Darkness

by Sam Siciliano

Set in the year 1899, a gripping novel follows Dr. Andrew Quimby, who doesn't want to believe that the recent rash of murders, in which the victims are drained of their blood, were done by something inhuman, but his lover La Contessa di Rospo harbors dark secrets that will place them both in the path of danger as evil hunts the streets of London. Original.

Genres: Horror, Vampires

444 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2001

About the author

Early on, Sam Siciliano developed a taste for fantastical worlds better than the one he was stuck with. He grew up reading the golden-age juvenile science fiction of Heinlein and Andre Norton, the Mars and Tarzan novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Baum's Oz books, Brooks' tales set on a New England farm where Freddy the Pig had his adventures, and of course, there was the London of Sherlock Holmes. Siciliano has a doctorate in English Literature and taught briefly at the college level, but because of the terrible academic job market, he ended up with a career in information technology, mostly as a database administrator. His reading and authorial tastes remain diverse, with a special fondness for genre fiction. Besides ten Sherlock Holmes' pastiches, he has had three vampire novels published. At the University of Iowa, Siciliano met and married fellow graduate student Mary Slowik, and the two have raised three children and several cats together in the Northwest.

Reviews

[Lena Tumasyan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this book for $1 at National Wholesale Liquidators and I didn't expect much. It was much better then anticipated. Once again, a gloomy vampire tale from Victorian England. Nonetheless the characters were well developed, the descriptions were good, and the plot not only made sense but was also pretty exciting. For a bookstore bargain, i give this book 4.5 out of 5 stars! t's not exactly Lestat, but still interesting in its own right. I love the complexity between the sympathetic, altruistic doctor and the toad-like vampire queen.

[Roy · Rating 5 out of 5]

i don't normally read vampire tales but something about this one got me to buy it, i was hooked after the first few pages and read through all it in a day staying up pretty late as i couldn't put it down

[Mary R · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought her the thrift store for a dollar wasn't sure what to expect. But I was pleasantly surprised. The characters are well described and I found the story interesting.

Though I really wish the author hadn't attempted to write out the accents, and hadn't written a bunch in Italian.... I almost stopped reading several times because it was difficult to understand what some of the characters were saying. I get the effect he was going for but it was really annoying. I don't want be forced to decipher what's being said. and I speak absolutely no Italian so it was annoying to have to stop and Google to figure out if it was a reference to Dante's Inferno or just random Italian....