Book Review: Dhampir

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Dhampir     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Barb Hendee , J. C. Hendee
Class/Genre:   Fantasy   Horror   Vampire
Series: Noble Dead # 1
Roc, Jan 2003, $5.99, 384 pp.

As a child Magiere was shunned by the townsfolk because her father was a traveling noble and her mother was a peasant woman. They made her life so miserable that she ran away from home at seventeen carrying only a magical knife and two amulets that her father left behind for her. She worked at any job she could find, traveling from town to town until she met the half-elf Leesil. Together they worked the perfect con, pretending she was a vampire hunter who could rid the town of a vampire that was in the area.

After she saved enough money, Magiere bought an inn in the town of Miiska. Nobody could be more surprised than Magiere and Leesil to learn that a trio of vampires lived in the town and what’s more they know about her since she killed one of their kin. Magiere comes to learn she is the natural enemy of the vampire, a DHAMPIRE born of a mortal woman and a vampire father, with powers she must learn to use if she doesn’t want to end up being a vampire’s meal.

Barb and J.C. Hendee have written a refreshingly innovative horror novel where the protagonists and antagonists act according to their own nature. The vampires serve as worthy adversaries for the Dhampir to destroy if she can and the reader will be rooting for her all the way. After years of being homeless, Magiere and her half elf companion finally have a home and they will do everything in their power to protect it. The plot is meaty and juicy with unexpected turn so that readers are already anticipating the next surprise.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner