The Truants

In The Truants, the last old-one (an ancient and bloodthirsty creature afflicted with a condition not unlike vampirism) has decided to end his life. But as he prepares for dawn and his impending demise, he is held up at knifepoint and stabbed before sunrise. The assailant pockets the knife and disappears, the blood of the old-one seared into its sharpened edge.As the knife trades hands, drawing blood again and again, the old-one's congealed blood comingles with that of its victims. The old-one is resurrected through their con-sciousness and divided, spreading through the infected and creating a horde of bloodthirsty youth, who wreak havoc on the inner city. Determined to die, the old-one must reclaim the knife to regain control of his soul with the help of his vampiric hosts. But someone is out to stop him . . .Lee Markham, an intelligently sharp and powerful new voice in horror, presents in The Truants a complex and fresh twist on the vampire mythos. A dystopian novel of startling intensity featuring all the genuine horror of traditional stories in the genre, The Truants is a staggering debut that will leave you at the edge of your seat until its final pages.