His Vampyrrhic Bride

A girl . . . a boy . . . and a fearsome Viking curse that will tear them apart and unleash a terrifying creature on the world . . . What is this striking yet ghostly figure doing gliding across my lawn at midnight? Chasing the dangerously beautiful woman into the wood next to his family’s new home, Tom Westonby is attacked and beaten unconscious. Returning home the next day, he meets the stranger, Nicola Bekk, once more. Tom is deeply drawn to her, but unbeknownst to him, Nicola is both protected and enslaved by her Viking ancestry – and the choices he makes will trigger the curse that has blighted the lives of the Bekk family for centuries.

From Booklist

Clark, author of London under Midnight (2006) and Lucifer’s Ark (2008), among many other horror titles, continues his reassessment of the vampire genre with this frightening story of a man who falls under the spell of a beautiful, mysterious woman whose family has a long and tortured past. Though not a direct sequel to 2009’s Whitby Vampyrhhic, or its Vampyrrhic-titled predecessors, the novel is set in the same region of England (the Yorkshire moors) and shares some of their DNA, particularly the strains involving a Viking curse and the toothy undead. Nicola Bekk, the mysterious woman, is a compelling and seductive character, and young Tom Westonby, who dreams of opening a scuba-diving school in Greece, is appropriately naive and easily enthralled. Readers, too, will be enthralled by Clark’s imaginative story and his dark, atmospheric prose style (which mixes gothic and contemporary language and motifs). Another winner from an always-interesting writer. --David Pitt

About the Author

Simon Clark, described as ""one of the most exciting British horror writers around,"" is the author of numerous novels, including The Fall, Darker and Blood Crazy. He was awarded the British Fantasy Award for his short story ""Goblin City Lights"" and for his novel Night of the Triffids, which continued where John Wyndham's original novel left off.

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