Aug 25, 2006

Beyond the Pale

Beyond the Pale by Savannah Russe

The Darkwing Chronicles Book 1

Signet Eclipse, 2005

Raw notes - but no spoilers!


This is great beach reading. The kind of story to take in one gulp and don’t do any deep thinking about the plot. Just enjoy it.

the following comes from my memory of what happened in the book. I have notes - somewhere - which I can’t find. I’m still hoping and hopeful that they will show up. I used a letter size writing pad and kept very careful notes at least up to page 100.

Daphne Urban is a centuries old Vampire who must change her profile every 20 years or so because as a vampire she never ages. She was around 18 when she was changed. She lives in NYC. Her mother, Mar-Mar, also has an apartment in the Big Apple. Mar-Mar loved the hippie era and dresses like a hippie. So do her off the wall peacenick friends. Daphne loves her mom but sometimes gets a bit irritated when she becomes a bit smothering, and nosey, and tries to get her hooked up with someone in the family -meaning the family of vampires.

One evening - vamps only go out in the evening - Daph is captured and brought to the office of a man called J. He works for a super secret U. S. government intelligence agency and has had Daphne and 2 other vamps - Benny Polycarp (female) - a well endowed southern belle charmer and Cormac O’Reilly (guy) - a gay actor and dancer.

Before - when Daphne was abducted her “recruiter” showed how much he knew about her personally - like how she had been living a very shallow, uninvolved with others life and that her mother had long been involved in international diplomacy.

Before meeting Bonaventure she goes to the neighborhood at cases his building. There she is followed and when she actually meets her stalker they find an intense attraction, and they consummate that attraction passionately. His name is Darius. He also is after Bonaventure. Darius works for a different intelligence agency. He knows who J is (and vice versa) For whatever reason they don’t trust each other. Darius will not or cannot tell her much about why he wants Bonaventure, but they decide to work together, although she has reservations about it.

Then she discovers that Darius knows about vampires and will kill any that he knows. Of course he doesn’t know that Daphne is one. This does not deter Daphne’s strong attraction to him.


Russe is a good writer and makes her characters believable. She really must work on her plot lines so that things don’t get so confusing that they seem ridiculous.
I have a few quibbles but basically enjoyed the book.

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