31 Days of Halloween { review } Deliver Us From Evil by Tom Holland
Deliver Us From Evil by Tom Holland. © 2000 Little Brown UK. ISBN 9780751518610. Paperback. Historical Fiction / Horror. 579 pages. Source: purchased from Amazon UK
Synopsis: Wiltshire, during the dying days of Oliver Cromwell’s Republic. Robert Vaughn is the son of a Parliamentary officer, investigating a series of grisly murders which suggest a link with Satanic rituals. Led along a dark path to vampirism and beyond, he attempts to fight an evil killer.
Review: Robert Foxe is witness to a number of horrible, ritualist killings during the mid-1600s, near the village of Woodton, where his father is sheriff. He witnesses something even more horrible during the fourth killing at Stonehenge, and what the killing summons.
Robert is found by two travlers, Milady and Lightborn, the next day, and taken into their care. His quest for vengeance leads him from England to Prague to the New World.
I wasn’t sure for a bit if this was a vampire novel, or just horror. There are certainly zombielike creatures (yay)! But yes, Milady and Lightborn are vampires (and I figured out who Lightborn really is, but then the clues were there if you know the history) and Robert, well, he’s something else. We even learn of the beginnings of Vakel Pasha, who has a much larger part to play in Lord of the Dead, which I very highly recommend. The fact there are vampires, though, is nearly incidental since this is Robert’s story. I was highly amused by the full story of Milady’s tranformation though–should have seen that coming!
Excellent book.
