We Love the Nightlife

A throbbing disco beat powers screenwriter Croft’s stunning sophomore effort (after Stone Cold Fox), which centers on a pair of vampires ensnared in a toxic partnership. In 1979, wily vampire Nicola Claughton spots 23-year-old Amber Wells on a London dance floor. Instant attraction moves Nicola to “turn” (read: bite) Amber and bring her back to her ancestral manse in Hampstead. Fast-forward 50 years and Amber has begun to feel stifled, so she plots an escape, hoping to spend her eternal youth elsewhere. Nicola can feel Amber pulling away, and makes an alluring proposition: they’ll open their own nightclub and recapture their glory days. Amber agrees, but both women are keeping their cards close to their vests—Nicola has never taken kindly to attempted abandonment, and Amber plans to use the club’s opening to make a grand gesture and end their relationship. Concealed family histories, betrayals, and carefully parceled flashbacks usher the narrative toward an incendiary climax, and Croft’s devilish plotting pays heed to classic vampire tropes without succumbing to them. Readers should rush to sink their teeth into this. Agent: Hillary Jacobson, CAA. (Aug.)