THE EATER OF FLIES
RICHARD GADZ
****
Summer, 1868. London's West End buzzes with a chaotic blend of affluence and moral decay, a place where high society and underworld meet. A valuable box from Transylvania, sealed tight, falls into unscrupulous hands. Its opening releases a vampyr, a wraith-like parasite that hides inside a host – whether young or old, man or woman – and thirsts for human blood.
For those who live and work around Holmwood's music hall, just off The Strand, the vampyr's arrival begins a nightmare of betrayal and death, and a race to return the creature to the grave before others of its kind come to pick the city clean.
The Eater Of Flies leaves traditional vampiric lore behind, offering a chilling Victorian gothic tale laced with crime, pitch-dark humour and, above all, rampant greed: for money, for power … for blood.
MY REVIEW
****
To celebrate this spooky season, what could be more apt than a re-imagining of the classic tale of Dracula?
When a mysterious sealed box is transported to London from Transylvania, the performers and guests of the Holmwood’s Music Hall are about to experience the folklore of the Vampyre first hand.
The Eater of Flies isn’t quite a re-telling of Dracula although there are all the characters that are familiar from the original book such as Harker, Renfield, Lucy and Van Helsing. In this version the Vampyre is more of a parasite – infecting others and becoming them, so it’s harder to tell who is friend and who is foe. I enjoyed this twist on the story, and it really added a great new element and some additional stakes to the story we all know and love.
I did think the pace of the book was quite slow to start off, but this increased as the stakes got higher and the chase began. Some of the characters did make silly decisions at times which was frustrating, but overall it was a solid, spooky read.
The Eater of Flies takes an interesting spin on the classic tale of Dracula and re-tells it in a new way – perfect for spooky season. Thank you to NetGalley & Deixis Press for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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