Jane Austen: Blood Persuasion

By Janet Mullany

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Fact: Vampires have haunted bookstore shelves for some time now. In recent years, they’ve poked their fangs into many a celebrity character in novels and stalked victims in nearly every historical era. This is all to the delight of vamp lovers. When the Undead take beloved author Jane Austen as one of their own, in Janet Mullany’s series that began with Jane and the Damned and now continues with Blood Persuasion, admirers of the paranormal genre will rejoice. This is great fun!

In fact, Mullany does a bang-up job of herding vampires, including a lover who “turned” Jane, through the pages, while deftly capturing the style of an Austen novel, complete with tongue-in-cheek wit and humor. The Damned predictably raise hell in the tranquil English countryside of 1810. Jane’s work on her masterpieces is interrupted by their shenanigans, and she must rescue her niece from flirting dangerously with their pale and mysterious neighbors. But all the while, the author exhibits marked respect toward Austen and her mortal legacy, and that makes the book work as fine entertainment. That said, purists who like their historical fiction well rooted in fact will probably want to look elsewhere for their next Jane Austen fix.