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The RMS Anglo-Saxon is approaching the coast of Canada in 1863 after a passage from Liverpool whenit hits the rocks off Cape Race. One of the few to survive is Count Vladislaw Draculiya, Prince of Wallachia, who is fleeing Britain after having been accused of killing the Dutch naturalist, Abraham Van Helsing. Drac has had to flee many countries over his lifetime, so he always prepared. He finds himself floating on the roof of the wheelhouse with a dying young Irishman. When the passenger dies, the Count takes his identity and becomes Enoch Bale. He then leaves Newfoundland for New York Shortly thereafter, Van Helsing's daughter and son, Echo and Matthew, land in New York, searching for the man she thinks is her father's killer. Kate Warne, the first Pinkerton female detective, soon contacts Echo, and they start searching for the elusive stranger. Meanwhile, in the present day, an archeologist, Dr Carrie Norton, is called to a site on Minetta Street in Greenwich Village. Construction workers have turned up a body. The police are called in and it turns out that the bog mummy is a Black Civil War sailor named Barnabus Coffin. His throat has been torn out. The story fluctuates between the days of the draft riots and just before to the present day. In 1863, there were 13 murders. The victims all had their throats torn out in order to disguise the fact that their jugular veins had been pierced. In present day New York there have been eight similar murders. Hunt does a nice job of telling both stories at the same time, while weaving in vampire lore and New York history and geography. The ending may be a bit unreal, but then what is real about having vampires and their kin running around a modern city. If you enjoy stories of the undead, don't hesitate to buy this paperback original.
Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, November 2007
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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