A dynamic, entertaining journey that takes vampire fiction back to its roots.
Debut author 2-shirt begins a sprawling, epic trilogy of classically styled vampire novels, spanning centuries and exploring the extremes of good and evil.
This story begins rooted in truth: Jacques de Molay, the final Grand Master of the Knights Templar, was a genuine historical figure, sentenced to death in 1314 after he recanted his confession—offered under torture—to acts of depravity and sacrilege. In both the novel and in real life, the Templars’ treasure and King Phillip IV’s debts played a significant role in de Molay’s trial, but the similarities stop there. Rather than ending Jacques’ story with a burning at the stake, the book lends credence to the accusations of his demonic proclivities. Its version of Jacques submits his soul to Mithras, a dark god of great power. Jacques’ immortality takes him across Europe, taking vengeance against the royals and struggling against other mighty supernatural creatures, including his own vampire kin. Weeks and months quickly blur into centuries as Jacques has many other strange, frightening encounters, sometimes with famous figures of the medieval and Renaissance periods. But ultimately, his greatest challenges come from within, as he must weigh his dark gifts and Templar morality against a chance to recover his soul and fight for a real future. The weight of all these ideas and the time span of the story would drag many books down, but this novel is a delightful exception. The prose here is solid and confident, moving smoothly and easily between scenes of blood and violence and startling insights into characters, the complexities of vampire lore, and legends such as that of the Ark of the Covenant. Vampire fans are sure to delight in these rich details, but lovers of historical fiction will also be captivated by the depictions of everything from the French aristocracy to the wilds of Russia’s Ural Mountains to Leonardo Da Vinci’s workshop. The struggle over Jacques’ soul may feel overly familiar to some readers, but the novel’s tight pacing and breadth of focus more than make up for it.
A dynamic, entertaining journey that takes vampire fiction back to its roots.Pub Date: July 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-69-237769-7
Page Count: 210
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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