The Book of Common Dread: A Novel of the Infernal

A 500-year-old vampire named Vincent DeVilbiss descends on Princeton, N.J., in this unengaging supernatural thriller. Masquerading as a psychic, the bloodsucker has an ulterior motive--to destroy a pair of ancient scrolls housed in the Princeton Library which, when translated, will reveal the secrets and make possible the defeat of the Dark Forces that control him. Meanwhile, Simon Penn, the Casper Milquetoast librarian who works with the heavily guarded scrolls, becomes enamoured of Frederika Vanderveen, a beautiful, troubled fellow librarian, who hopes rituals described in the scrolls might help her contact her dead father. When this approach fails, Frederika seeks psychic help from the Svengali-like Vincent, who manipulates her to get at the scrolls. Simon, sensing danger, must race against time to discover the nature of Vincent's evil aura and of Frederika's potentially fatal obsession. Though well-plotted, the novel has the feel of an outline, properly proportioned, but not fleshed out. Monahan, coauthor of DeathBite , maintains a primly detached tone ill-suited to a genre that is meant to thrill. In the end, this workmanlike vampire story possesses as little real life as its main character. (July)