Romkey, Michael

About the Author:

Michael Romkey is a newspaper editor.  He lives with his family in Bettendorf, Iowa, USA.

www.thevampire.com

AVERAGE REVIEW SCORE:

3 out of 5

(1 book)

Vampire Hunter

An expedition to raise the wreck of the Titanic goes awry when a creature which has lain dormant within it for a century is awoken.  Some time later psychiatrist Doctor Abby Bloome attempts to unravel the story of the charismatic amnesiac Charles Gabriel, who may be linked to a series of brutal murders.

Overall, this is an enjoyable book about a vampire caught between his true artistic humanist nature and the animalistic power of the blood thirst which pervades his kind.  I particularly enjoyed the way in which the vampire becomes the accomplice of a sadistic and murderous young woman who revels in the horrors which he himself can't help but inflict.

Something that I did find a bit confusing and disappointing was the fact that the vampire in question is actually Dante Gabriel Rossetti, a real-life 19th Century poet, but this element is never really explored in any great depth and, ultimately, seems a bit superfluous and unnecessary.

The book's finest moment manages to simultaneously lead to its biggest let down.  The early scenes with the research expedition and the wreck of the Titanic are really great pieces of horror writing, with a perfectly paced increase in tension as the zombie-like vampire is awoken.  Unfortuately these scenes end rather abpruptly and that same tone and tension doesn't reappear later in the book.

3 out of 5

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Horror (here)