Essential Vampire Fiction Vol. 1
Dive into 'Essential Vampire Fiction Vol. 1'—a curated list of must-read vampire books. Discover timeless classics and hidden gems in the world of vampire literature.
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I Am Dracula
by C. Dean Andersson
Told over a series of long winter nights to master horror author C. Dean Andersson, here is the shocking, mesmerizing account of Dracula's history that renders all other versions anemic by comparison.
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The Devouring
by F. W. Armstrong
Psychic detective Ryerson Biergarten investigates a series of bizarre killings and finds himself battling against an ancient entity that intends to make Biergarten's girlfriend one of its victims
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Bitten
by Kelley Armstrong
An erotically charged, addictive thriller from the future queen of suspense. Living in Toronto for a year, Elena is leading the normal life she has always dreamed of, including a stable job as a journalist and a nice apartment shared with her boyfriend. As the lone female werewolf in existence, only her secret midnight prowls and her occasional inhuman cravings set her apart. Just one year ago, life was very different. Adopted by the Pack when bitten, Elena had spent years struggling with her resentment at having her life stolen away. Torn between two worlds, and overwhelmed by the new passions coursing through her body, her only option for control was to deny her awakening needs and escape. But now the Pack has called Elena home to help them fight an alliance of renegade werewolves who are bent on exposing and annihilating the Pack. And although Elena is obliged to rejoin her "family," she vows not to be swept up in Pack life again, no matter how natural it might feel. She has made her choice. Trouble is, she's increasingly uncertain if it's the right one. An erotically charged thriller, Bitten will awaken the voracious appetite of every reader, as the age-old battle between man and beast, between human and inhuman forces, comes to a head in one small town and within one woman's body. From the Paperback edition.
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Full Moon Rising
by Keri Arthur
In this exciting debut, author Keri Arthur explodes onto the supernatural scene with a sexy, sensuous tale of intrigue and suspense set in a world where legends walk and the shady paths of the underworld are far more sinister than anyone envisioned. A rare hybrid of vampire and werewolf, Riley Jenson and her twin brother, Rhoan, work for Melbourne’s Directorate of Other Races, an organization created to police the supernatural races–and protect humans from their depredations. While Rhoan is an exalted guardian, a.k.a. assassin, Riley is merely an office worker–until her brother goes missing on one of his missions. The timing couldn’t be worse. More werewolf than vampire, Riley is vulnerable to the moon heat, the weeklong period before the full moon, when her need to mate becomes all-consuming.… Luckily Riley has two willing partners to satisfy her every need. But she will have to control her urges if she’s going to find her brother….Easier said than done as the city pulses with frenzied desire, and Riley is confronted with a very powerful–and delectably naked–vamp who raises her temperature like never before. In matters carnal, Riley has met her match. But in matters criminal, she must follow her instincts not only to find her brother but to stop an unholy harvest. For someone is doing some shifty cloning in an attempt to produce the ultimate warrior–by tapping into the genome of nonhumans like Rhoan. Now Riley knows just how dangerous the world is for her kind–and just how much it needs her.
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Ancestral Hungers
by Scott Baker
Somewhere in contemporary Illinois... David Bathory returns to his ancestral estate after the death of his father, the head of his family. David is the direct male heir to a birthright he has tried to deny: the lineage of Dracula--which means control over the entire family of vampires. Since his sinsiter uncle wishes to gain the vampire throne (and rule David as well), David is forced with two choices: either claim his birthright at the cost of his immortal soul, or suffer the immediate torments of hell. It's hell one way or the other.
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Dhampire
by Scott Baker
David Bathory, the descendant of Dracula, fights to overcome the curse of his family of vampires and becomes caught up in their satanic power
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Vampyres of Hollywood
by Adrienne Barbeau
Hollywood, California: three gruesome deaths within two weeks and every one of them a major star - an Oscar winner, an ingénue, and an action hero. A serial killer is working through the Hollywood A-list and celebrities are running scared. Each crime scene is worthy of a classic horror movie, and all three victims share a connection to the powerful scream queen, Ovsanna Moore. The stunning and formidable Moore is the legendary head of a Hollywood studio, as well as the writer and star of seventeen blockbuster horror films (and a few that went straight to DVD). She’s also a 500 year old vampyre… but this is Hollywood after all, and no one ever looks their age. Beverly Hills Police Detective Peter King knows a lot about the City of Angels, but he certainly doesn’t know that most of the famous actors in town are actually an established network of vampires. Or that secretive and seductive Ovsanna Moore happens to be their CEO. Moore and King may be from opposite sides of the Hollywood Hills, but both have something to gain by stopping the killer who the tabloids have dubbed the Cinema Slayer. Ovsanna must protect her vampire legacy and her production schedule, while King just wants to keep his Beverly Hills beat as blood-free as possible. But when the horror queen and the cop with the movie star looks form an unholy alliance, sparks fly and so do the creatures of the night. Film, television and Broadway star Adrienne Barbeau and New York Times bestselling author Michael Scott have teamed up to deliver this sexy, scary, and deliciously clever novel full of Hollywood glamour, behind-the-scenes secrets, and the truly bloodthirsty reality of Tinseltown. So grab some popcorn and some holy water and lose yourself in the high-stakes, back-stabbing world of the Vampyres of Hollywood.
