The Strain * Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan

"Once upon a time, there was a giant"...so begins "The Strain". In exchange for eating all of his cabbage, young Abraham's grandmother feeds him stories about Sardu, the giant boy who mysteriously disappears during a hunting trip, only to return to his home, shutting himself in with lights and movement only seen late at night. The grandmother's ghastly story becomes all too real for Abraham as a prisoner during the horrors of Treblinka.

Fast forward: Regis Air flight 753 maintained tower communication until it landed. And then it mysteriously goes radio silent on the runway at JFK. When security enters the plane, they find every last passenger dead. Dr. Eph Goodweather of the CDC is brought in to investigate the cause. It becomes quickly clear that something is not quite right in the morgue: the bodies aren't decomposing. There is no rigor mortis. And, most bizarre, there is no blood. Who shows up? A now-not-so-young Abraham...and he's out for revenge.

I'm about two-thirds of the way through (I go through books like some addicts go through crack) and absolutely enjoying it. I'm already starting to imagine how del Toro will bring this to the big screen--there's all kinds of great opportunities for creatures. The characters are also fantastic. Dr. Goodweather has a side plot--his divorce has been finalized, the custody battle is ongoing and he's starting up a relationship with his lab assistant, Nora. Abraham is now a pawnbroker--a trade that lets him obtain antiquities and esoteric items. Gus is a Mexican gangster who killed one of the undead and was arrested by the police, assumption that he jumped some poor innocent man. It's fantastic--part "I am Legend", part "The Stand", part Bram Stoker.