RECKONING

This vampiric love story, told in diary entries, continues the tale of Dracula’s descendents begun in Bloodline (2005). Now that her fiancé has been introduced to his evil vampire nature, Mary Seward returns to England heartbroken and terrified. By day, she nurses wounded soldiers, but by night she lives in fear of demons lurking behind every shadow. When the hospital patients—and worse, Mary’s ailing father—began showing unusual blood loss, anemia and fatigue, Mary knows her past in Transylvania has followed her. The vampire Quincey Harker appears, and surely he is the cause of the deadly bloodletting, but he insists he has reformed, and wants to return to the light. Who can Mary trust? Stilted pacing and flat characterization mar this sequel, but the mysteries and bluffs surrounding Mary’s fears keep the tension high. The premise—a heroine torn between love of a good man and the seductive power of a redeemable vampire—will appeal to readers of that genre, and close ties to Dracula and epistolatory style add some originality. (Fantasy. 12-14)