Blood Oath

From Publishers Weekly This action-filled debut by scriptwriter Farnsworth reads like a cross between P.N. Elrod's historical vampire adventures and Thomas Greanias's conspiracy thrillers. Nathaniel Cade, the president's vampire, swore to fight on the side of President Andrew Jackson and all his successors. In the present day, Zach Barrows, a rising political star caught canoodling with the president's daughter, suddenly finds himself training to be Cade's handler after tough, wise special agent William Griffin retires. As they try to stop Cade's old nemesis, Dr. Johann Konrad, from creating an army of Frankensteinian monster soldiers, they uncover a deeper government conspiracy. Entertainingly plausible historical documents at the beginning of each chapter and a sense that this fight is just a skirmish in a larger war help elevate the book above its sometimes bland characters and their predictable motivations. (May) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Bookmarks Magazine Since the undead seem to be turning up in every conceivable medium (TV, books, film) and genre ( Pride and Prejudice and Zombies or Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter , anyone?), critics were not exactly surprised to see a novel about "the President's vampire." But overall they felt that Farnsworth handles his material with flair. A common compliment and complaint was that the book reads like a screenplay, which is no surprise, given Farnsworth's background. But even those critics who griped about the occasional movie cliché found Blood Oath entertaining fun. But if you're not a fan of the vampire novels recently populating the shelves, well, here's another to move past. From Booklist In his thrilling debut, Farnsworth combines the current trend of supernatural fiction with the always popular political thriller. The president’s most loyal secret agent is Cade, a 140-year-old vampire who is dedicated to protecting the U.S. from supernatural threats. Farnsworth posits an entire secret history behind the major events of the late nineteenth, twentieth, and early twenty-first centuries, even hinting at a supernatural cause behind the 9/11 attacks. Ambitious, young White House staffer Zach discovers Cade and his history after being assigned as Cade’s new handler. The job may come with top secret clearance, but no one can ever know what Zach is doing, a rather difficult pill to swallow for the power-hungry agent. In their first adventure, Zach and Cade learn each other’s histories and together struggle to save the country from some nearly unstoppable zombie soldiers whose only reason for existence is to kill humans. Sure to be a hit with thriller fans willing to go with the vampire premise. --Jessica Moyer "Christopher Farnsworth's taut thriller Blood Oath is an irresistible page-turner.... A complex and unnervingly realistic tale in which vampire Nathaniel Cade is far less of a monster than his human colleagues at the CIA and FBI. Dazzlingly clever." - The Washington Post " Blood Oath is exactly how I like my Presidential thrillers. With vampires." -Brad Meltzer, author of The Book of Fate " Blood Oath is the vampire novel that finally gets it right. Christopher Farnsworth has done his homework in places where most writers wouldn't even know to look-and the result is a rollicking tale of the supernatural grounded in some of the true oddities of American history. If Dan Brown wrote a vampire thriller, this would be it." -Mitch Horowitz, author of Occult America "As someone who thinks Stoker's Dracula has never been bettered, and who would happily stick a stake through the heart of most modern vampire fiction, it almost pains me to say how much I enjoyed Blood Oath . Witty, exciting, and compulsively readable, with a central character who seems destined to become a favorite of both skeptics and true blood believers, this may just be the best debut vampire novel in many years." -John Connolly, author of The Lovers Christopher Farnsworth is a screenwriter and former journalist. He lives in Los Angeles. Read more