I picked this book up more or less at random, because I'd seen the author's name, and it was published by Golden Gryphon, which tends to publish artier books.

Summarizing the plot doesn't tell you much about the book. A police inspector turned vampire investigates the murder of a human by a vampire, amidst a web of vampire family intrigues.

That makes it sound like a sort of genre politico-thriller/mystery, but it's really not. The murder investigation is more or less a means to move the main character into various bizarre scenes with other vampires. It also provides an excuse for describing the setting of the story, an unimaginably immense and strange castle where the vampires have come together.

There's really not a lot of plot, and the mystery is in a way the least satisfying part of the book. There's not a lot of plot overall, so the mystery investigation is pretty thin. The book is instead filled with long descriptive passages of both the setting, people, and the narrator's inner thoughts.

It was a bit of a tough read, because there are just so many long, detailed descriptions of really bizarre things. Because the plot is so thin, it's easy to get lost in these descriptions and come out the other end having forgotten why the characters are doing what they're doing. The book is only 200 pages, but if it were longer I think I would've given up.

As it is, I appreciate the skill of the writing and the strength of the author's voice, but I didn't really love the book. It didn't help that I kept trying to read it when I was tired, but the novel wasn't compelling enough to keep me awake and alert.

Overall, I'd recommend this to people looking for something different and artistic.