Oct 27, 2010

Blood Maidens - Vampire Book Review

Hambly, Barbara. Blood Maidens. Severn House, January 2011.

An intense relationship has developed between Don Simon Ysidro, a powerful vampire of London, James Asher,a former secret service agent for Queen Victoria, and Asher's young wife Lydia, a physician with a penchant for medical research. In their third foray Ysidro demands that James accompany him to St Petersburg, Russia where he has learned that agents for Kaiser Wilhelm are plotting to bring members of the Undead into the German web.

Ysidro insists the existence of vampires must remain secret to the living world and convinces Asher to once again help the cause of the undead. Inevitably Lydia's special talents are needed, and the three are once again caught in a nail-biting adventure. In Those Who Hunt the Night (1988) and Traveling with the Dead (1995) the fascinating interaction of the main characters is well described, unfortunately some of that is lost in Blood Maidens.  This is Book three in the Don Ysidro series. It's an engaging  story but not as compelling as its predecessors.

[A version of this review originally appeared in the October 15, 2010 issue of Library Journal.]

7 comments:

booklover0226 said...

You do not know how you've made my day! I've been waiting for book 3 for YEARS! I love this series.

January will not get here fast enough for me.

Thank you so much for posting this!

Tracey D

Patricia Altner said...

Hi Tracey

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the book. Please let me know.

Anonymous said...

This is odd. I just bought one of her books the other day and didn't realize it was part of a sseries until today. The problem is now I have to go find #1 and buy #3. Dagnabbit. I hate when I buy in the middle books ;) Thank you Patricia, I love your blog, I am always finding great stuff in it. Have a great Halloween
Stephmartin71(at)yahoo(dot)com

Patricia Altner said...

Hi Steph

I meant to list the 3 books in the series with the post and forgot. There are several years in between publications so I'm not sure if Hambly meant to have a series or it just happened. Anyway book one is still my favorite - Those Who Hunt the Night - first published in 1988.
I hope you get a copy.

And thanks for the kind words about PVN!

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much Pat for replying with more info. I'll try to find it sometime over the weekend but you know as well as me, I'm sure, but when it's a first book & last published in 1988, it will probably cost a fortune unless I can find it really really used & in bad shape or reprinted before I could get my hands on one ;) Hope you have an Awesome Halloween Weekend.
Stephmartin71(at)yahoo(dot)com

booklover0226 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
booklover0226 said...

Hi, Patricia.

I just saw your reply. Yes, I'll be happy to share my thoughts on this book.

BTW - it is available through Amazon and Barnes and Noble, already! HURRY UP, PAYDAY!!

Tracey D