The Vampire Voss

The opening tale of the Regency Draculia trilogy uneasily mixes vampire intrigue and Regency romance with unsatisfactory results for both. In the midst of a feud between rival vampire factions, Voss (Viscount Dewhurst), stands neutral, trading information with%E2%80%94and disliked by%E2%80%94both sides, until he becomes intrigued by the clairvoyant Angelica Woodmore, sister of the vampire hunter Chas Woodmore and under the guardianship of his secret ally, the vampire Earl Dmitri of Corvindale. Angelica's ability to foresee people's deaths makes her a prize sought by the brutal vampire Cezar Moldavi, and as Voss finds himself drawn into protecting her from Moldavi's vampire servants, attraction flares between them. Unfortunately, Gleason fails to effectively unite her disparate storylines into a coherent whole. Already slow to come into focus, Voss and Angelica's romance is overshadowed by vampire politics and muddied by excessive backstory and setup for future books, with such substantial subplots left dangling that the even the resolution of the central romance leaves the story feeling irritatingly unfinished. (Apr.)