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Kostova has clearly tried to breathe new(undead) life into the classic Vampire novel, concentrating on historians unearthing their existence. It's an interesting idea.

But it never really hits the spot. There's long (some might say overlong) sections when we spend a ridiculous amount of time gallivanting all around the Near East and Eastern Europe in search of a folk song or snatch of letter, which miraculously turn up in the collections of a succession of stereotypical Wise Old Men simply in order to move the story along. So many coincidences get increasingly hard to accept.

And when Vlad makes only his second major appearance, he's dispatched with ridiculous ease which only leads you to wonder why it took 600+ years to kill him.

It has it's moments. Kostava is at her best when describing the people of the Eastern European regions she's clearly familiar with but it wasn't enough to save the novel for me.