"A gruesome, action-packed monster novel about a mother and daughter with a terrible secret, on the run from an obsessed and crumbling detective . . . Terrific." --The New York Times Book Review

In Stuart Neville's horror debut, a mother's undying love and a daughter's insatiable hunger carve a bloody trail across the highways of the Southwest.

On a cold December night, single mother Rebecca Carter drives her van into a snowbank to avoid hitting an elk on a desolate mountain highway. She is at the end of her rope, out of money and food. Still, she refuses help from a passing stranger. Rebecca's adolescent daughter, Moonflower, is on the run from a grisly secret, and the last thing they can afford is to be remembered.

Meanwhile, Special Agent Donner of the FBI has been hunting down a gruesome serial killer who drains their victims of blood before severing their spinal cords. As Agent Donner's investigation brings him closer to the Carters, the life that Rebecca has fought so hard to hold together for her daughter becomes increasingly imperiled.

In this riveting, blood-soaked take on the vampire myth, nobody is safe and nothing is certain--not even the line between predator and prey.