Loved Dark Shadows during the 1960s so found this book fun. Recommend to any fan of the show. ( )

A slow book to read, it does retain the feeling of the original show, and the words used by Barnabas Collins sounds like the words and cadence of Jonathan Frid. It has an interesting section of sub-plot in the problems of a vampire becomin human again, which is someting original to me.

The prologue is quite effective, especially the implication at the end. It's pretty good. It's also obvious that this should be considered a parallel time [alternate universe] version of Dark Shadows.

Still, it works as a horror story and as an alternate universe Dark Shadows story. So, if you were never a fan of the show, you can enjoy it as a horror story. If you always thought that Roger Collins was a jerk, he's still a jerk. More than that, he's as bad as his 17th Century Collins ancestors. If you didn't like Amy Jennings, she's not in this book! (My sibs and I disliked the character so much we loved it when her actress met disaster in the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie)

The viewpoint swings from Barnabas Collins in 1971 Collinsport, Maine, to Miranda du Val in 1692 Salem, Massachusetts. I remembered when the show revealed that Angelique, the 18th century witch responsible for turning Barnabas Collins into a vampire, was really a 17th century witch named Miranda Duval. We didn't learn that much about her life as Miranda, other than her dealings with the warlock who was the Big Bad in the 1840 flashback storyline.

We get much more of Miranda's past here. It's not a happy one. She has ample reason to hate the Salem Branch of the Collins family. The infamous Salem Witch Trials are a part of the story. Ms. Parker is not kind to the judges, especially Cotton Mather (yay!).

Roger Collins has sold the land containing the burned-down Old House to a woman named Antoinette Harpignies, who happens to be the spitting image of Angelique. Well, we old DS fans know what that means. Barnabas is just as suspicious as we are. How is Antoinette managing to restore the Old House so perfectly? Is it being done from photos or memory?

Roger is outraged that Antoinette is allowing hippies to camp on her land. He expects Barnabas to do something about it. Barnabas doesn't care. He has more important things on his mind: wondering what Angelique has planned for him and the side effects of the injections Dr. Julia Hoffman has been giving him to cure him of his vampirism. Yes, he likes being able to go about in the sunlight. He hates aging, having to go to the bathroom, the burning heat he sometimes feels, and his difficulties eating. He misses the superhuman strength and senses a vampire possesses -- especially when he and his servant, Willie, find the dead victim of a vampire. Can he stop the monster from claiming more victims?

The other members of the present-day Collins family: Elizabeth, Carolyn, David, and Quentin, make appearances. The ladies have cameos. Quentin has a minor role. David has the most Collins time next to Barnabas.

My favorite character on the show was Julia. For the period, she was special: a doctor, an institution head, and as the show went on, one of the main fighters against the evils that beset the Collins. Unlike Barnabas and Quentin, she was only human. During the Leviathan storyline, when Barnabas was in thrall to them, Julia took over as leader of the resistance, so to speak. I got so tired of Barnabas pursuing other women and taking Julia for granted as his best buddy that I was rooting for her to give up on the clueless twit and hook up with Prof. Stokes. Sure, he was portly and not terribly attractive, but he was smart, well educated, cultured, and decent.

Julia is not treated well during much of the book, but I'm satisfied with how things work out for her in the end. Actually, I'm satisfied with how things work out for all the main characters in the end. The seance in Salem was a particularly good scene for an old DS fan.

Quibbles:

chapter 3: what would an crocheted antimacassar be doing in the Old House? They were used in the 19th century, but not, so far as I know, the 18th.

chapters 3 & 6: That's twice so far that David has been referred to as Barnabas' nephew, and without the quotation marks that would let us know that it's being used in a courtesy sense. Unless the present-day Collins family are all descended from a brother of Barnabas -- a relative he didn't have in the TV show -- they're only distant cousins.

Had to snicker at Barnabas finding it strange to hear a hint of bigotry coming from Elizabeth. Considering the period in which he was born and reared, not to mention the fact that it's only 1971, it shouldn't be strange to find Elizabeth prejudiced against hippies. ( )