Raven Hart, The Vampire's Secret

The Vampire's Secret

Raven Hart

Ballantine, April 2007, $6.99, 406 pp.

ISBN 0345479778

The old world vampires have tortured their offspring (vampires made by their sire) and each other but those who escaped to the New World formed an organization similar to the Underground Railroad to help the offspring escape. William Coyote Thorne has disposed of his sire and for the first time in five centuries he has fallen in love with Eleanor who wants to join him in eternity. After surviving her transformation they have only a brief time of happiness until trouble comes to Savannah.

Hugo's clan has come to William's territory to find out what happened to his sire who happens to be William's sire. William is not prepared to see his wife Diana and his biological son Will in Hugo's entourage. He thought they were killed five hundred years ago. While he is dealing with this development, a plague breaks out that kills humans and vampires alike. Will catches the virus but and ends up killing the human friend of a fellow master vampire. How far will William go for his son and the wife he thinks he knows as those around him are hurt or destroyed?

The protagonist is torn between two loves, his wife and Eleanor, the woman who won his heart. In trying to recapture the past, William alienates everyone he cares about but the worst blow of all is the kidnapping of a very immoral. There is plenty of action in this romantic fantasy but the heart of this tale remains the characters who realistically react to William's behavior. Raven Hart is a very good writer.

Harriet Klausner