Tales of Terror: An Evening with African-American Masters of Suspense

by A.D. Amorosi

Books

You can call it a trend, a happy accident or shockingly obvious that a new breed of horror-suspense writer has come along: the African-American author. It's not surprising that there weren't only lily-white writers like Stephen King or Anne Rice that could rule the bestseller list. It's only surprising that readers and publishers were shortsighted enough to think that horror belonged to white writers. So you have, in recent years, successful sci-fi sorts like Steve Barnes and Bram Stoker Award finalist Tananarive Due. Then there's Sheree R. Thomas, editor of the scare series Dark Matter, and Brandon Massey, who went from self-publishing many thousands of copies of Thunderland to releasing the first of his new Kensington Publishing deal's novels, Dark Corner, weeks ago.

But if you want a vampire thriller of the highest order, Philly's Leslie Esdaile Banks -- in her guise as "L.A." -- is where to find it. In books like Minion and The Awakening (St. Martin's Press), Banks creates a strong-willed, slang-slinging female lead character -- now 21-year old Damali Richards -- whose group of prose-spouting hunters turns the Vampire Huntress Legend series into a cross between a rude, self-obsessive Blade and the spoken-word of Love Jones. There's killing in the rue morgues of places like the record label for whom she records (Warriors of Light) and its rival (Blood Music), creating a Biggie/Tupac death vibe as rich as its relationship to all things Vlad and writing that's sexy and hip-hoppy in all the right spots. Banks (who, besides being a horror maven, is a romance novelist with B-movie crime books to follow) and her Minion have created a sharp, sensitive-to-the-ear sing-speak for a post-Buffy milieu -- books that keep you bouncing back as much for their rhythm as for their bloodlust.

Tales of Terror: An Evening with African-American Masters of Suspense, with Leslie Esdaile Banks, Steve Barnes, Tananarive Due, Brandon Massey and Sheree R. Thomas, Fri., Feb. 13, 7 p.m. (followed by book signing and dessert reception), $10, The Franklin Institute Science Museum, Tuttleman IMAX Theater, 222 N. 20th St., 215-448-1254.