Sunday, April 19, 2009

Those Who Hunt the Night

I realized today that I haven't posted a book review for a while. I must rectify that immediately. Ok, here goes. Those Who Hunt the Night by Barbara Hambly is a vampire book. No, it's not a vampire book like Twilight or anything like unto it. There is no forbidden love or wanting to get bitten. Vampires are definitely the bad guys, but you can't help feeling some empathy for them. The time period is early-20th century England. The vampires of London are being killed one by one by being exposed to daylight. A seemingly mild-mannered professor named James Asher is blackmailed into helping them find the killer. I say seemingly because until he got married, he was actually a spy for England who used his academic work as a cover for espionage. A vampire seeks him out and threatens his wife and family unless he helps them. Asher, of course, wants to find out who is killing the vampires so that he can team up with him or her. However, not all is what it seems.

All in all, it was a pretty good book. I found myself liking the vampires. What can I say? Sometimes I like the bad guys. I also liked the main character. A motorcycle-riding ex-spy who is also an Oxford don. What's not to love? His wife is a good character too. She refuses to be left behind and so gets involved in the investigation. The couple that investigates vampire murders together uh stays together. Yeah, because that happens a lot. But hey, it's always good to come up with a saying to account for every eventuality.

2 comments:

Melody said...

I'm always intrigued by these random books you read. How do you find them, just go to the library, or what? I wouldn't know where to start! It's a good thing I have you to read them for me first and tell me what you think. :) I'm still really bummed, btw, about your news.

Jessica said...

I don't really know; I just tend to pick them up. I am a book magnet. Many of them I get from the library. Some I get from other people. Other times I go on Amazon and read reviews and then check them out at the library or buy them online.