Vampyre Labyrinth: Redeye
G P Taylor
Published by Faber and Faber
ISBN 978 0 521 22694 8
Graham Taylor's teen fiction career began with two horror stories, Shadowmancer and Wormwood, followed by the wonderful Mariah Mundi trilogy. Now he is back doing what he does best.
With his latest novel, Taylor takes the vampire (or vampyre) back where he belongs: in the shadows, sucking blood.
While the first vampire story ever published - The Vampyre by John Polidori - appeared in 1819, Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) set the original template for the blood-sucking villains.
With his new series Vampyre Labyrinth, Taylor uses Polidori's spelling to underline the violent power of the ancient creatures.
The story opens in second-world-war London as Jago Harker and his mother rush to King's Cross station so the teen can be evacuated to the countryside. There is an air raid and a German bomb suddenly explodes in front of them, killing Jago's mum.