Rating: 3 stars

Just when you thought Los Angeles couldn’t get any worse, control of the streets is up for grabs and being vied for by factions of low-life dregs and thugs—including the undead.

One such group grabbing for the brass ring are the "Knucklers"—violent, junkie, vampires so named for the way they inject heroin into their victim, then suck it out through a dismembered appendage; usually starting with the finger. All while they’re victim is still breathing.

Knuckle Supper opens with two such junkies, Dez and RJ who have just scored themselves a pimp and his 12-year-old whore, Bait. Locking Bait in the bathroom, RJ and Dez shoot-up their victim, then RJ rips off the pimp’s forearm before quickly dislodging the middle finger to suck out its drug-fortified liquid center.

Then, like any gentlemanly, serial-murdering, addict, RJ bounces up and down on the pimp’s chest to keep the heart pumping just a bit longer so Dez can get his bliss from the other arm.

Of course appendages are only the beginning. No fix is complete without popping off the victim’s head for any juicy goodness it has to offer. Though Bait is to be next, RJ spares her for reasons even he can’t fathom. And so Knuckle Supper begins its demented spiral into an endless rampage of blood, drugs and violent brutality.

For most readers, the rampant and continuous references to the many bodily fluids ready available in the human body and the multiple orifices from which they could exit—whether naturally or with a bit of heavy-handed encouragement—may render one a bit squeamish. Although, I found the unceasing barrage of all things sick and violent to lose impact after awhile—but that just might be the result of playing the childhood game “Gross Out” with my brother throughout my most impressionable years…

The voice of Knuckle Supper was reminiscent of Nick Sconce’s Pewter, Murder and Loaded Dice; as well as Wrath James White’s tasty novel, Succulent Prey. Although Drew Stepek definitely carves his own niche in the paranormal world; succeeding in putting a sick, modern twist on the oft-depicted vampire—there’s definitely no danger of any of Stepek’s characters sparkling in the sun.

Knuckle Supper's hard-edged prose keeps the reader from getting too comfortable, while it perfectly conveys the dark and dangerous world of the Kucklers and other deadly lurkers that go bump in the night.
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Hardcover: 354 pages
Publisher: Savage patch Kids (November 16, 2010)
ISBN-13: 978-0978602451