This is horror and dark fantasy involving vampires, of course. Do not go into any of these books with any hope that good people survive or bad creatures die.

Peter Octavian is the son of the last emperor of Byzantium. He is a Shadow… related to the Vampires but unlike them. The Shadows don’t hunt unwilling humans. They’ve been among us for two thousand years and only Peter suspects that the Roman Catholic Church has been purposely controlling the vampires. He discovers that the constraints on vampires such as sunlight, consecrated ground and symbols of Christianity are just beliefs and can be overcome. And for his beliefs, he is ostracized from his own shadow family – his coven.

In the first book, there is a Catholic priest who has dedicated his entire existence to the extermination of the Defiant Ones, as the Church names the vampires and shadows, both. The book ends with his banishment to Hell by way of the ultimate sacrifice by Peter Octavian. And the whole world now knows of the Vampires and Shadows, thanks to modern media. But, the Shadows who stood and fought with Peter are left with many questions of who and what they are. And the Vampires must now give up their predatory habits and exist as the Shadows do since the media are now watching.

The second book opens five years later with the return of the priest and his continuing effort to exterminate all Defiant Ones plus a new agenda – the subjugation of all mankind. Shadows and Vampires must stand together to defeat the priest with his unholy magic and evil plans. A small band of Shadows travel to Hell to find Peter Octavian with the idea that only he might understand how the priest gained so much unholy magic while in Hell and be able to destroy him. The second book ends with the return of Peter, the defeat of the priest, and a break between Shadows and Vampires. The Vampires are led by Hannibal who wants a return to the good old days of hunting humans. The fun thing about Hannibal is his adherence to the old belief system – hunt only at night and die from the symbols of Christianity and sunlight despite evidence to the contrary.

“Of Masques…” begins with the Shadows attempting to track down the lair of Hannibal in order to stop his increasing army of Vampires. Many major cities now boast of a large coven of Vampires that makes all nighttime activities a life risk. Society has changed significantly and the humans don’t seem to have any way to stop the encroachment. The leadership of the Shadows, including Peter Octavian and Will Cody of Buffalo Bill fame, are willing to sacrifice all to stop him and give the humans and the Shadows a chance to peacefully coexist. Most of this book concerns itself with preparing for the battle and the battle itself. Along the way, the critical question of who and what the Shadows and Vampires are is finally answered. The conclusion was a little trite – a bit of Pinocchio.

The story arc about the priest was most interesting. I also really enjoyed the twist on vampires and the role the Church played in determining their nature. I was less than enamored with the third story as it was too limited in scope. Golden is very talented and is a good story-teller. The plot of the third book is simpler than the first two; the characters are dependent on the first two books and there isn’t a lot of character development. I felt a little disappointed and thought the story only existed to put Hannibal to rest and give a gratuitous ending for Peter. I haven’t read the 4th one yet but the synopsis suggests it may be just more vampire and demon mayhem. I’ll have to read it because the synopsis of the new book holds more promise. ~~ Catherine Book