publishers Weekly

“An audacious mix of vampires, ghosts, goddesses, and psychopaths. Wonderful stuff!”—Neil Gaiman

“Morningstar is a wonderful book—intelligent, well-written and filled with memorable scenes and images.”—Bentley Little

“Atkins is a brilliant supplier of shudders and splendors.”—Clive Barker

FACT: When Stephen Lumby was being slaughtered he lost as much sweat induced by mortal terror, as he would have lost on a two-mile run.

FACT: Although the majority of Katharine Elizabeth Ferritti was found in a deserted hardware store, smaller pieces of her were still being discovered by sewer workers up to two months after her killing.

FACT: Lumby, Ferritti and ten other people were all murdered in the first eleven days of June. Their ages ranged from eight to sixty-one. In each case, on the available surface nearest to the body, scrawled in the victim's blood, was a single word:

MORNINGSTAR

Facts not released by the police: in each case, the cause of the death was rupture of the heart by a sharpened wooden stake; in each case the victim's mouth was stuffed with garlic.