Vernon Macy sits behind his desk all day, only to come home to a wife he can’t stand and a 22-year-old daughter, Janice, with nothing better to do with her time than snort coke and hang out with her boyfriend. He overhears two younger men at the office discussing the peep shows and strip joints on Times Square and how, if enough money was exchanged, one of the lovely ladies will give the customer a little something extra…like fellatio. Tossing and turning next to his wife, Doris, the idea takes root. Macy decides to find such a place.

Davey Owen is a respectable good-hearted young man even though he works for sleazy Penn Publishing, editing stories for Brute Force magazine which includes such literary gems as “I Blew Away the Punks Who Tried to Rape My Sister.” His girlfriend, Beth has just left him because he’s too good for her (such goodness makes her feel like a jerk whenever she fucks someone else.) Saddened by the loss he takes an extended lunch hour, walking and mulling over how -- yet again -- another failed romance is his fault. He walks until he finds himself in Times Square, inexplicably drawn into a peep show with the black curtains and the sign LIVE GIRLS over the entrance, with a flickering, neon I in GIRLS. With a handful of tokens, Davey’s life is about to take a turn for the worse when he meets a mesmerizing dancer named Anya.

Doris is suspicious of Vernon’s behavior: sudden weight loss, pale complexion, and keeping odd hours. She suspects an affair and calls her brother, Walter Benedek, to find out what’s really going on. Being an NYT reporter, if anyone can find out what’s going on, it’s Walter. He follows Macy to “Live Girls” and wonders how he’s going to explain Macy’s new hobby to his sister. Walter is supposed to meet Doris for breakfast that morning, but instead he finds her -- and Janice -- dead in their apartment, mutilated with their throats ripped out.

Believing Vernon is responsible for their murders, Walter sets out to find him (and probably kill him, if he can get away with it.)

Casey Thorne, Davey’s best friend, is also suspicious. Davey’s losing weight, pale and weak and can’t keep any food down. The flu? Casey assumes he’s sick and going downhill fast, and begs him to see a doctor. Davey, however, has a different idea. He is compelled to seek out Anya.

Staking out “Live Girls” in hopes of finding Vernon, it is on this second (or third…or fourth) visit to the peep show that Davey, and Casey, and Walter’s divergent lives become intertwined. And the story hits the fast lane with a vengeance.

This is not a simpering comedic romance with socially acceptable, fanged characters. This is not a novel filled with gilded asexuals, bored with centuries of immortality. Garton’s version is the stuff of nightmares.