Glen Hirshberg is an award winning author. He won the Shirley Jackson Award for the “Janus Tree” collection of stories in 2011 and earned the International Horror Guild Award for “The Two Sams,” which also won best book of the year by Publisher’s Weekly in 2003. Hirshberg’s latest books are a trilogy, beginning with “Motherless Child,” followed by “Good Girls” and “Nothing to Devour.”

“Motherless Child” takes place in North Carolina and follows the lives of Natalie and Sophie, two single moms. Natalie and Sophie spend a night at a music club and are captivated, along with the rest of the audience, by a musician called Whistler. Both women’s lives change forever after meeting Whistler as he changes both women into vampires. Whistler sees Natalie as his eternal love and Sophie as someone to keep her company. The change was apparent to the women when they wake up, and Whistler leaves them to figure out and complete their own transformation.

Whistler is an unusual vampire himself, as he was changed at young age and appears as a child even though he has been around for many years. Another vampire, Mother, has been taking care of Whistler. She makes sure Whistler stays alive and meets his needs like a mother would her own child, which is only natural, since Mother turned Whistler into a vampire.

Natalie and Sophie are sympathetic characters as neither wanted to be part of Whistler’s journey. Both women want to take care of their children and live their lives. Natalie, the first of the two women to figure out what was happening to them, goes to her mother, Lee, and asks Lee to move away and take both children with her. She also asks her to not let anyone, even her or Sophie, know where she is living for the fear of the lives of the children. We follow the two women and their travels through the south, experiencing their transformation and how they deal with it.

Hirshberg gives the reader a nearly perfect vampire novel. First, the reader doesn’t feel like it is a vampire novel, as Hirshberg only uses the notorious “v” word twice in the book. Hirshberg lets the characters tell the story. You feel empathy for all the characters, even the ones who are not very likable. The book is not a traditional vampire read.

If you like thrillers and character based books with a roller coaster of emotions, this is your book. I’m looking forward to reading the next two books, which are already written and on the shelves at the library.