Many TV shows are inspired by books; Vampire Diaries, Bones, Gossip Girl. But Moonlight might be the only TV show that was inspired by a novel that wasn't published until after the show was canceled.

In 2005, Trevor O. Munson penned "Angel of Vengeance" which he says was the result of rereading Dracula then a Raymond Chandler novel in close succession. What he ended up with was a noir-style tale about a modern vampire who works as a private eye. Mick Angel sleeps in a fridge, champions the innocent and travels around Los Angeles in a vintage car. He also kills people. Only people who deserve killing, by his estimation, but he does it brutally and follows the act by siphoning off their blood to fill his fridge (not the one he sleeps in) at home. Mick Angel is no Mick St. John.

Burned by the publishing biz in the past, Munson opted to then turn his novel into a script which he pitched to CBS. CBS liked the idea -- with changes -- and they hooked him up with a partner, Ron Koslow, to get it done. There were two big problems with the story as it stood. It was too dark and CBS wanted romance. Koslow was the creator of Beauty and the Beast, so he knew all about combining romance and horror. Together, they reshaped the story into Moonlight.

Like the Mick in the book, Moonlight's Mick (Alex O'Loughlin) was a vampire looking for redemption and he found it by helping innocent people with their criminal problems. Unlike the Mick of the book, he didn't kill people, not intentionally and he didn't mainline blood like an addict. Where Moonlight had more in common with a modern paranormal romance novel, "Angel of Vengeance" is very much an old school hard-boiled detective novel and that might be hard for fans of the series to digest.

In the book, Mick is hired to help a burlesque dancer who wants him to find her missing sister. The trail for the girl leads Mick to some pretty sleazy places to meet with some very unsavory characters including several levels of drug dealers and a wormy Hollywood hot shot named Vin Prince. Sandwiched in between all of that is the backstory of how Mick became a vampire thanks to his lady love, Coraline. Remnants of the TV series can be found in the Coraline storyline, but again it's darker and more brutal than what was seen on screen.

"Angel of Vengeance" is a fast read that's loaded with intentionally cliche lines that could have come right out of a Sam Spade novel. If it wasn't for the occasional mention of a cell phone or the inability to smoke inside a Hollywood bar, you might think the book was a period piece. But Mick's been around since the 1930's, so maybe it's natural that he calls a woman "doll" or refers to lips as being "soft and cold and red as refrigerated cherry gelatin."

If you're a fan of the series, read the book for completeness sake, but don't go in to it expecting a typical tie-in. I'd say "Angel of Vengeance" is much more suited to fans of the genre; those who can truly appreciate the tone of the book. I'm a Raymond Chandler fan, so I was quite amused by the stylistic word play, but I'll admit it was hard to see my favorite TV hero in such a low and dark place.

Angel of Vengeance: The Novel that Inspired the TV Show Moonlight is brand new from Titan Books and you can buy it at Amazon.com.

I wish I was here to say that new episodes of Moonlight will be airing on The CW, but still. . .reruns are a good thing.

Starting on June 3, Moonlight will take over Supernatural's time slot, Thursday's at 9:00 after repeats of The Vampire Diaries.

Two! Two! Two vampire shows in one night. How great is that? Alex O'Loughlin is Mick St. John, a dark and charming private detective who happens to have a taste for blood. Like Stefan Salvatore, he sticks to the bottled kind but you can't say that about all his friends, like the mischievous Josef (Jason Dohring.) When the series kicks off, Mick meets up with news reporter Beth Turner (Sophia Myles) and they make a terrific crime solving team. Beth doesn't know it, but she and Mick have a deeper connection that's straight out of her nightmares, thanks to Mick's ex Coraline.

The series also stars the handsome Jordan Belfi as Beth's DA boyfriend and the delightful David Blue as Mick's techo-vamp contact.

If you've never seen Moonlight, give it a try. It's got a cool, noir vibe and Alex O'Loughlin . . .  let's just say that Moonlight becomes him.

Last night I had this horrible nightmare. I was in this abandoned hotel at the Jersey Shore. I could hear the ocean waves outside but instead of salt air, all I could smell was dust and mold. The place had been ransacked for anything of value and all that was left were some broken pieces of furniture and carpet that was worn and squishy under my feet. I had climbed the stairs to an upper floor and I was exhausted. I was being chased -- stalked and I knew (in the way that you just know things in a dream) that if I didn't find a place to hide, I'd be murdered on the spot! With my heart pounding louder than the surf outside, I ducked into the bathroom in one of the rooms. I pulled the door closed and -- yikes! No lock! But it was too late. I could hear footsteps coming closer and closer. I couldn't run if I wanted to. Now all I could do was huddle in the corner and pray for one of my TV heroes to swoop in and save me!

But which one?

How could I choose a hero when I didn't even know what was after me? Must give that some thought. . .

Escaped Lunatic / Serial Killer

Hands down, I'm hoping Don Epps of Numb3rs comes to my rescue. Don is cool and collected when staring down a killer and when the bad guy threatens the hostage (that would be me) and demands that Don leave, his response is always the same. "Ain't gonna happen." He'll look that killer right in the eye (while chomping away on an ever present piece of gum) with that steely-FBI guy look of his and then he'll take it down a notch. He'll calmly explain to the man that if he bats an eyelash, five different snipers poised all over the state of New Jersey will put five different bullets in his one head and ain't nobody coming back from that.

Unless of course. . . he's a Vampire Serial Killer. . .

