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A serial killer is loose in Manchester masquerading as a vampire, and a forensic psychologist is tasked with creating a profile to help catch them, with unexpected results. The story takes popular myth and, reduced to its essentials, and asks what's the most rational, scientifically plausible explanation for the phenomenon. Both the underlying myth and the science are very carefully researched.
About the author
Pat Whitaker was born in North Leigh, Oxfordshire, in 1946. At the age of four, he moved to New Zealand with his parents and older bother, where the family settled in the small community of Pinehaven, a suburb of Wellington.
After a fairly rudimentary education he found employment in the Interior Design Department of an architectural firm, a job that set a path for his entire working life, although he migrated from interiors to general architecture.
During his twenties he did as most young New Zealanders did; he left the country for his O.E. (overseas experience). He spent five years travelling, visiting everywhere from India to Europe and Africa, with periods of necessary employment in London and later Hereford.
Returning to New Zealand he settled back into architectural work - for the most part on his own account - and married, raised a family and had the occasional (unsuccessful) foray into business.
Only on reaching sixty did the idea of becoming an author enter into the equation. At no time during his life had he had any interest in writing, even in his youth, but a chance remark by his wife Jude, plus approach retirement, prompted him to try his hand.
Whitaker's books generally fall into the categories of Crime or Science Fiction, but commonly include elements of both. His motivation - apart from a desire to entertain - is to satisfy his own curiosity. This may take the form of exploring some idea, and finding new ways to look at it, or by trying to tackle some specific writing challenge; simply to see if he can succeed.
Five years and seven books later, he finally describes himself as an author, not an architect.
