The press materials for Sarah Jane Stratford’s THE MIDNIGHT GUARDIAN peg the debut novel as a mix between TRUE BLOOD and INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS. Who am I to argue with that? After all, this history-rewriter plops vampires smack in the middle of Hitler’s Germany, and if there’s one thing der Fuehrer wants to rid Europe more than Jews and homosexuals, it’s those who feast on blood.
So, yes, this is another novel in which the vamps are the good guys — up against Hitler, who isn’t? The protagonists are two fanged lovers: the young (for a vampire) and beautiful Brigit and her bald, musically inclined beau, Eamon. A de facto family is formed when she sneaks two Jewish kids out of the country for the safety of England.
Although I love a lot of genres — and even mash-ups of genres — I often find myself overwhelmed by historicals and bored by paranormal romance. GUARDIAN contains elements of both, but luckily keeps them in check so that its fantasy/thriller core remains upfront.
Stratford mines the richness in her writing to give the proceedings a coat of class. While I think the end hits just the right note — and before the story wears out its welcome — the book is threatened to be the first of a series … of course. Ah, well. THE MIDNIGHT GUARDIAN may not be a must-read effort of vampire fiction, but it’s arguably the most notable since Elizabeth Kostova’s THE HISTORIAN. —Rod Lott
