The Passage by Justin Cronin

I picked up this book because I had read The Summer Guest by the same author and enjoyed it. (FYI, Cronin teaches English at Rice University in Houston.) Warning for those who also read The Summer Guest - this book is nothing like it, hard to believe the same author wrote both! That said, once I got into the book I couldn't put it down even though at 750 pages in hardback it was very difficult to read in bed.
The Passage is a futuristic, end-of-the-world/human-race type book about VAMPIRES but these are not the kind of vampires made popular in current mass media, there is nothing remotely romantic about them. A bioengineering experiment designed to cure cancer and prolong human life goes bad and creates vampires (called virals in the book) instead. The human race is wiped out except for a few pockets of survivors who don't know about each other. Most of the story takes place a little more than 100 years from today.
This is not the type of book that I usually select but it is well written with good character development and enough action to keep you reading.