The Historian

I just finished The Historian by Elizabeth Kosova. It is on the New York Times Best Seller's List - has been since it came out. I usually avoid picking books that are blazing best sellers to the point of mass market cause they tend to be disappointing (Da Vinci Code, The Testament by John Grisham, The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks). But my interest in the book was piqued when I heard the author on the Diane Rehm show on NPR. Apparently this was the author's first book, imagine that, right out the gate - hitting a home run with a best seller. Every author's dream!

The Historian is an intriguing story centered around Dracula. It tells the tale of a small family who during different periods of time, search for Vlad Tepes (Dracula) believing him to still be alive and trying to vanquish him. The book is 600 + pages long. It moves at a fairly steady pace. I found it interesting enough to finish in a week, but I'm not sure if it is worthy of all the accolaids it is receiving. Some of the story could have been cut, on a few occassions the author veers off onto some other subject that as a reader, I could care less about, and well the conclusion - when father, daughter and long-lost mother confront Dracula, VERY ANTICLIMATIC.

But in an arena already pretty full (there are tons of stories about vampires out there), the author is able to hold her own. I do like the attention to detail about the real Vlad Tepes life and the history of that region of Eastern Europe. Also the vampire and Russian Orthodox church lore is very interesting. Certainly after beginning to read this story, I checked my rearview mirror for strangely pale people around me and on more than one occassion, slept with the light on.

If you are avid reader who enjoys history and a good campfire scary story, this is a book to pick up!
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