Hide Me Among The Graves
Tim Powers
Morrow, Mar 13 2012, $25.99
ISBN: 9780061231544

In 1819, John Polidori is part of the romantic writers’ inner circle led by Byron and Shelley as he writes a vampire tale. Two years later he is dead, allegedly a suicide victim.

In 1862 London the Rosetti siblings are very talented artists. Dante Gabriel Rossetti is a wonderful pre-Raphaelite painter and Christina is a well-regarded poetess. However, they fear their late Uncle John haunts them from the grave. Dante and Christina ask for help from former prostitute Adelaide McKee; her veterinarian lover John Crawford and Polidori’s romantic writing peer Edward John Trelawny. Polidori and his kin plan to terrorize London starting with those who share their blood.

This is an engaging refreshing vampire Victorian thriller with an incredible twist in which the siblings’ talent is at its “immortal” for the ages’ best when the vampire “controls” them. The time and place is incredibly developed so much so that readers will believe they meet a who’s who while walking the foggy streets of London; however that depth also slows down the pace of a wonderful loose sequel to The Stress of Her Regard.

Harriet Klausner