Nancy A. Collins 
Dozen Black Roses 

From the Bram Stoker Award–winning author who “pretty much invented the punk vampire thing”: A vampire vigilante is in Deadtown to destroy her own (Seconds Magazine). As the convenience store doors close behind him, De Shawn can already hear the sirens. He sprints down the street, clutching his meager haul, but the police are gaining on him. He turns the corner onto a cobblestoned alley and the sirens stop. The police have turned back, and for a moment, De Shawn feels lucky. It doesn’t last. A crawling man leaps up from the shadows, wraps his arms around De Shawn’s neck, and feeds on his blood. Welcome to Deadtown.   A city within a city where the undead roam free, Deadtown is dangerous for humans and vampires alike. As a gang war rages between the old guard and the new, Deadtown’s innocents are caught in the crossfire. Only Sonja Blue can save them. A vampire with a sense of justice, she will play both ends against the middle to save Deadtown—or else burn it to the ground.