David found himself the earthly conduit for the book.  His fingers danced quickly over the computer keyboard on this one.  The first draft was written in just 31 days.  Of course, it didn't hurt that he had the deadline of, National Novel Writing Month or Nanowrimo, to push him along.  "When you break it down, it's more a matter of discipline than speed...you only need 1,667 words a day to make it to 50k (which is the November goal)....I work faster than that most days," he says.

But don't let the fast pen fool you.  The details in this mystery thriller are complex, his vision is vivid and his cast of characters, he playfully calls, the dead-challenged, are alive with rich personalities--simply but expertly crafted.

Vanessa is the sensuous siren with a questionable past--and when you're a three-hundred year old lady vampire that's a lot of history.  When she's kidnapped, her older, arrogant lover, Johndrow will stop at nothing to get her back alive, dead, undead--you know what I mean.
 
An infiltrator has masterfully murdered Johndrow's head of security, an ancient wizard.  This is no ordinary kidnapping and homicide.  This is supernatural high treason and it must be stopped or no vampire in the city will be safe.
 
Understanding that he's dealing with someone or something with powers greater than his own, Johndrow seeks the help of an unusual human who's perfected the ability to operate in the shared-world of humans and non-humans.  That, of course, would be the magician, Donavan DeChance, perchance the only man living or undead who can crack the mystery of the unexplained infiltrator who would dare go up against a horde of powerful vampires to steal their goodies.
 
Wilson draws you in gently with a lavish penthouse party of bored vampires, playing the gruesome game of one-upmanship.  In only a few words you understand who's in the room and how they operate.  The celebration is rich and textured with high-tech mysticism.  "I have studied ritual magic quite a lot, am a book collector myself, and have written a lot of vampire novels," Wilson says.  "Once you get past writing the angsty stories about how they became vampires, they make interesting characters in plot-driven fiction; much more powerful that making them the plot".

In Vintage Soul, Donovan is the old gumshoe.  But he won't wear a funny hat or walk with a limp.  Instead of weapons, he stops his culprits with incantations and spells.  Rather than the ordinary run-of-the-mill deputies, his so-called sidekicks are a cat and a crow.  The Watkins to Donavan's Sherlock is, Amethyst, a fellow conjurer who has a penchant for interesting mineral matter, mostly stones and crystals, who also happens to be Donvan's lover.  When the two get together, it's magic.  Little does Amethyst realize, in her possession, is the key to solve the crime.
 
And it wouldn't be a good fiction without a group of young ruffian know-it-alls who also happen to be members of the undead society, who's antics create sheer pandemonium and threaten to gum up the work of the gumshoe.
 
Great character development.

The back-story:  Someone or something is preying on vampires.  It's a serial blood-sucker who is not one of them.  Wilson explains, "It's a ritual where the (villain) drains the blood and undead life from a vampire and uses it to create immortality for himself.  It's forbidden."

But this is a lawless evil presence who doesn't abide by the rules of the shared world and doesn't give a hoot that he's defiling and murdering decent vampires everywhere for his own personal gain.
 
Bastard!

It will take the craftiest of black-magic scholars to outsmart this spirited reprobate and save the beautiful Vanessa to preserve life of the undead as we know it.

There is plenty of evil to go around.  There are good guys and bad guys, they simply look different in Vintage Soul.  There are acts of valor and bravery but the heroes behave differently than most.  There is a trail of gruesome murders, but you can't see the chalk drawings in the mirror.  In short, the novel takes the reader into very different terrain than most other mystery thrillers on the shelf.

Beyond the first chapter, you'll barely bother keeping score on who's a vampire or who's a wizard.  You'll simply find yourself engrossed--perched from a comfortable distance to watch the characters traipse through two worlds to find the treasured Vanessa.

The book expertly shares its world with the classic thriller genre and dark fantasy genre.  Wilson cleverly uses the supernatural as the vehicle to move you between the lines of the unfolding mystery.  But just as you rooted for the Germans in Das Boot, in Vintage Soul, you'll be rooting for the vampires.

Even if you're a hard core mystery thriller fan and don't much care for vampires, you'll still find the novel, satisfying and ooooooh positively intriguing.

In real life, David shares his world with wife, Patricia, an award winning editor.  His daughter Stephanie is off to college and herself has joined the family business of scribes.  Also in the Wilson clan, 16 year old Billy and 5year old Katie.

Published by Five Star, expect Vintage Soul in bookstores December of 2009.

And just in case you're wondering, no, David Niall Wilson has never taken a sip of human blood.  He prefers whisky and wine--red wine.

Paula L. Tutman is an Emmy Award winning journalist and award winning author of DEADLINE!, currently working as a TV journalist in Detroit.  She has some 30 years in the news business, obviously beginning her career when she was six...no, make that three.  Using her background as a former police reporter, she weaves real life stories and experiences into compelling mystery thrillers.  Her second novel, part two of a series is due November 2009.