Would you make a deal with the devil to keep from getting the plague?
The book opens in France on May 21, 1349. The plague is making its rounds, killing each one who is infected, and it is almost impossible to escape infection.
Damian’s fiance has come down with it and life no longer has any meaning for him. He is mad at God, and he is mad at the world.
When he leaves her house, he loses his way while walking—maybe intentionally—and ends up at the pits where the plague victims are burned. He sees someone there full of life yet not alive. He sees a way out of his predicament and strikes a deal with the devil. He willingly becomes a vampire.
Life as a vampire takes some getting used to, especially when he discovers that they can be just as deceitful as humans.
vampire, pixabay
He isn’t one of those sparkly vampires. In my opinion, vampires should never sparkle. They are dark creatures of the night, and that is just what Damian is. Like Dracula, he can be harmed by garlic, crosses, holy relics, the name of God, and daylight. And he sleeps at night in a coffin that has dirt from his home spread inside.
He must now partake of human blood regularly to survive, but part of him still seems to be human. The one thing he wants is to find true love. After being betrayed by one he had considered to be the love of his life, he has almost given up hope, yet he still searches for the right woman. But when he is angry or hurt, any humans in the vicinity need to go away before they become his next meal.
vampire, magickbazaar.com
Like a family saga, this story takes place over many, many years. It begins in May of 1349 and ends in June of 3533. But so much happens during all of those years. Damian lives through all of the historical events that we learned about in school as well as ones that haven’t yet happened.
This author has written a vampire tale that spans beyond our current time. Even though Damian is a vampire and drains the blood from regular people like us, it is really hard not to like him. I sympathized with his situation at times. I understood when he went on his rampages, and I understood when he held back. But he still longs to find true love.
I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. If you would like to purchase your own copy of what is one of the best vampire tales I’ve ever read, I’ve provided an Amazon link below.
Amazon Link: The Night Man Cometh
Recommended Articles:
Why Vampires? – Guest Post by Tony-Paul de Vissage
The Black Death and Ring Around the Rosie
open up to imagination, www.studentpulse.com
Favorite Sentences:
Instead of coming a blushing bride to his marriage bed, she would be consigned—a rotting, blood-weeping corpse—to the plague fires.
Damian clung to the knowledge of his betrayal like a drowning man to a floating log, making it his one thought, his revenge, his only desire.
In later centuries it would be termed the “Civil War of the States” but I always wonder, when has a war ever been civil?
Of all the non-human fluids of sustenance, that of the albatross was one of the most potent.
It awakened another memory…the flowers and herbs in the beak-doctor’s mask.
New Words Learned:
abigail – a lady’s maid.
beak-doctor – plague doctor
bungs – corks
farthingale – a hoop skirt or framework for expanding a woman’s skirt, worn in the 16th and 17th centuries
histrionics – exaggerated emotional behavior calculated for effect
loa – In the voodoo religion, a spirit intermediary between Bondye (the creator god) and human beings.
Marie Laveau – a Louisiana Creole practitioner of Voodoo, who was renowned in New Orleans
pilsner – a tall glass that is tapered to a short stem at the bottom, used especially for beer
piqures – bites
proscribed – denounced or condemned as harmful
sangsue – leech; a person who makes money by any means possible
sellswords – mercenaries
stomacher – a richly ornamented garment covering the stomach and chest, worn by both sexes in the 15th and 16th centuries, and later worn under a bodice by women
About the Author:
A writer of French Huguenot extraction, Tony-Paul de Vissage’s first movie memory is of being six years old, viewing the old Universal horror flick, Dracula’s Daughter on television, and being scared sleepless–and that may explain a lifelong interest in vampires.
This was further inspired when the author was kidnapped by a band of transplanted Romanian vampires sightseeing in the South. Having never seen a human who wasn’t frightened of them, they offered to pay the youngster’s way through college if he would become an author and write about vampires in a positive manner. He agreed, was returned to his parents (who were also grateful for the tuition offer since it let them off the hook) and continued to keep in touch with his supernatural mentors.
Though the author didn’t begin writing horror–or any other genre–until after graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from a well-known Southern University (and a second in Graphic Art), that one particular interest—and the promise made to his mentors—survived a liberal arts’ education and the scorn of friends and family. Marriage, parenthood, divorce, and a variety of occupations ranging from stage work to doctor’s assistant took precedent over writing for several years, as did moving from one United States coast to another.
Eventually that first story—a short story about the hapless vampire Clan Andriescu—was published. A voracious reader whose personal library has been shipped more than 3,000 miles, Tony-Paul has read hundreds of vampire tales and viewed more than as many movies.
TP currently has twenty-five novels published, twenty-three under the Class Act Books imprint. His next novel, Absinthe Eternal, will be released in February 2018.
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Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5117438.Tony_Paul_de_Vissage
