Stars: 4.5

Author: Joseph Curtin

Title: Daughters of the Moon

Publisher: Pinnacle

Year: 2000

ISBN: 0-7860-1309-5

Distribution: MMPB

Pages: 381

A never-completed trip to a psychotherapist leads tobacco magnate's daughter Chloe Covington to a new existence worlds apart from anything her past might have presaged. Afflicted with hysterical amnesia since she witnessed her mother's death, Chloe never makes it to the expert who may be able to help her; she and her brother Clinton are caught in a storm that forces them to take refuge in a mountain shack. There an ancient evil rises from the soil to make a quick snack of Clinton -- but to Lizabet Bazore, Chloe's impenetrable thoughts signal that the young woman is a gift from the Dark One, sent "to see to her well-being and comfort." Lizabet promptly makes Chloe into her own kind, a tabula rasa whose lack of a past makes her the perfect servant and confidante. The woman once known to the world as Elizabeth Bathory is tired of being alone and misses the days of consorting with servants in her human lifetime, then with her own kind in the dark forests of Europe.

Fast-forward several decades to the 1970s. Chloe is still Lizabet's companion, learned in the Left Hand Path, savvy in the ways of the modern world, and thirsty for blood. The murder and torture sprees that she and Lizabet engage in force them to move from time to time, and now it is to Chicago. On finding a building that she likes, Lizabet uses her uncanny influence on a conveniently placed young man to simplify obtaining the deed to what will become -- after a good deal of restoration and remodeling -- Cachtice Imports, a front for laundering the pilfered funds with which Lizabet intends to support herself in the style to which she intends to once more become accustomed. A hunting trip to a ' nightclub, however, leads Lizabet in a new direction. Although she's usually partial to women, she finds Vincenzo "Vinnie the Razor" Rosario -- lead guitar for the band GloryDaze -- irresistible. Insinuating herself into his life, she learns that music in this day and age is more than just entertainment: for a successful band, it is the royal road to riches. Lizabet decides that GloryDaze will become a successful band, her successful band, and that one by one its members will become hers as well.

But even as Lizabet is becoming a bigger part of Vinnie's life, Chloe is becoming infatuated with lead singer Johnny Coltrane. It is the latest and largest in a series of disagreements between older vampire and younger, mistress and servant: Chloe has changed over the years from frighteningly emotionless and perfectly obedient to caring (toward a human) and excessively independent for Lizabet's tastes. Meanwhile, GloryDaze is undergoing a quiet revolution. "Dancing with the Devil's Daughter," the song that nearly wrote itself, promises to be a hit, but internal differences that result from some members still resisting Lizabet's influence, as well as problems with a contract that Lizabet happens not to approve of, make for rocky going among band members and between the band and various would-be managers.

Never a particularly temperate being, Lizabet gradually spirals out of control even as Chloe gradually discovers a more human side to her own nature. More bloodshed, more insistence on control, and less adherence to the plans Chloe has carefully laid to protect both of them signal that a change is coming -- but who will survive to see the conflict's end?

Suspense and violence and depth of character: Daughters of the Moon has them all. Every character is rich with personal history, not only the central ones but monster fodder. Everybody has a past; everybody is somebody, and not just the people: Vinnie's customized Stratocaster has as much of a story as anyone else in the cast. And for those of you who think it's time some blood got flowing, quite a few characters come to impressively bloody ends. The novel's climax is a veritable gorefest of smashing, shooting, stabbing, and breaking glass. It's all put together in classical horror novel style; my initial reaction was: "Wow, this is the kind of stuff Zebra used to publish" -- a horror novel of the days when "horror novel" wasn't a taboo term in publishing circles. It's very readable, rich with detail, its vampires and music scene lovingly crafted to slickness.

Reviewed by Catherine B. Krusberg