The Last Breath Before Death is a new action-packed suspense novel and vampire thriller by Alan Golbourn. In a book market flooded with vampire novels, this novel stands out because the vampires are very scary, unlike the more recent trend to create sexy and sympathetic vampires. This novel is no Twilight, and it is grislier and at times more intense than Dracula.
The story begins when we are introduced to Jimmy Cochran, a comic book illustrator/artist and freelance reporter on the supernatural. He’s currently investigating an alleged haunted house that he thinks is a hoax created by the family. While exploring the house, he meets Walter, a psychic who, while agreeing the family could be making up claims about the haunting, still thinks some supernatural phenomenon is at work. Jimmy doesn’t think much of his meeting with Walter at first, but soon, events will lead them to cross paths again.
That happens when Jimmy’s mother contacts him because his half-brother Quentin is missing. Quentin lives in England, but has gone to Germany with his best friend, Riley, to hike in the mountains. Jimmy’s mom hasn’t heard from Quentin in some time and is worried about him. Jimmy has an estranged relationship with his brother because he missed Quentin’s wedding due to being ill. Quentin has never forgiven him, but now Jimmy feels at least for his mom’s sake he must investigate what happened to his brother.
Jimmy contacts Walter, who uses his psychic powers to try to sense what has happened to Quentin. The information he receives isn’t totally clear, but it’s enough to convince Jimmy that Quentin and Riley’s lives are in danger. Soon Jimmy leaves New York for England to learn more details from Riley’s wife, Jasmine, who is equally worried.
Once in England, Quentin is contacted by a mysterious man who says he has information about Jimmy’s brother. The man won’t give his name and wants to meet Jimmy in a secret and obscure location. Against Jimmy’s best instincts, he agrees to meet him. Fortunately, the man is not nefarious, but he is strange. He won’t reveal all the details about himself or how he has the information he does, but he says enough to convince Jimmy he needs to go to Germany to find Quentin and Riley.
Without giving away the entire plot, I will say that what happens next is shocking. Not only will Jimmy learn Serbian and German vampire lore, but he will discover the mysterious man helping him is doing so out of remorse for his past. Jimmy will also encounter a vampire “familiar,” one of the most sinister characters I’ve ever met, and eventually, he will stumble upon a vampire ritual held by the Nachzechers, the German vampire brotherhood.
One significant aspect that makes this novel different from other vampire novels is that all vampires are not the same. There are different types, and the ones Jimmy has to face are the Nachzehrers, a German branch whose name means “shroud eaters.” Jimmy’s mysterious ally explains to him about Nachzehrers as follows:
“When they are buried, they devour their burial shroud and their own body. Somebody doesn’t become a Nachzehrer through being bitten; instead, the most common cause is suicide. Or dying accidentally. Another way could be down to sickness and disease. The first victim to die would turn into a Nachzehrer … Once a Nachzehrer has devoured its shroud and its own body, their loved ones can feel physically drained. The Nachzehrer would then begin to hunt and target them. Devouring a loved one could help them to regenerate.”
Jimmy is, of course, completely repulsed by this description, and even more so when he learns they practiced a ritual that went wrong. They wanted to become archvampires, but instead, the ritual caused them to develop a taste not only for blood but for human flesh. Jimmy realizes he’s about to face the Hannibal Lecters of the vampire world.
As I said, the vampires in the novel go against recent literary trends. While we meet a remorseful vampire before the story is over, I wouldn’t say he preys on the reader’s sympathies. He is no Lestat, all moody and filled with angst like more recent brooding and Romantic Byronic vampire figure. And the evil vampires in this novel are as ghastly as they come. The story becomes quite grisly at times as we witness vampires dismembering, cooking, and eating human flesh.
The final chapters are highly climactic and really one long, suspenseful scene before the final ending. The conclusion is satisfying even if not quite what I expected.
In the end, for all its grisliness, the novel becomes a very conservative text that promotes the value of family relationships in alliance with the earliest of Gothic novels. Despite that conservatism, The Last Breath Before Death may be a game-changer in vampire literature for bringing back terror to vampire fiction. I also appreciate that it explores Serbian and German vampires rather than the more commonly known American, English, and Transylvanian vampires typically depicted in literature.
Alan Golbourn is an English author who has previously published three other novels, Famuli Cani and the first two books of the Randolph Landon series The 666 Murders and The Cult From Beyond. You can learn more about him and The Last Breath Before Death at Amazon and at other online booksellers. If you love vampire fiction, you won’t want to miss this novel!
____________________________________
Tyler Tichelaar, PhD, is the author of The Gothic Wanderer: From Transgression to Redemption, Vampire Grooms and Spectre Brides: The Marriage of French and British Gothic Literature, King Arthur’s Children: A Study in Fiction and Tradition, Haunted Marquette: Ghost Stories from the Queen City, and The Mysteries of Marquette: A Novel, plus many other fiction and nonfiction titles. Visit Tyler at http://www.GothicWanderer.com, http://www.ChildrenofArthur.com, and http://www.MarquetteFiction.com.
The Gothic Wanderer