Crimson Hours — Susan Phelan

Do you believe in vampires? Exposed in this titillating trio of distinctly different stories is the possibility that all around the world at any given time of the night, people are interacting with the undead sometimes unwittingly. Certainly there are those who welcome, even seek out, the immortal, as is the case with Samantha, an LAPD detective who enlists the aid of a bloodsucker from her past to help identify, track down and kill her daughter's murderer in "Dawn". On the flip side, there are those clueless humans like Maddie, a bored and dejected Boston housewife in "Dusk", who has absolutely no idea her talented young dance instructor has had literally centuries in which to hone his craft. And what of Alison, the icy businesswoman from Texas who finds out just a little too late, in "Midnight", that the cowboy who has recently roped her in and so quickens her pulse, doesn't actually have one himself. Three women, three vampires, one night. Think you would know if you met one?