A bloody erotic love story from “the greatest horror writer you’ve never read . . . In
Stainless Todd Grimson set out to write ‘the Ultimate Final Vampire Novel’—and succeeded.” (
The Guardian ) Justine is a vampire. Keith just lives like one. An ex-junkie and ex-rock
star his hands mangled by his dead ex’s own jealous ex he’s let go of his ambitions. He’s
content to be Justine’s live-in Renfield helping her pick up dinner when she needs a bite
keeping an eye on her lavish L.A. manor when the sun is out and she’s down for her beauty
sleep. It’s true that Justine has been around for a few centuries and Keith barely three
decades but they’re good for each other: Justine is teaching Keith to take the long view
Keith is reminding her how it feels to be alive. Yet a cohort of criminals desperate artists
dead-enders hangers-on and wanna-bes undead and otherwise threaten their curious union. Can
love stay untainted in a world of monsters? First published in 1996 Todd Grimson’s
Stainless is a noir fantasia a symphony of bloody horror and a woozy erotic tour of
night-side L.A. Not only is it the greatest vampire novel of the twentieth century it may be
the last best farewell to the mythic Los Angeles of Bette Davis Dennis Hopper and Less than
Zero . In a league with the best of James Ellroy and Raymond Chandler—and closing the coffin
for good on poor old Bram Stoker— Stainless is the final word on fangs hangovers and
heartbreak.
