Like the hybrid love-child of a vampire novel and a
historical classic,
The Taker could be
described as Twilight for grown-ups.
If like me, the vampire craze in literature has left you luke-warm,
you may be interested in this offering from Alma Katsu - the
cover blurb pronounces it 'an immortal love story'.
The Taker begins in present-day Maine, when
A&E doctor Luke Findley turns up to his shift at his hospital
job in the small town of St Andrews.
He's expecting just another evening of minor injuries and domestic
disputes. But instead, Lanore McIlvrae walks into his life - and
changes it forever.
For Lanore - Lanny - is a woman with a past ... and her past runs
right back to the early 1800s.
Lanny McIlvrae is unlike anyone Luke has ever met.
As she begins to tell her story - a story of enduring love, a story
of consummate betrayal, a story that defies time and transcends
mortality, a story which begins in St Andrews at the beginning of
the nineteenth century and cannot end until Lanny's demons are
finally put to rest - Luke finds himself captivated.
Lanny's 200 years on this earth have seen her seduced by both
decadence and brutality - but through it all she has stayed true to
the one true love of her life. Until now.
And now her past will impact on Luke's present.
In a heartbeat, an unfulfilled Luke commits himself to the
dangerously seductive Lanny.
But as he finds himself sacrificing everything to become part of
her world, he discovers that her story goes back even further than
he'd known - to a heart of darkness in fourteenth-century Hungary;
a darkness more deadly than anything he could have imagined.
Part historical novel and part supernatural page turner,
The Taker actually becomes quite intriguing.
As a fan of history, I enjoyed being immersed in Lanore's past,
beginning in the 1800s.
For this reviewer, the author's strength in painting Lanore's vivid
earlier world was more interesting than Luke and Lanore's
modern day connection, which sees them on the run from the law
after Lanny's modern-day transgression..
All in all, I'm pleased I took a chance on
The
Taker; if you get past the horror novel-esque black cover,
you'll discover a sustaining story about the power of unrequited
love and redemption.
The Taker by Alma Katsu
Publisher: Random House
RRP: $39.99
Available: NOW
