The Blood of the Covenant

Vincent DeVilbiss #2

by Brent Monahan

A tale of unholy passion and unearthly surrender

Princeton University librarians Simon Penn and Frederika Vanderveen have rescued an ancient document from dark, destructive forces. But to reveal its dead prophecy they must decipher a dead vampire's diaries, locked away in Switzerland.

A satanic bargain sealed in blood

Simon is deeply in love with the beautiful, enigmatic Frederika. Yet her eyes, changing from blue through green to amber behind huge sunglasses, make him fear the spell of the vampire who once enslaved her.

A race against time through the dark places of the undead

And stalking the pair across Europe is the high prince of all night fiends, last of his kind, and soon-if he can regain the scrolls-the first of a terrifying new breed who will consume humanity.

Genres: Horror, Vampires, Fiction

336 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 1995

About the author

Brent Monahan was born in Fukuoka, Kyushu, Japan in 1948, as a World War II occupation baby. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Rutgers University in Music and his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Indiana University, Bloomington. He has performed, stage directed and taught music and writing professionally. He has authored fourteen published novels and a number of short stories. Two of his novels have been made into motion pictures. Brent lives in Yardley, PA, with his wife, Bonnie.

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite as good as the first first, perhaps because some of the things that were so new and different in the first book weren't quite so new and different by now. Plus, the outstanding character DeVilbiss isn't in this book, although another new character comes in who is also great. The action sequence at the end happened a little too fast for me and I had a little trouble keeping up; a main character died and I didn't realize they were really dead until someone else said it later. In my defense, though, an awful lot of people died in these books who did not, in fact, stay dead. So I call that an honest mistake.

Other than that, really enjoyed the twists. It looks like it was set up for a sequel that apparently was never written. Woe!

[Julie H. Ernstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now here's some scary fiction! For anyone who has ever spent quality time alone in an archives or other research library and lost all track of the outside world, Monahan's book will raise those little hairs on the back of your neck. This is the best sort of vampire fiction--the stuff that makes you ponder "What if...".

[A.J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picks up right where The Book of Common Dread left off. Since my favoite part of the first book was the unique interpretaton of the vampire lore, I was pleased that much of this book expanded that further. A must-read for anyone who enjoys the analysis of vampiric existence, as Monahan presents a much more plausible scenario than some.

[David Nadolny · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent vampire book with a slightly new twist on the backstory to vampires. It is a good read with lots of twists in the plot. I was a tad disappointed since I had loved Monahans other books so much.

[Esmeralda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book begins where the previous one left off and I think that it is even better than the first. Simon and Frederika are out to rescue the scrolls from the vampires trying to destroy them. But has Fredericka gone to the other side?

[Anxiety Vampire · Rating 3 out of 5]

First things first, I absolutely loved the first book. It was a constant page turner and every time I felt like I could put it down I just couldn't bring myself to. The characters (namely Devilbiss where enthralling and the plot kept me intrigued and guessing.

However this one felt very lacking. I was enjoying it thoroughly, up until about the point where Simon got fed up with Dante and decided to part ways with him. This is where things started to go downhill. And I don't mean that the plot became more dangerous for the characters, I mean the the book began to fall apart.

The plot began to feel forced and rather dry. Characters started to behave oddly in an effort just to drive it forward. And there where quite a few gaps and loose ends left untied.

The ending though. Dear god the ending.

It felt very rushed and unsatisfying - Simon Penn wasn't even the hero in the end for God sakes. We get about 10 pages of Ray Pental fighting off The Vampire but not Simon. And in the next scene, Simon is pathetic a unconscious for it all. Dante Ferro dies and though I don't mind the killing off of characters, Ferro was one of the most well fleshed out characters and his death.... was just lacking. He died (and Simon and Fredericka reacted) as if he was simply a throwaway character.
Look, I don't mind non-happy endings, but I felt like I was taken on a long journey for no reason - and not that enthralling of a journey.

Fredericka Vanderveen........ It's an understatement to say that I did not like her character. I liked the whole concept of her turning into a Vampire, and the reader had to question whether she was trustworthy or not - but even her as a human is untrustworthy. She was often painted to be a very dislikeable character (at least in my opinion) and it left a bitter taste in my mouth that Simon trusted and loved her and basically left off to Europe to marry her at the end. Even if it was in Simon's character to love her... It just didn't feel right. He knows little to nothing about her, but decoded to blindly love and follow her - just because she's beautiful.
Ok.

(Dumb/nitpicky things that annoyed me)

-Devilbiss' name is probably mentioned more than any LIVING character on the entire book
-Even if Devilbiss did all of those cruel things on his life, Simon and Fredericka basically continue to spit on his grave and not even care that he was technically on their side.

(PS. In case anyone cares: only one sex scene in this book compared to the handful that was in the first. And this one is rape and lasts about 4 sentences)

[Marcos Carvalho · Rating 3 out of 5]

Boy, this book goes nowhere fast. The interesting take on the vampire lore is absolutely wasted on a story that goes from McGuffin to McGuffin with a ton of pointless stuff in between.

I mean, we spend half a page on a vampire fight and 3 pages on the cleanup. There are pages upon pages of actions and information that have zero to do with the plot. At some point, the big bad Vampire, who's really feeble and has anger issues, does extended battle with an Italian hairdresser whose shop he broke into. You'd think a 1,200 year old being would have become more stoic, as well as better at fighting. Also, of ALL the places this vampire could have broken into to sleep for a night, this Superman of Vampires, settles for sleeping on a table inside a hair salon's break room. Not a mansion, not the mayor's home, a crypt at the cemetery....Nope. The point being: there is no point to most of the scenes.

And this is right after the McGuffin we'd spent 150 pages searching for is deemed to be irrelevant in about 2 paragraphs. At the end, we have a vampire brandishing a gun and there's something so un-exciting about a supernatural being using a pistol.

The writing is quite good and the premise in interesting, 4 stars for that. The author's imagination, however, is a 2-star limited capacity. We'll settle for 3, but there's no point in reading this.

[Dan Gladwell · Rating 2 out of 5]

The sequel to "The Book of Common Dread", I found this one lacking compared to the first in the series. I will admit that Monahan does a good job of expanding his new vampire lore that he established in Common Dread, but the plot itself seems to fall short. One of the great things about Common Dread was how commonplace he made it seem taking place in a college town to a small group of people. Blood of the Covenant strays away from that and it seems like Monahan forced his characters into a more standard globe-trekking adventure scenario that doesn't seem to work as well. I don't regret reading this book, but I will say that while I've read Common Dread over and over, I've only come back to Blood of the Covenant once.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of supernatural thrillers with a heavy religious theme, so I was hoping for a great read but was left disappointed. There wasn't much "show" and just a lot of "tell," making it difficult to get a good mental image of anything, so I never really got invested in the book. The idea was good and the story had potential, but I don't think the author really knew what to do with it and so it never really got to the exciting part.

[actress · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book freaked me out when I read it in high school. Scary book!

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was good. Again, another book I didn't know was a series, so I ended up starting in the middle on accident. Good as a stand-alone though.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

not bad, but saying it is "best vampire novel since Ann Rice's 1st 2---?" must be a lot of bad vampire nvels since then....Monahan is like the clive cussler of vampire novels