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What happens when a logical, no-nonsense computer operator encounters a vampire among the machinery? When Alicia Anderson first became aware of the shadows in the computer room, she dismissed them as figments of an overactive imagination. Meanwhile, fledgling witch Matricaria has begun to receive psychic messages - vivid dreams and tarot card readings - that point to a terrible fate for someone near her. She and her coven attempt to decipher the symbols, hoping to prevent a tragedy. Soon the lives of these very different women intersect. Can Matricaria, a mere trainee, decode the nightmares in time to save Alicia? Is Matricaria or her coven any match for a vampire who has lived for nearly a century? Darksome Thirst is a fast-paced, atmospheric tale of a young woman who must resolve the difference between what her logical mind tells her and what she is actually experiencing, the first in a series of novels about Alicia and Matricaria and their battles against the unknown. The sequel, The Old Power Returns, is due in June 2007.
Pagan News Review by PaganNews.com
The lies a gap between Anne Rice and Laurell K. Hamilton that the new series of Vampire novels from Morven Westfield have a great potential to fill.
In her first book in the series, Darksome Thirst Westfield introduces us to the sharp-witted vampire Wesley and his accomplice Frederick.
Unwillingly drawn into their world is a bright systems operator called Alicia Anderson, and her boss Meg McMillan.
As the story unfolds, a local coven begins to detect the presence of the vampires and zeroes in on their prey
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Clearly the author has done a lot of research (either objectively or subjectively) on Paganism and Wicca, and the attention to detail and accuracy of the rites and correspondences included is impressive.
If the book has a failing, it is that the characters do not have the depth of those created by Rice or Hamilton - there is a two-dimensional quality to them. The book could quite easily have been an extra 100 pages long without bogging down the storyline and would have given us deeper insight into its protagonists.
This may merely be because Westfield is still feeling her way, of course - this is her debut novel, after all. I feel sure that as the series progresses, this is something that will be corrected, and we will find a new Le Stat or Anita Blake to simultaneously love and hate...
