The Book of Common Dread

"Easily the best addition to the vampire genre since Anne Rice's 'Interview with the Vampire'." Indianapolis StarVampire Vincent DeVilbiss's existence is part infernal bargain - and lie. And only the Scrolls of Ahriman, safely hidden in the fortress that is Princeton University's Firestone Library, stand in the way of his finding the ultimate satiation of them all. But he does not count on his passion for a woman - or the man who becomes his rival for her - to become even more dangerous or insurmountable obstacles to his goals than a sophisticated security system or his satanic master.Brent Monahan's critically acclaimed two-book vampire saga finds new life in its first e-book publication.

From Publishers Weekly

A 500-year-old vampire named Vincent DeVilbiss descends on Princeton, N.J., in this unengaging supernatural thriller. Masquerading as a psychic, the bloodsucker has an ulterior motive--to destroy a pair of ancient scrolls housed in the Princeton Library which, when translated, will reveal the secrets and make possible the defeat of the Dark Forces that control him. Meanwhile, Simon Penn, the Casper Milquetoast librarian who works with the heavily guarded scrolls, becomes enamoured of Frederika Vanderveen, a beautiful, troubled fellow librarian, who hopes rituals described in the scrolls might help her contact her dead father. When this approach fails, Frederika seeks psychic help from the Svengali-like Vincent, who manipulates her to get at the scrolls. Simon, sensing danger, must race against time to discover the nature of Vincent's evil aura and of Frederika's potentially fatal obsession. Though well-plotted, the novel has the feel of an outline, properly proportioned, but not fleshed out. Monahan, coauthor of DeathBite , maintains a primly detached tone ill-suited to a genre that is meant to thrill. In the end, this workmanlike vampire story possesses as little real life as its main character. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

A vampire at Princeton! Do you long for a horror novel full of bookish but lively, intelligent people (no thuggish middlebrows!), and a piano-playing, 500-year-old vampire whose great earthly love is for Bach and a classically beautiful (let's say ideally erotic) woman--a vampire who is himself only semimortal (a once-a-week bloodsucker who nonetheless fearlessly wolfs down richly marbled cheeseburgers with deep-fat fried potatoes drowned in ketchup while pitying the early death of others seated about him in an arterially disastrous restaurant), yes, a gent with a gusto for dead languages whose great herbal remedies knock out flu viruses and open your nasal passages so you can float into a good night's sleep and who doesn't believe in talking with the dead, though he fakes it expertly for a living, and so on? Well, after a slippery, slightly banal opening, Monahan (DeathBite, 1979--not reviewed) finds his footing and goes the distance like a seasoned aerialist. Under orders from Below, Vincent DeVilbiss's mission is to take out peacemakers and folks who might lessen the hell of earthly life. What better place than the Princeton think-tank? He sets himself up there as a psychic in residence, since even a superstrong vampire who can bound like a leopard has to earn his bread. When Frederika Vanderveen, a beautiful man-eater who lives alone in her late father's big house, comes to DeVilbiss for help in making peace with dad, DeVilbiss pretends that it can be done but that she'll have to pay him by getting him access to an ancient leather manuscript in the highly protected Rare Manuscripts room. The manuscript has dangerous necromancy written on it that the Bad Guy wants burnt. Luckily, Frederika has just taken in young Simon Penn, a rare-books curator, and goes to work on him. But Simon has a brain of his own and seeks her release from psychic disorder while Vincent prepares her for...hmm, long life. Enrapting! -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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