September 10, 2012
British Fantasy Award–winner Clark returns, in his fourth Vampyrrhic novel (after the WWII-set Whitby Vampyrrhic), to the present-day English countryside. Callow scuba enthusiast Tom Westonby falls for Nicola Bekk, a mysterious woman he sees trespassing on his family land late at night. His pursuit of her leads him to the heart of the forest and a painful encounter with Helsvir, the undead beast that protects the curse-haunted Bekks, who turn into vampires if they try to leave the woods. As Nicola and Tom fall deeper in love, the local townsfolk’s latest mistreatment of the Bekk clan and a catastrophic storm trigger the monstrous Helsvir’s wrath. There’s nothing sparkly about these vampires, and the straightforward prose is matched by the characters’ knack for plain speaking. Romantic without being soppy or sentimental, this is a palate cleanser for horror readers tired of the same old blood-suckers.
October 15, 2012
Clark, author of London under Midnight (2006) and Lucifer's Ark (2008), among many other horror titles, continues his reassessment of the vampire genre with this frightening story of a man who falls under the spell of a beautiful, mysterious woman whose family has a long and tortured past. Though not a direct sequel to 2009's Whitby Vampyrhhic, or its Vampyrrhic-titled predecessors, the novel is set in the same region of England (the Yorkshire moors) and shares some of their DNA, particularly the strains involving a Viking curse and the toothy undead. Nicola Bekk, the mysterious woman, is a compelling and seductive character, and young Tom Westonby, who dreams of opening a scuba-diving school in Greece, is appropriately naive and easily enthralled. Readers, too, will be enthralled by Clark's imaginative story and his dark, atmospheric prose style (which mixes gothic and contemporary language and motifs). Another winner from an always-interesting writer.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)