This sequel to The Book of Common Dread (1993) finds Monahan's protagonists, Simon Penn and Frederika Vanderveen, once again struggling to protect the scrolls of Ahriman from the vampires and the forces of evil which they serve. This time the intrepid pair get some assistance from a policeman turned Vatican priest and a local police officer. The whole thing builds to another showdown between good and evil within the halls of Princeton's Firestone Library.
Monahan has borrowed extensively from the vampiric traditions but has
added enough of his own invention, including making them servants of Satan,
to produce a new and exciting mythos. There is more lively fun in
these books than in the entire gloom drenched, self-serious oeuvre of Anne
Rice & her ilk. They make for diverting escapist fare.
(Reviewed:)
Grade: (C+)
