Changes

And then, one day, Vur ''does'' challenge the wicked foreman. And he pays for it with his life, drowned in a vat of boiling water. And Larten cracks. In a fog of fury, he stabs Traz - a life for a life - and finds himself on the run. Grieving and starving, he holes up in a crypt for the night. It's the perfect hiding place and Larten thinks he'll be left well alone, even by those searching for the child labourer-turned-murderer.

Huzzah! More Darren Shan vampires! I love these stories. ''Birth of a Killer'' is the first in a four-part prequel series and will follow our favourite outcast vampire, Larten, in the centuries leading up to the ''Saga of Darren Shan''. I really enjoyed this first book - it's written with Shan's trademark page-turning skill and it has as much social comment as it does biting. Seba Nile is a brilliant creation - a hard taskmaster with biting wit, he made me laugh out loud several times. But he's also kindly and ethical, if only Larten could realise it.