The Bleeding Dusk
Kick, shove, slice, and an ogre-faced demon’s head is parted from its doglike body; Lady Victoria Gardella is in action. In early 19th-century Rome, abolishing demons is only one of her duties as Venator, dedicated destroyer of vampires. Demons and vampires in alliance ravage the Roman streets, slaying and feasting in foul weather where night falls far too soon. The destruction of the Obelisk of Akvan has been achieved at great cost: Akvan himself, mightiest of demons, is free to return and wreak havoc in a world already in dire peril. Can beleaguered Victoria trust two men, both thrillingly seductive: light-hearted, golden Sebastian who eschews slaughter – vampires were once men and women – or saturnine Max, formerly in thrall to the fiendish Lilith?
This novel is a good example of the genre and will be relished by all devotees of the undead. The author generously acknowledges the help she has received in writing and bringing her novel to publication, but she has allowed a sense of the intrusion of other voices. She has her own talent, and the passage where Max has to make an agonising decision, where either choice will bring him everlasting grief, is very strong writing which feels like the work of a single person. The chapter headings are delightful.
