SPIKE & DRU: Pretty Maids All In a Row
Christopher Golden
Pocket Books
Young Adult
ISBN: 0743400461

Read an Excerpt

No less than a labor of love, SPIKE & DRU combines vivacious characters, clever plotting, and a nitpicker's knowledge of television's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" into a deliciously suspenseful novel. In the 1940s, during WWII, the title couple --- both vampires --- agrees to embark on an international killing spree in exchange for a mystical necklace. The targets in the spree are potential Slayers --- young girls who may be imbued with superpowers in order to fight evil. In pursuit of the vampires is reigning Slayer, Sophie Carstensen, a battle-hardened teenager struggling to save her potential successors while confronting the inevitability of her own death.

Golden crafts flawless presentations of Spike and Drusilla's evil, the Slayer's moral dilemma, and many details that will thrill fans without alienating newcomers. The author takes full advantage of this opportunity to explore the psyche of the overburdened Vampire Slayer by crafting his own hero in an era entirely separate from that of the well-conceived "Buffy-verse." Golden is also adept at writing a flashback novel where readers know from the outset that the villainous stars will prevail, yet readers still can lose themselves in the adventure and root for the good guy --- er, girl.

--- Reviewed by Sofrina Hinton

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