A Bloody Review of LA Wilson’s In Blood Covenant
By LMReviews on Oct 27, 2008 in Multicultural Lit Reviews
While not inherently scary, you will get your fill of the menacing, bloody and brooding atmosphere of LA Wilson’s In Blood Covenant. While in the city of Gwyngoed visiting his ill brother-in-law, Lorne Jagger, an ordinary mechanic from Plymouth, stops at a pub for a drink. He becomes entranced by a dark man dressed in black who seems on friendly terms with the barkeep and only drinks from a special bottle during last call using his own special goblet. Mesmerized by the man who appears at the pub at night following the same odd drinking ritual, Jaggar finally approaches the stranger to find out why he intrigues him so much. A light conversation about good and evil plus the dark man’s aversion to Jagger’s personal questions, leads Jagger on a journey to break free of his boring life when the dark man, Altair Salvar shows up after Jagger returns home to Plymouth and finds out about a savage bloodletting that occurred in Gwyngoed before he left.
The book goes through Altair’s self-torture due to his vampiric misdeeds over nearly 450 years and the emotional games he plays with Jagger leading him to the brink of insanity. Will Jagger outlast the game to get the life he desires most? A life only Altair can give him? Is he willing to risk all that he loves to gain access to that life and the special society of El Diablo?
In Blood Covenant is a book rich with Celtic, Spanish and Roman Catholic history. The environment as well as the layers of the game are intricately crafted, however, nearly two hundred pages into the novel a tremendous history dump takes place that increases the pace, but left me exhausted when I realized that there was still over 70 pages left and “the game” was still in full play. While everyone is required to lose someone they love, several characters gets sucked in and the reader remains in the dark too long. At one moment Altair tells Jagger that he is sick of him and frankly I became sick of the whole thing as well. With over 270 pages of build up and the great imagery, the ending left me unsatisfied and I then found it very difficult to read through the epilogue and author’s notes that followed.
Because of the great imagery and details and the intricate nature of the game, In Blood Covenant earns 3 out of 5 sable seals.
Publisher: Eternal Press.ca
Format: Ebook
Price: 5.95
[...] Mesmerized by the man who appears at the pub at night following the same odd drinking ritual, Jaggar finally approaches the stranger to find out why he intrigues h im so much…. Go to Source [...]