Vampires, murder, and romance fill this book.
First published in 1999, Dark Prince was shorter by nearly 100 pages. Twelve years later, the author decided republish her first book with the missing pages. It was a wise decision. The characters were fully fleshed out, creating a beautiful world of mystery and horror.
The one thing that stood out from this book was the Vampire Legend. Mikhail Dubrinsky, the Prince of the Carpathians, is an Immortal. He feeds on human blood, can turn into mist, a wolf, sleeps at night, can even read minds. The difference between Carpathians and Vampires is emotions. The Carpathians can feel love, even mate. They can see color only when they are in the presence of their life mates. If they go for too long without a life mate, they can choose to either become Vampire or die by burning in the sun. Mikhail and his Clan hunt those who choose to become Vampires.
As the story starts, Mikhail has decided to end his life by going into the sun. It is then that he discovers that he has found his life mate, a human. This is unheard of, since in his world Humans and Carpathians do not mate. Even stranger is that this human, Raven, has the same telepathic powers that he does. They communicate through their minds, which makes for a very difficult first chapter, and makes Mikhail seem to be very hard to relate to. At times, Mikhail even seems condescending to Raven, but as you read on, it becomes more affectionate.
The story moves its way to a murder mystery when one of The Carpathians is killed. Ms. Feehan does this seamlessly. Intermingling romance and mystery is never an easy thing. Writers have tried and failed. Throwing in the supernatural makes it even harder. My hat is off to her for accomplishing this task.
(note: this review originally appreared on the Best Damn Creative Writing Blog)
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