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Vampyrrhic Rites  By Simon Clark             Nailed by the Heart            (Simon Clark's Website) Vampyrrhic Rites is the sequel to Vampyrrhic and takes up the story three years later. In the original book there were four people who joined together to fight and destroy the vampires: David Leppington, Electra Charnwood, Bernice Mochardi and Jack Black. Jack Black was my favourite character in the book, but he died while fighting the good fight against the vampire hoards and I was not sure how much I would enjoy a sequel in which it seemed unlikely that he would appear. I needn't have worried, however, because the big thug still manages to make himself useful this time around, despite the obvious disadvantage of being dead and dismembered and buried in more than one grave. Out of the three survivors Electra is the only one who still remains in Leppington, where she continues to run the Station Hotel. Jack Black was probably the only man that Electra could ever have loved. She still mourns for him and has even named a room of the hotel after him. Electra has also set up a website called The Hotel Midnight. She has documented the events of three years ago on the site and also runs a forum there that is designed to help those who have had, or who might have, similar problems with vampires. Bernice has never returned to Leppington. She lives alone, in a small flat, along with the huge collection of boots and shoes that attest to the fact that has a shoe fetish. Lately though, Bernice has been feeling strangely unsettled with her life and so perhaps it is time she and her boots started walking. David is working in a busy London Hospital. He has done his best to put the past behind him, but something strange happens on his thirtieth birthday: he has quite an unusual conversation with a dead man, and then, as if that is not surprise enough for any one day, his schizophrenic ex-girlfriend, Katrina, suddenly walks back into his life and rekindles the embers of an old love that has never really died. Just as quickly as she appeared, though, Katrina vanishes again, leaving David with some very confused emotions and an awful lot of worry when he realizes that she has stopped taking her medication. Apart from the events of three years ago Electra, Bernice and David all share something in common: they have all recently begun having dreams about Jack Black; and when a new breed of vampire turns up near a lake called Lazarus Deep, it becomes obvious that Jack Black knows more about what is going on than they do and he is trying to help them from beyond the grave. The vampires this time around live at the bottom of a lake, instead of underneath the town. Like their predecessors, though, they want David to lead their vampire army. They have also imprisoned a man named Rowan in a house near to the lake. Rowan is in a bad way, but he has been in constant touch with Electra, through her Hotel Midnight site, and he wants her help. But is it a trap though? Vampyrrhic Rites is 504 pages long and it is a good read, but I must admit that I much preferred the first book. Even though Jack Black still plays a very important part this time around, he is not the man he once was and--dare I say it?--he never really comes to life as a character. Jack is like a cardboard cut-out of the man he once was. In the first book the reader got to see things from Jacks viewpoint. In this one, however, the reader only receives the other characters impressions of Jack. He never even speaks and is a ghost of his former self in more ways than the one. There are a few new characters added to the mix. Two of which are a young man named Dylan Adams and a girl called Vicky Lawton. Dylan is eighteen-years-old and he lives in the small town of Morningdale, which is not very far from Leppington. Or Lazarus Deep, for that matter. He is introduced early on in the book (page 9) and when the reader first meets him he is standing beside Lazarus Deep, in the middle of the night. Dylan has the chance of a good job in London, and he wants to take it, but he has always had deep feelings for Vicky and he is feeling a little confused. I suppose he would be just as confused at home in his bed--and warmer too--but hey, he's young and in love. Dylan and Vicky are both important characters in the book and their developing relationship forms an interesting sub-plot. In fact they turn up more frequently than Denise, who is not perhaps as important this time around, although she does have a crucial role to play in the final pages of the book. If you decide that you want to read Vampyrrhic Rites, I would strongly recommend that you read Vampyrhhic first because the first book will give you a better understanding of the main characters and the history behind the vampires and the reason for their connection with the Leppington family. Reading the first book will also give you the chance to see for yourself what a strong character Jack Black was and just how and where he fits into the story. HOME