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The Letters of Mina Harker
by Dodie Bellamy
In Dodie Bellamy's imagined "sequel" to Bram Stoker's fin de siècle masterpiece Dracula, Van Helsing's plain Jane secretarial adjunct, Mina Harker, is recast as a sexual, independent woman living in San Francisco in the 1980s. The vampire Mina Harker, who possesses the body of author Dodie Bellamy, confesses the most intimate details of her relationships with four vastly different men through past letters. Simultaneously, a plague is let loose in San Francisco-the plague of AIDS. Bigger-than-life, half goddess, half Bette Davis, Mina sends letter after letter to friends and co-conspirators, holding her reader captive through a display of illusion and longing. Juggling quivering vulnerability on one hand and gossip on the other, Mina spoofs and consumes and spews back up demented reembodiments of trash media and high theory alike. It's all fodder for her ravenous libido and "a messy ambiguous place where pathology meets pleasure." Sensuous and captivating, The Letters of Mina Harker describes one woman's struggles finding the right words to explain her desires and fears without confining herself to one identity.
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His Father's Son
by Nigel Bennett
Lord Richard--once known as Lancelot and now a vampire--is called on to rescue a woman whom he had loved and lost as he struggles to save fragile human lives in the face of the Dark Fates that seek to steal his very soul.
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Shattered Glass
by Elaine Bergstrom
Vampire Stephen Austra, a talented artist renowned for his wondrous restorations of stained glass, is one of a new breed of modern vampires. He doesn't need to hunt, respects human life, and would never hurt a soul. But a series of appalling murders makes his lover, Helen, question her faith in him.
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Mina
by Marie Kiraly
First time in trade-the Dracula legend continues in a novel "destined to become a literary classic."* In Bram Stoker's immortal novel, Mina Harker became a living, breathing object of obsession- only to fall prey to her stalker's seductive powers. There was only one way to save her soul-by destroying the life of Count Dracula, the creature who controlled and consumed her. But was the spell really broken? Could Mina return to the ordinary turns of a day, and to the restraints of a Victorian marriage, after the pleasures of such exquisite darkness?
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Blood to Blood
by Elaine Bergstrom
After her second trip to Romania, Mina returns to London finally free of LordDracula's spell. Building a new life, she must find a place for her unleasheddesires in her marriage to Jonathan. But Jonathan's nightmares signal that ofanother vampire kind, one who has tasted of blood, still walks the Earth, andis coming for him.
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Fiends of the Eastern Front
by David Bishop
This first novel of an alternate history trilogy begins in 1941, when the German army marches its way through Russia, uniting with axis Romanian soldiers. One such Romanian platoon is led by Constanta and his men. However, one of the German soldiers comes to realize that the Romanians are also vampires. Original.
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Blood Groove
by Alex Bledsoe
When centuries-old vampire Baron Rudolfo Zginski was staked in Wales in 1915, the last thing he expected was to reawaken in Memphis, Tennessee, sixty years later. Reborn into a new world of simmering racial tensions, the cunning nosferatu realizes he must adapt quickly if he is to survive. Finding willing victims is easy, as Zginski possesses all the powers of the undead, including the ability to sexually enslave anyone he chooses. Hoping to learn how his kind copes with this bizarre new era, Zginski tracks down a nest of teenage vampires. But these young vampires have little knowledge of their true nature, having learned most of what they know from movies like Blacula. Forming an uneasy alliance with the young vampires, Zginski begins to teach them the truth about their powers. They must learn quickly, for there's a new drug on the street—a drug created to specifically target and destroy vampires. As Zginski and his allies track the drug to its source, they may unwittingly be stepping into a fifty-year-old trap that can destroy them all . . .
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Bite Club
by Hal Bodner
The first in a new series of comic horror novels. The bars of West Hollywood have always played host to a fair share of blood-sucking monsters, but until now that has only been metaphoric. After three prime cuts of gay male meat turn up fiulleted and drained of blood, the Sheriff, Coroner and City Mayor are forced to the realisation that something not human has taken up residence in Boy's Town. Fortunately the coroner's friend is something of an expert on serial killers, but when she drops in on him for advice she finds him taking a nap in his coffin...
