HEIR OF DARKNESS opens with a haunting children’s rhyme that tells of the darkness that lives deep within the mountains of Bohemia. Travel back in time for a while to the castles and caverns of Eastern Europe – where Countesses rule, Romany tribes still roam the land, and ghosts and vampires are real.
Right off the bat readers are met with a cast chock full of excellent female characters. From serving girl to Vampire Queen, each is given the same depth of focus. Nowhere is the manufactured cattiness and jealousy so often encountered in stories with multiple female leads. The clashes between characters are of will and values, not two-dimensional personality. These women are capable, smart, and stay refreshingly true to their motivations.
Readers will have no trouble whatsoever seeing the bustling city streets, grand Bohemian castles, and deep under-mountain caverns unfold before them. Author Suha AL Khalifa and Richard Bellamy practically paint the rich and vivid scenery on every page and the atmosphere created by this romantic but unidealized style lends realism to the places and people, and injects vitality into the world within the pages of HEIR OF DARKNESS. However, there are a few instances in which the writing and romantic atmosphere just don’t match up, as when an important scene opens with lush detail, but the action suddenly becomes clinical and feels more like stage directions. And these abrupt separations from the lustrous descriptors – used so liberally throughout the rest of the book – serve to diminish the overall flow of the story.
Perhaps the strongest aspect of Khalifa and Bellamy’s story is their willingness to dash genre expectations and surprise. Romany caravans are not always helpless, unlucky fodder for hungry monsters and relentless plot development. Not all vampires completely forget their human lives, morals, and desires. And some ghosts can reach out to touch the world of the living, if only for a moment. The romantic historical European setting is such well-trod ground in vampire mythology that readers may think they know where things are headed. But around every corner is an unexpected development, a skillful avoidance of cliché, or a character that acts for themselves and not the assumed path of the plot. Fans of the genre and newcomers alike will delight in this invigorating departure from worn out tropes and spoon-fed familiarity.
Though the historical European vampire novel may sound predictable, HEIR OF DARKNESS delivers an enjoyable diversion from the expectations of the genre as well as engaging characters and a lush world for readers explore.
~Lauren Napoli for IndieReader