Blood Roses: A Novel of the Count Saint-Germain (St. Germain)

The Comte de Saint-Germain is living in relative peace and prosperity in the village of Orgon in fourteenth-century France. He has won a grudging acceptance from the local populace, who are uneasy with his strange and foreign ways but appreciative of his generosity. But a new threat has upset the precarious balance: Plague has come to France, and the people's fear turns to xenophobia. To avoid the scrutiny that could reveal his true nature, Saint-Germain must flee. However, his travels drive him deeper into the heart of the Black Death--and danger.

Amazon.com Review

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's epic of the vampire Ragoczy, the Count Saint-Germain (including Mansions of Darkness, Darker Jewels, and Writ in Blood) has slowly gathered a dedicated readership, while each installment has garnered increasing critical praise. For new readers, Blood Roses is perhaps the most accessible in the series. In 14th-century France, Saint-Germain is caught amidst the devastation of the Black Plague. Though he is unaffected by the disease, his resistance draws the suspicion of each new town he visits--even as he uses ancient Egyptian healing techniques to save lives. Yarbro's impressive novel offers the flavor of the late Middle Ages while flawlessly integrating the elements of horror and the supernatural that mark this eloquent series. One wonders, for example, if the letters and documents that Yarbro integrates into the text are embellishments of the real. But, as with all the Saint-Germain novels, the most satisfying aspect of the narrative is the author's complex rendering of her central character. With the exception of Anne Rice, few writers have as effectively captured the wearied soul of a being living through the great expanse of human history. --Patrick O'Kelley

From Publishers Weekly

As an exiled foreigner living in the village of Orgon in the midst of 14th-century France, the 3000-year-old vampire Saint-Germain (Mansions of Darkness, etc.) has enough trouble at the best of times convincing the locals that his unusual habits and interests are no threat. It's bad enough to be a man of culture and learning during the Dark Ages without being thought a minion of Satan. Yet even the purest motives aren't enough to withstand the suspicion of the church when Saint-Germain uses his medical skills to heal the Vidame Saint Joachim of a wound no other healer has been able to diagnose. When the church accuses Saint-Germain of helping to spread the plague, the vampire is forced to flee as his lands and goods are seized. In the disguise of an itinerant jongleur, he finds himself attached to a noble house where his learning and sympathetic manner make him first confidant, then secret lover of the Lady Huegenet. Yarbro moves her story along swiftly, filling each page with the period detail for which her work has become known. As is also customary with her writings, the well-told tale is less about vampirism than about the texture of life during a pivotal moment in time long past. Agent, Donald Maass. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The onset of the plague in 14th-century France ends the peaceful existence of Sieur Ragoczy?also known as the Comte de Saint-Germain?as his foreign origins attract suspicion and persecution from greedy nobles and churchmen alike. The latest in Yarbro's series featuring her seductive vampire hero (Writ in Blood, LJ 7/97) re-creates in lavish detail one of history's darkest and least understood periods. Series fans and lovers of period fantasy should enjoy this well-researched, sumptuously written tale of honor and compassion in the midst of death and superstition. For most fantasy collections.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Yarbro's new St. Germain novel is much superior to the last few adventures of her vampire hero, perhaps because of its setting. In 1345 Sieur Racoczy (i.e., St. Germain) is living comparatively peacefully in Provence, enduring only minor annoyances, such as greedy tax collectors and the church. Then the Black Plague (the title translates the French sobriquet for it) reaches Europe and begins its northward march, ravaging civilization as it goes. Anything different or foreign--and, even carefully disguised, St. Germain is both--becomes suspect, for this is an era when suspicion can be as deadly as the plague, especially when there are people trying to profit from others' suffering. The Black Death provides a sufficient amount of sheer gruesomeness, so that Yarbro doesn't have to add any gratuitous grunge. Moreover, she balances description, action, and romance excellently, producing a briskly paced, highly readable historical fantasy and the only recent series installment that is a good starting point for entering the St. Germain saga. Roland Green

About the Author

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's interests range from music--she composes and has studied seven different instruments as well as voice--to history, from horseback riding to needlepoint. Her writing is similarly wide-ranging; under her own name and pseudonyms, she has written everything from westerns to mysteries, from science fiction to nonfiction history. Yarbro's critically-acclaimed historical horror novels featuring the Count Saint-Germain, including Hotel Transylvania, A Feast in Exile, Communion Blood, and Night Blooming, have a loyal readership. Chelsea Quinn Yarbro has always lived in California and currently makes her home in the Berkeley area.

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