Vampire Games: Boundaries

In 1988 Romania, a psychiatrist fights for his sanity and integrity amid a brutal dictatorship, an insanely seductive patient, and a vampire threat that grows more real every day.Dr. Stefan Wolf of Bucharest Psychiatric Institute medical staff in 1980s Romania realizes that many of his patients are political prisoners of the Ceausescu dictatorship. He desperately wants a transfer. He plans to marry a schoolteacher, Eva, in Brasov.At a Communist Party banquet, Stefan comes to the aid of President Ceausescu during a medical emergency. His quick action brings him to the attention of Ceausescu’s family and the president’s seductive, privileged niece, Magda, who becomes Stefan’s mistress that very evening.Stefan’s action secures a transfer to the Academy of Sciences (with his own laboratory), party membership, and resources. He is also assigned as Magda’s personal psychotherapist and begins to realize the extent of her madness and jealousy. He must protect Eva, whom Magda has threatened to kill. The northern Romanian border, where Stefan’s twin brother Zoltan is a smuggler, is being cleared of ethnic Hungarians. Zoltan is attacked by a vampire and transported to Stefan’s clinic in an attempt to save his life. The climate of worsening terror and involvement of the dreaded Securitate (secret police) create a complex moral and practical conflict, in which Stefan must save his loved ones and a shred of his own personal integrity.

About the Author

Mathias Kirk, PhD, is a scientist, university professor, and health care consultant who has visited Romania and Hungary on assignment multiple times. The events and conditions in his novel Vampire Games are based on his observations and interviews with ministry-level government officials and average citizens. He has been a guest at the Communist Party facilities in Transylvania during the period his novel depicts.

Reviews

News