In that case, I'm calling in Mick St. John from Moonlight. Mick's a vampire, too, so he understands this guy. Plus they both have the same overly acute sense of smell and catlike reflexes. Like Don, Mick's going to talk to the fella, but it won't be about getting him to surrender peacefully. It'll be about distracting him until Mick sees an opening and then he's going for the throat -- literally. That gorgeous face of his will vamp out. His eyes will go all buggy and ooh, those teeth. Mick and vamp will grapple, back and forth, forth and back. Mick yells for me to run, save myself, but I'm too scared to move. He's pinned to the floor. The other vamp is about to tear his throat out and then the tables turn. Mick pops to his feet and shoves the vamp back and into a wooden dowel that just happens to be sticking out of the wall at chest height. Done and done!

Unless of course. . . he's a Ghost Vampire Serial Killer!

That's it. A serial killer who thought he was a vampire and now he's a ghost haunting the hotel! Who ya gonna call? Dean Winchester of Supernatural, of course! He ain't afraid of no ghosts. Dean comes flying into the room, guns a blazing. Rock salt buckshot administered with a sawed-off shotgun at point-blank range. The ghost vanishes but he comes right back. "Persistent son of a bitch," says Dean and that's just the first of a dozen snarky comments he tosses out as he let's the ghost have it a second time. Now he's maneuvered himself in between me and the monster. "You okay?" He asks and it comes out all deep and growly and wow, now my heart's really pounding fast and it's not fear. He puts his hand out to help me to my feet. Ghost Vamp Killer guy is on the move again, but Dean has one last round. He chambers it and . . . damn! The gun jams. Run! He shoves me toward the door and I go flying with him on my heels. Down the hall, down the stairs, around the corner and straight into a really tall guy holding a really old book. Sam Winchester does his thing, a super sexy Latin incantation and poof, Ghost Vamp Killer guy is gone for good.

"Took you long enough," Dean grouses.

"Your welcome," says Sam.

"It's past nine," says my husband. "Time to get up!"

What? Oh, right. Up! Morning. Bed. Confused.

"Nightmare?" asks my husband.

I smile and say nothing. Rescued by Don Epps, Mick St. John and the Winchester Brothers? That's no nightmare, that's one heck of a great dream.

Photo Credit:

Don (Rob Morrow) stars on, NUMB3RS, Friday's at 10:00 on CBS. Sonya Fleming/CBS ©2007

Mick (Alex O'Loughlin) stars on MOONLIGHT, Friday's at 9:00 on CBS. Adam Taylor/Warner Bros.©2007 Warner Bros. Television.

Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) star in SUPERNATURAL Thursdays at 9:00 on The CW. Sergei Bachlakov/The CW ©2007 The CW Network, LLC.

No, I wasn't at the beach but let's all take a moment to appreciate the image of Mick St. John (aka Alex O'Loughlin) at the beach in an upcoming episode of Moonlight.

Sigh.

Now, then keeping with my beach theme, I also watched (though I'm not sure why) a 60's surf movie called "Wild the Ride Surf." My husband wanted to check it out because Barbara Eden was in the movie and she is "An Irwin," meaning she once worked for Irwin Allen. Our dedication to the master of disaster necessitates that we watch at least a few minutes of any movie with "an Irwin" in the cast list and so I found myself watching this flick.

The best thing about 60's surf movies are the fake surf close-ups. You know the ones, where the actors lean backwards then waggle their arms as if they're trying to balance on a surfboard. They never look wet. They never look mussed and they certainly don't look like they're on the ocean, or even on the beach. But hey, all of the real footage of real surfers making it look easy, makes up for it (kind of). Terrible movie, by the way, with this strange Disney-documentary-esque voice overs and horrendous dialogue. "Oh look! Who is that, Augie?" "Oh, that's Jody. He's the best surfer in Malibu. But do you think he can make it here in Waikiki?" You know what made the Frankie and Annette surf movies work? They didn't take themselves seriously, that's why they're still a joy to watch. This one, not so much.

Hey! Jared Padalecki may star in the new Friday the 13th movie, which is bad news for me because I'll want to see it in the movies and I'm a chicken. Sadly, it also appears to be filming in Austin, Texas so I won't even be able to cover it as a reporter. Grr.

I'm still on my "I've Got a Secret" binge and today was a real treat. They had Joe Ferko! Yeah, I know, 99% of you are going, who the heck is Joe Ferko? Ferko is one of the most famous Mummer's from the Mummers Parade in Philadelphia. 50 straight years leading his band down Broad Street and he was about to do it again in 1964 when the show was taped. He brought his string band out on stage and he did the Mummer's Strut. There are only a few things I miss about living in New Jersey and The Mummer's Parade is one of them.

Oh dem golden slippers. . oh dem golden slippers. . .

Moonlight!

This TV show is really stirring up interest on my blog over at SFUniverse.com. Moonlight is a new CBS series about a vampire detective. It has a cool, film noir style and a lead that is . . . might I say. . . "to die for!"

Alex O'Loughlin sheds his Aussie accent to play Mick St. John and he's got a protective streak in him that makes me weak in the knees! And he's also darned good looking, but that's not why I watch (snicker).

This past week, Moonlight had its highest ratings ever and we've all got our fingers crossed for a full season pick-up.

As a bonus, the show co-stars Jordan Belfi whom I worked with on Ten Inch Hero, so that's an extra perk for me.

Check it out, Fridays at 9:00 on CBS and in the meantime, check out the spoilers and photos I've got over at SFUniverse.