In October, St. Martin’s Press are due to publish the next novel from acclaimed author Caitlin Starling. I haven’t read as much of the author’s work as I would like — the last thing, I believe, was the author’s very good contribution to the Vampire: The Masquerade anthology, Walk Among Us. After reading the synopsis for Milk Teeth, I have a feeling that might change (I have also gone back and re-read the synopses for the author’s other books, and I don’t really understand why I missed them).
This new novel is a “genre-bending supernatural horror about a vampire broodmother fighting against her own monstrous descent,” and looks like it’ll offer an interesting twist on the vampire mythology. Here’s the synopsis:
Beatrice is a broodmother: a vampire responsible for nursing newly made fledglings through the first years of their unlife. She nests in an abandoned, isolated warren of office space beneath her patron’s skyscraper, raising two fractious fledglings: Gorgeous — once a heartthrob, now to all appearances a living corpse — who longs for the return of the lover who made him immortal with all the fervor of a rebellious teen, and Fortunata, the scion of Beatrice’s mistress, alien and ambitious in her desires.
But when Beatrice decides to take on a third fledgling, the product of an attempted siring gone wrong, teetering between vampiric purity and ghoulish depravity, Beatrice finds herself strained to breaking between the societal and physical demands of her position, her own ravenous hunger, and an obsessive need to discover what’s happening to her — because her body is changing too, transforming her into something even more monstrous. She begins to crave the taste of flesh, something anathema to all vampires, and to swing between desperate hunger and vicious power.
Desperate to master herself once more, Beatrice courts a mortal OBGYN who might be able to unravel the secrets of her unnatural anatomy. But soon their connection threatens the secrecy of her vampiric coven as well as the safety and development of her dependent nurslings… and the humans they stand to slaughter if left to their own devices.
Really looking forward to reading this. Caitlin Starling’s Milk Teeth is due to be published by St. Martin’s Press in North America on October 20th.
Also on CR: Review of Walk Among US
This November, Sandman Slim rides again! I’ve been a fan of Richard Kadrey‘s excellent series since they were first published in the UK (2012), when the publisher gifted me the first three books. Each new book has been a must-read for me (in addition to the author’s other, non-Sandman Slim books), but after a busy period I fell a little behind. With In the Devil Wind — the 13th, final novel in the series — on the way, I think I have the incentive to finally get caught up! A nice goal for the summer, perhaps.
Earlier today, Del Rey 
On October 7th, 
Today, we have an excerpt from the next novel by Josh Rountree: The Unkillable Frank Lightning, “a Frankenstein-inspired tale unlike any other”.
I hadn’t heard about the second novel from Mason Coile, Exiles, until the publisher reached out about it a couple of weeks ago. Coile is a pseudonym for acclaimed, best-selling Canadian horror author 
The latest novel getting the 
Next month, 
Miserere was my debut novel in 2011, and as such, it had some problems. The prose was too purple, the descriptions too long, and the villains were a bit over the top. Thirteen years and four novels later, I’ve learned a lot about writing fiction, and I’ve grown, not just as an author, but as a person.
Civilian Reader 