The first of four Larten Crepsley books that will span the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Birth of a Killer features Larten as a young boy whose life is thrown into chaos when his closest friend is brutally murdered. Retreating from the world of humans, he finds refuge in the night-world of the vampire clan. But although he has the bravery, strength and skill to go far as a creature of the night, he faces a number of troubling obstacles and setbacks. He never feels totally in charge of his life, and though he always tries to do the right thing, sometimes he makes serious mistakes . . . for which he must later pay. Like the Cirque du Freak series, this is a coming of- age story, but it is spread across a far wider time period, and takes us even farther into the darkness of the vampire world.