Ever since Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the vampire has evolved from the ferocious blood-sucking fiend as portrayed in the penny dreadfuls such as Varney the Vampyre into a strangely alluring, erotic figure promising eternal life. But, it’s eternal life with a horrifying price attached, the overwhelming need to feast on the blood of the living. The Delicate Dependency by Michael Talbot is a notable novel of the vampire genre. In Talbot’s world, the vampires are the curators of history, the guardians of secrets dating back well before the time of Christ. Most importantly, they possess the secret to life eternal.

In Talbot’s novel four people learn enough of the vampires’ world to draw close to the secret, to be positioned to accept the bargain that carries with it the terrible, unquenchable thirst. Dr. John Gladstone, a virologist who may hold the key to ending the vampires hidden rule forever. His daughters, one obsessed with immortality and one apparently beyond rational thought. Added to this tableau is the Lady Hespeth, whose motives remain obscure. Will the centuries-long reign of the vampires be ended? Or will one or more of the protagonists strike the hellish bargain that grants them eternity at the price of a delicate dependency?