Simmons is one scary fellow. In Children of the Night, he has created a world in post-Communist Romania full of bloodletting, bloodsucking and blood transfusions. The book begins at a desolate orphanage where a critically ill baby is transfused with the wrong type of blood--and instead of dying, this tiny baby boy survives. And keeps getting stronger.

What makes the author's portrayal of vampire clans and and those that fight against them so terrifying is his ability to tap into our most visceral emotions. He knows that everyone is scared by those feelings of looking under the bed or being alone in a dark house. He's able to conjure up those feelings in us all.

Scenes of brutal and beastly violence nudge right up to pages dripping in romance and sweetness. Simmons can toss out wonderful lines seemingly at will:

"Kate became aware of the pain before she was aware of anything else; she did not know who she was, where she wass, or why the world seemed composed of separate stilettos of pure pain, but she knew that she hurt." Children of the NightThat's a terric line to open Chapter Nineteen and just one of many.