Plot Outline:

Book 8 of The Saga Of Darren Shan. Having failed once to kill the Lord of the Vampaneze, Darren and his allies have wound up back in the town of Mr Crepsley's birth, where history seems to be repeating itself -- bodies have been discovered, drained of blood ...

But this time there's more than a single mad vampaneze to contend with, and when Darren is paid an unwelcome visit by a school inspector, it's only the beginning of a twisted series of events which will stretch the Hunters to their very limits. As faces from the past re-enter Darren's life, and the body toll mounts, he must forge new alliances and try to unravel the mystery behind the malevolent forces which have been set in motion against him.

Allies Of The Night is the second part of "the Hunters trilogy", in which the stakes are raised and the pace quickens. This one will really leave you hanging on to the edge of your seat!! The trilogy concludes in Book 9:Killers Of The Dawn.

Author Notes:

Book 8 of The Saga was released on November 4th 2002. Once again it topped the bestsellers children's chart in Ireland and stayed there for 3 weeks, but made no indent on the UK chart.

Allies was a blast to write! If I remember correctly, it was one of the smoothest first drafts I've ever done. Bringing back Debbie, RV, Steve ... great fun! The only real problem I had was in the scenes between Debbie and Darren. Originally Debbie was the one who wanted Darren to stay at her place, to "take the relationship further." But my editors are VERY wary of any sort of sexual reference in my books and argued against this. I thought it over, decided it would make more sense for Darren to be the one who wanted to get into heavy petting, and made the change, making Debbie the more mature and sensible one.

I think every reader of Cirque Du Freak knew that Steve was always going to return, and there was much rejoicing when he rejoined the storyline. I think they were also very happy that he turned out to be a proper villain -- how disappointed would you all have been if he'd matured and seen sense with age?!? I sometimes get asked if I would change anything about my books if I could go back back into the past. The only real change that I maybe would have implemented was with Steve. Originally I thought the Saga was going to be much longer (more than 20 books) so I deliberately kept Steve out of the action for several books, not wanting to overuse him and have readers grow bored of the characters, since I planned for him to feature heavily in the second half of the storyline. If I'd known I was going to end the Saga where I did, I probably would have found a way to work in another story arc between Tunnels Of Blood and Vampire Mountain, so that we could have seen a bit more of Steve's growth and development. At the same time, I really like the four trilogies structure of the Saga, so perhaps I would have left things the way they were. Unless time travel ever becomes a reality, I guess we'll never know..

I went on a stag do (bachelor party) to Las Vegas shortly before the book was released, and decided to "honour" the others who were there by naming them in this book. (I think they're all in this one, although maybe 1 or 2 are in book 9.) Michael Corbett, Kevin Beisty, Kevin O'Brien, Derek, Matt and William were six of the seven at the stag do with me. The other was my brother, Declan, who got a bigger role in book 11.View full covers gallery

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