2.5 stars

Minda Samiels

SOUL OF THE VAMPIRE

Clocktower Fiction

ISBN 0-7433-0194-3

2001

A romance between a female medical examiner and a tormented vampire inevitably brings to mind FOREVER KNIGHT. The plot and tone of SOUL OF A VAMPIRE, though, differ widely from those of the TV series. Michael, born in France in the late 1500s, is not a cop but a supernatural vigilante known to the media as the Avenger. Elaina, working for the coroner's office, maintains her determination to help catch the mysterious Avenger (who seems to show a different appearance to different people, even to the same person at different times) despite his record of rescuing the innocent from muggers and rapists. To Elaina, a man who takes the law into his own hands and apparently drinks the blood of his victims is mad and dangerous regardless of his motives. She meets and falls in love with Michael before learning the truth about him. Their relationship faces challenges from Elaina's policeman ex-husband (alternately antagonistic and overprotective) and enemies from Michael's past. An explosive confrontation leads to an unexpected and touching conclusion.

Elaina, independent and high-principled, makes a believable mate for Michael, dedicated to compensating for the "evil" of his vampiric condition by preying on criminals and using his hypnotic influence to reform them and steer drug addicts into treatment. Michael is a rare example of a religiously devout vampire, with a priest for a best friend. Samiels' theory of vampirism includes the interesting variation that only evil vampires are harmed by religious objects. (In view of his own ability to pray, touch crosses, and enter churches, I can't help wondering why Michael is so convinced that vampirism is inherently evil.) Another interesting innovation is Michael's ability to absorb blood through his skin as well as drink it. The narrative allots at least as much space to Michael's human past as to the present-day suspense plot. The flashback chapters build a portrait of a good man devoted to his wife and child, robbed of happiness and life through the machinations of his jealous, sadistic brother. Any reader who likes sympathetic vampire characters should enjoy Michael's story.

The novel suffers, unfortunately, from numerous lapses such as "except" for "accept," "laying" for "lying," "snuck" for "sneaked," "alright" for "all right," and "their" for "they're" (to cite a random selection), which detract from the flow of the tale. It also contains scattered anachronisms that can't help but jar the reader out of the atmosphere of the story. Christmas trees (unknown outside one region of Germany until the Victorian era) in early 17th-century France? Late in the novel, the text alludes to German immigrants in Michael's area of France, but too late to erase the jolt of the earlier reference. Bottle-feeding of a motherless baby? (Here's one detail that I thought was a lapse but actually isn't; baby bottles existed at that period, although, of course, they weren't much like the modern design.) Policemen on the beat in London and the use of the word "Nosferatu" (introduced to English by Stoker's DRACULA in 1897 and, vampire scholars suspect, not a real word at all, but an accidental invention by a late 19th-century travel writer) are other examples of glitches that impede suspension of disbelief. In general, the flashback setting often feels more like the 19th century than the times of Shakespeare and King James I. SOUL OF THE VAMPIRE is well worth reading, but the strong characters and suspenseful plot would have benefited from more intensive editing.

Reviewed by Margaret L. Carter