The Vampire Papers

By Michael Romkey

In the spine-tingling, pulse-pounding tradition of "Interview With The Vampire," a chilling look into the secret world of the Vampiri, which exists around us always -- invisible, unsuspected . . . until we feel the prick of teeth at our neck in a dream and wake up to find . . . an end to all dreaming and a beginning to a unliving nightmare!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Mar 30, 2011
• ISBN: 9780307761897

Reviews for The Vampire Papers

[bgknighton · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The horrible things that can happen when you make the insane vampire. The story develops, I just wish the most interesting characters weren't the evil ones......

[regularguy5mb · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I first read this in high school mistakenly having purchased it thinking it was connected (or at least similar) to Interview with the Vampire, which I'd recently seen in the theater. Of course, The Vampire Papers is a very different vampire story in its own unique world. I decided to give it a reread after finishing my last book because of... reasons (reasons that contain spoilers, so I won't delve into them).I remember enjoying this book the first time around, and it is still an entertaining read, even if the concepts are a little hard to accept. Using real, historical figures that he combines with his fictional, Romkey creates a collection of luminaries that are actually a secret cabal of vampires who run the world as the Illuminati and a brutal killer they are trying to stop. The case is given to a newer vampire in the Illuminati, David Parker, a musician who is being tutored by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (also a vampire) in both music and Iluminati practices.The killer cuts a bloody swath through New York City before making his way to Jerusalem, Mississippi, where he has some unfinished business from his previous mortal life. Parker is sent after the killer and winds up over his head. This is primarily because David Parker is a bit of a weak character, in almost every sense. There is also much more going on than "Wolf" (name Mozart uses publicly) and Parker could even begin to guess.The whole thing builds through violence, sex, history, and a curious cast of characters that populate most tales surrounding the South until it eventually explodes in the killer's final act, an exceptionally theatrical performance to gain his final revenge.Romkey takes a lot of liberty with his historical references, but since many of these characters are revealed to have become vampires (and one is just a brutal, racist killer who briefly went to California and used a very famous nom de guerre for a series of unsolved murders). It's interesting, but at points seems a bit much, especially the wealth of superpowers he gives his "vampiri" that at times stretch even the most elastic suspension of disbelief. Still, overall entertaining and an enjoyable read.