Slave of My Thirst

New York: Pocket Books, 1997. BH5 - A first American edition hardcover book in very good condition in very good dust jacket. Book lightly cocked, dust jacket and book have some bumped corners, light discolorationand shelf wear. Although not marked in any way, this copy comes from the personal collection of Otto Penzler, legendary editor and founder of the Mysterious Press, an award-winning icon in the genre. Tom Holland's debut novel, Lord of the Dead, was acclaimed in England as "extraordinary" (Publishing News) and in America as "elevated and elegant... a tour de force" (Patt Morrison, Los Angeles Times). Now, his brilliant, sanguinary pen has produced a dazzling new masterpiece. With a power and authenticity that evokes comparisons to Anne Rice and Caleb Carr, Holland conjures a mesmerizing tale of passion and possession that flows blood-red through the lowest depths of nineteenth-century London. 9.5"x6.5", 422 pages. Satisfaction Guaranteed. Natives shun the cursed road to Kalikshutra, but Dr. John Eliot is eager to join a top-secret mission to the high peaks of the Himalayas. It means a chance to investigate a highly infectious brain sickness that destroys the mind, wastes the body, and shrivels the soul. And this man of science is doubly intrigued, for the mysterious epidemic gripping Kalikshutra is shrouded in vampire lore. But the horror and decimation they encounter those haunted peaks plague Eliot as he retreats to London. Burning with the guilt of a survivor, he devotes his days to healing the poor - until he is summoned by Lady Rosamund Mowberley to investigate the disappearance of her husband. To search for his old friend, Eliot must descend into the dark underbelly of London. It's a journey that will prove even more dangerous than his trek to Kalikshutra. Accompanied by Bram Stoker - whose observations would emerge in his immortal novel, Dracula - Eliot plunges into a murky netherworld inhabited by actors, dissolute noblemen, and other denizens of the night. Reeling from memories of the Himalayas, Eliot ultimately encounters a temptation he cannot resist: the ravishing Lilah, whose brilliance is as seductive as her bearing. Gleaming with icy beauty, lips as red as a venomous flower, she is the embodiment of blood lust. And Lilah will not rest until she has coaxed Eliot's most monstrous impulses into the open... and unleashed them on an unsuspecting London. Blurring fact and fiction, Tom Holland's SLAVE OF MY THIRST twists history to create a novel that is uniquely unsettling, and absolutely riveting.. First American Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.