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The Ruby Tear
by Rebecca Brand
"The Jewel" was just another play, but the real ruby necklace was the subject Of a thousand-year-long curse on the playwright's family. Lovely Jessamyn, in love with playwright Nicolas Griffin, fights her way to the starring role...and no one can really tell her just how perilous a choice she has made, especially when she starts responding to the romantic attentions of the enigmatic European Baron von Cragga. Romance, adventure, and terror stalk a beautiful actress -- in the form of a centuries-old vampire "Not just another vampire novel... a highly atmospheric, low key supernatural thriller with a conclusion that wasn't at all what (this reviewer) had expected". -- Science Fiction Chronicle "A highly theatrical novel....By the time the plot cranks into high gear, everything that once appeared simple has slipped a quantum level into complexity. The climax of The Ruby Tear will modestly rip your heart out". -- Locus
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Moon Called
by Patricia Briggs
THE FIRST MERCY THOMPSON NOVEL! Moon Called is the novel that introduced Patricia Briggs’s Mercy Thompson to the world and launched a #1 bestselling phenomenon... Mercy Thompson is a shapeshifter, and while she was raised by werewolves, she can never be one of them, especially after the pack ran her off for having a forbidden love affair. So she’s turned her talent for fixing cars into a business and now runs a one-woman mechanic shop in the Tri-Cities area of Washington State. But Mercy’s two worlds are colliding. A half-starved teenage boy arrives at her shop looking for work, only to reveal that he’s a newly changed werewolf—on the run and desperately trying to control his animal instincts. Mercy asks her neighbor Adam Hauptman, the Alpha of the local werewolf pack, for assistance. But Mercy’s act of kindness has unexpected consequences that leave her no choice but to seek help from those she once considered family—the werewolves who abandoned her... “In the increasingly crowded field of kick-ass supernatural heroines, Mercy stands out as one of the best.”—Locus
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Lost Souls
by Poppy Brite
Vampires . . . they ache, they love, they thirst for the forbidden. They are your friends and lovers, and your worst fears. “A major new voice in horror fiction . . . an electric style and no shortage of nerve.”—Booklist At a club in Missing Mile, N.C., the children of the night gather, dressed in black, look for acceptance. Among them are Ghost, who sees what others do not; Ann, longing for love; and Jason, whose real name is Nothing, newly awakened to an ancient, deathless truth about his father, and himself. Others are coming to Missing Mile tonight. Three beautiful, hip vagabonds—Molochai, Twig, and the seductive Zillah, whose eyes are as green as limes—are on their own lost journey, slaking their ancient thirst for blood, looking for supple young flesh. They find it in Nothing and Ann, leading them on a mad, illicit road trip south to New Orleans. Over miles of dark highway, Ghost pursues, his powers guiding him on a journey to reach his destiny, to save Ann from her new companions, to save Nothing from himself. . . . “An important and original work . . . a gritty, highly literate blend of brutality and sentiment, hope and despair.”—Science Fiction Chronicle
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Storm Front
by Jim Butcher
In the first novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling Dresden Files series, Harry Dresden’s investigation of a grisly double murder pulls him into the darkest depths of magical Chicago… As a professional wizard, Harry Dresden knows firsthand that the “everyday” world is actually full of strange and magical things—and most of them don’t play well with humans. And those that do enjoy playing with humans far too much. He also knows he’s the best at what he does. Technically, he’s the only at what he does. But even though Harry is the only game in town, business—to put it mildly—stinks. So when the Chicago P.D. bring him in to consult on a double homicide committed with black magic, Harry's seeing dollar signs. But where there's black magic, there's a black mage behind it. And now that mage knows Harry's name... “A great series—fast-paced, vividly realized and with a hero/narrator who’s excellent company.”—Cinescape
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Night Prayers
by P. D. Cacek
A sexy and witty take on vampires, as a young woman explores her new life among the undead in L.A.
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Stagestruck Vampires
by Suzy McKee Charnas
Themes of transgression, eroticism, and violence thread through this retrospective collection of short stories and essays. A psychotherapist falls under the spell of her vampire patient in "Unicorn Tapestry" and in "Beauty and the Opéra or the Phantom Beast," an evil maestro finds redemption in his lovely pupil, and additional essays "Art Is Long" and "The Stagestruck Vampire" offer autobiographical reflections on the art of writing. Combining lush prose with a biting wit, this terrifying collection will appeal to fans of fantasy, romance, horror, and character-driven suspense.
