Whisper of Blood, A edited by Ellen Datlow

"In her previous anthology Blood is Not Enough, Ellen Datlow selected and commissioned stories that examined the concept of vampirism -- "the draining of energy, the sucking of the will, the life force itself," as she put it -- from unusual angles and fresh perspectives. With A Whisper of Blood she has gathered together stories that extend the metaphor of the vampire even further beyond the traditional bloodsucker.

The eighteen stories -- almost all of them brand-new -- range in emotional tone from the charming "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep" by Suzy McKee Charnas to the psychological terror of Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's " Do I Dare to Eat a Peach?" Karl Edward Wagner's "The Slug" adds a touch of black humor to the mix. In Barry N. Malzberg's "Folly for Three" and Jack Womack's "Lifeblood" we see ordinary human relationships as vampiric; Jonathan Carroll in "The Moose Church" and Thomas Ligotti in "Mrs. Rinaldi's Angel" consider the life-sapping tendencies of dreams; and in Robert Holdstock and Barry Kilworth's "The Ragthorn," lore from ancient Egypt and Anglo-Saxon England promising immortality (the true lure of vampirism) impinges on the present.

These stories, along with others by such well known writers as David J. Schow, Robert Silverberg, and Thomas Tessier, are sure to thrill all vampire fans." (from book jacket)

Hardcover Info: ISBN 0688103618, William Morrow and Co., 1991