Blood splatters freely across the pages of Patricia McCarthy's second vampire romance. Ottawa's bloodsucker population has quadrupled and the attendant body count becomes difficult for the press to ignore. Prostitutes and party girls, dirty cops and innocents alike join the legion of the drained. The Crimson Boy resumes the shamelessly picaresque tale of Samuel and Magdalene, as endearing a couple as one could hope to meet, cultivating fine herb, cooking and having sex, lots of sex. So why won't the world leave them in peace? McCarthy's sequel to The Crimson Man topples taboos and challenges, nay, well exceeds the boundaries of good taste again and again. Her protagonists dare you not to love them. As the unpredictable story climaxes, McCarthy orchestrates a perfect penny-dreadful cliffhanger, pauses briefly, and then calmly pulls aside the red velvet curtain to reveal the birth of a new vampire mythos. Of course the story's not over yet!