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The Vampire Tapestry
by Suzy McKee Charnas
Now in Orb, the vampire book Stephen King called "Scary, entertaining, suspenseful.... unputdownable"
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Vampyrrhic
by Simon Clark
Beneath the streets of the quiet English village of Leppington stir terrifying creatures, driven by an ancient need and united in their shared, unending craving. For untold years they have remained hidden, coming out only to feed and seen only by their unfortunate victims. Now the truth of their vile existence is about to be revealed--but will anyone believe it? (July)
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Archangel
by Michael Conner
Nebula-award winning author Mike Conner presents a novel about a world that all of us can recognize, a world of what might have been. In Minneapolis in the 1930's, the deadly plague that ended the First World War is decimating the population. The only people who seem to be immune to its effects are black people. What does this mean for the future of the city--"and of the nation? Young newsman Danny Constantine finds that not everyone is dying from the plague. He has discovered a series of bizarre deaths--"murders that look like the work of a vampire. In these times of bad news, his own paper refuses to print the story and Danny must search for the truth on his own, except for a mysterious woman known only as archangel, who always seems to appear when needed most.
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Daughters of the Moon
by Joseph Curtin
LIZABET They called her the Blood Countess. From her home in the Carpathian Mountains, she enjoyed pleasures so profane no human could even imagine them. Even now, centuries later and an ocean away, the old ones cross themselves at the mention of her name. And she will happily show them true fear now that she is reunited with the golden-eyed girl, the beauty the Dark One promised would be her most faithful pupil and servant... CHLOE She knows her name, but she can't remember anything else from her past. Her only memories are of Lizabet, feeding in the darkness. But ever since meeting Johnny, she knows she must stop Lizabet's depraved cruelty...no matter what the cost.
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Undead and Unwed
by MaryJanice Davidson
After being killed in a car accident, fashion savvy Betsy Taylor becomes one of the undead and, with the help of her newfound friends, the lure of designer shoes, and a sexy vampire, must destroy a dark enemy and fulfill her destiny as the prophesied vampire queen. Original.
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Shadows Bite
by Stephen Dedman
Hungry L.A. Women Something is amiss in Los Angeles. A body vanishes from the morgue. The errant son of L.A.'s most notorious necromancer has unleashed demons that not even his father can control. Women hungry for more than love are suddenly appearing among the vampire wannabes at the Crypt, a local goth cafe. And a yakuza boss has put a contract out on stuntman Charlie Takumo's friend Michelangelo "Mage" Magistrale, seeking vengeance--and a magical "key" that unlocks enormous power. The two friends' plight deepens when they're thrust into the middle of a series of mysterious nocturnal deaths that suddenly plague the City of Angels. Caught between professional assassins and ancient terrors that are undead and stalking the L.A. nightlife, they'll need all of Takumo's fighting skills--and Mage's magic--if they want to survive to see the dawn, because . . .
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The Strain
by Guillermo Del Toro
The visionary creator of the Academy Award-winning Pan's Labyrinth and a Hammett Award-winning author bring their imaginations to this bold, epic novel about a horrifying battle between man and vampire that threatens all humanity. It is the first installment in a thrilling trilogy and an extraordinary international publishing event. The Strain They have always been here. Vampires. In secret and in darkness. Waiting. Now their time has come. In one week, Manhattan will be gone. In one month, the country. In two months—the world. A Boeing 777 arrives at JFK and is on its way across the tarmac, when it suddenly stops dead. All window shades are pulled down. All lights are out. All communication channels have gone quiet. Crews on the ground are lost for answers, but an alert goes out to the CDC. Dr. Eph Goodweather, head of their Canary project, a rapid-response team that investigates biological threats, gets the call and boards the plane. What he finds makes his blood run cold. In a pawnshop in Spanish Harlem, a former professor and survivor of the Holocaust named Abraham Setrakian knows something is happening. And he knows the time has come, that a war is brewing . . . So begins a battle of mammoth proportions as the vampiric virus that has infected New York begins to spill out into the streets. Eph, who is joined by Setrakian and a motley crew of fighters, must now find a way to stop the contagion and save his city—a city that includes his wife and son—before it is too late.
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Desmond
by Ulysses Grant Dietz
When a gay vampire falls in love with a young man, his dark world is forever changed, in this welcome addition to the canon of vampire literature.
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Area 51
by Robert Doherty
From the deserts of Egypt, the Airlia brought forth human civilization to fight its battlesabut what did they leave behind? From the Age of the Gods to the Age of Man, one creature has watched from the shadows, waiting for his moment. Forged from the blood of the Airlia, with unspeakable strength and a terrifying thirst, he has shadowed human history from the beginning. His name is Nosferatu. And this is his story.