cover image The Blood of the Covenant: A Novel of the Vampiric

The Blood of the Covenant: A Novel of the Vampiric

Brent Monahan. St. Martin's Press, $22.95 (310pp) ISBN 978-0-312-13436-5

Picking up where The Book of Common Dread (1993) left off, Monahan continues his tale of what Princeton University librarian Simon Penn describes as ``evil from before the dawn of history... being fought with technology invented yesterday.'' Vampires are still in pursuit of the Scrolls of Ahriman, which hold the key to their power and are now in the hands of Penn and his beautiful colleague Frederika Vanderveen. But Vanderveen, having acquired an addiction to the Devil's powder fed to her by a master vampire in the previous book, has developed an unholy thirst for blood. Pursued by several vampires, the pair have encounters with the Princeton police, find themselves in numerous perilous situations and are aided by Father Dante Ferro, an emissary of the Vatican. There is enough action in this fast-paced yarn to keep most horror fans interested, but Monahan's characters achieve little growth, and his penchant for melodrama sometimes skirts caricature (""`So, I'm a hideous dwarf, am I?' the Vampire said. `An ugly little bastard, eh?'""). He's merely retreading ground he's staked out and explored before; hopefully, the likely next volume in what looks to be an ongoing series will brace all the bloodletting with a bit more originality. (Oct.)