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Daylight [Hardcover]

Elizabeth Knox (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)


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Book Description

April 1, 2003
Brian “Bad” Phelan, a New Zealand policeman and bomb disposal expert, likes to live dangerously. Bad is an expert climber and caver and, while on vacation on the French/Italian border, he helps bring a body out of a rocky, wave-swept cove. Curiously, the dead woman bears striking similarities to a young woman he met years ago, shortly before she disappeared in a flooded French cave. Haunted by the strange connection, Bad is compelled to investigate.

In following a series of increasingly eerie leads, Bad learns the story of the Blessed Martine Raimondi, a World War II resistance heroine and martyred nun. He also meets Eve Moskelute, the beautiful widow of a celebrated French artist; Daniel Octave, a Canadian Jesuit who investigates miracles; and most surprisingly, Dawn Moskelute, Eve’s twin sister, who just may be a vampire.

Sensuous and heavenly, Daylight combines Elizabeth Knox’s greatest gifts: her wildly imaginative storytelling and her clear eye for atmosphere and place. Daylight is set in one of the most beautiful regions on Earth, from the unspoiled beauty of the Cinque Terre to the antiquities of Avignon, yet much of the action takes place in a world the tourist never sees, a world of caves and secret passages, of hidden cloisters and the rooms behind doors in the vaulted tunnels of medieval streets. It is in this “world beneath the world” that Bad Phelan finds himself face to face with history and myth, with phantoms whose hearts are still beating, and hungry, and able to break.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Saint or vampire? The identity of the Blessed Martine Raimondi, a French nun murdered by the Nazis in 1944 for her part in the daring cave escape of rebel partisans, is only one question answered in this illuminating tour-de-force set in the south of France from New Zealander Knox (Billie's Kiss). Another puzzle is Martine Dardo, the suspected daughter of the nun. Brian "Bad" Phelan, a New South Wales bomb tech and expert "caver" on paid injury leave, helps retrieve Martine's blistered corpse outside a cave near the Italian border and discovers she bears a shocking resemblance to a woman he'd encountered years before in another flooded cave. He's further struck by Martine's resemblance to Eve Moskelute, the subject of a painting by Jean Ares, her Picasso-esque deceased husband. The author constructs an impressive mystery that dissects the meaning of miracles while putting a fresh spin on the vampire archetype, with her creation of Lou Ila, an 18th-century Proven‡al journeyman/artist vampire, on a par with the best Anne Rice has to offer. Bad seeks out Eve, who not only knew Martine but has a "dead" twin, Dawn, accidentally "turned" by Ila when he mistook her for Eve. This multi-layered dazzler also includes the unforgettable Father Daniel Octave, who hopes his investigation into the "miracles" surrounding the Blessed Martine will result in her canonization but instead leads into Ila's dark world and the disturbing discovery that the vampire is "a sign... and so belonged to God."
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Policeman Brian Phelps, known as "Bad," is on vacation with his girlfriend when he volunteers to help retrieve a body discovered in an Italian cove. The dead woman is Martine Dardo, the possible daughter of a beatified nun, Martine Raimondi, and she strongly resembles a woman who once rescued Bad from a flood in a cave he was exploring. Leaving his girlfriend behind, Bad seeks out Eve Moskelute, the widow of a famous artist and Martine's best friend. Daniel Octave, a priest, was the last person to speak to Dardo, and he too is seeking answers. Bad gets his answer when, led by Octave, he tours the underground caves Raimondi once used to save a group of unjustly condemned men. There he spots the woman who rescued him in the cave, Dawn Moskelute, Eve's twin, who looks three decades younger than her sister and who accosts Bad, initiating him into her dark world of vampirism. To turn Bad into a vampire, however, Dawn needs the help of an older vampire, Lou Ila, who is becoming disillusioned with the vampire life. Meanwhile, Octave continues to pursue the mystery of Dardo, trying to understand her connection to Raimondi. Vibrant, multifaceted characters and a spellbinding mystery make Daylight utterly engrossing, utterly satisfying. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 368 pages
  • Publisher: Ballantine Books; 1 edition (April 1, 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0345457951
  • ISBN-13: 978-0345457950
  • Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,138,041 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews
5 star:
 (4)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Modern Classic Literature at Its Best, September 16, 2003
By 
Sunday (Olympia, WA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Daylight (Hardcover)
I am not a large fan of the vampire genre, nor am I a terribly big fan of Victorian-style fiction, so you and I both find it odd that I found myself reading _Daylight_. I have to say, this book was one of the most truely successful conversions of modern storytelling to classic literature style I have ever read. Knox expertly blends romantic European drama with easily identifiable modern life; characters 'Google' things, credit cards are taken advantage of and Jesuit priests consider HIV. Though the book gets off to a jerky start (rather like a slingshot, actually, it's slow and strained in the wind-up and a delightful shot in the release), the story itself is convoluted enough to be interesting, the characters are absolutely believable and the dialogue is brilliant. Even the strained subject of vampirism is dealt with in a scientific light and from the angle of a realist: what would a relationship with the undead be like? What if all vampires weren't actually 'evil'? What precisely is appealing about vampirism, and more importantly, isn't it a metaphor for most relationships? I really can't say enough good things about this clearly accomplished, very thoughful writer.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Complex Vampire Mystery, July 23, 2006
By 
This review is from: Daylight (Hardcover)
I detest vampire fiction and stopped reading "Interview with a Vampire" because I was so freaked out by the evilness of the characters. So why did I buy this book? The setting and the writing. My family has visited Menton, France, where much of the action takes place, and I love the entire region on both sides of the French/Italian border. I skimmed the book at the bookstore and immediately was hooked by Knox's prose. I also enjoy historical fiction and parts of this novel are set in the past. About two-thirds of the way through, I was getting uneasy about the possibility of a nun and saint being a vampire. Way too creepy. However, I persevered and was positively blown away by Knox's satisfying ending. I was worried that she would leave loose ends, but she didn't. All is revealed. I can't believe the reviewer who couldn't tell who was a vampire and who wasn't. This is no mystery by the end of the book. I still do not like vampire fiction; "Daylight" did include some pretty horrifying descriptions. However, the writing is so beautiful and characters so deftly drawn, that "Daylight" was worth the discomfort.

My only remaining question is: Why is this book out of print?
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3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but I've read better from this author..., May 26, 2009
By 
A.S. Blosser (Lexington, KY United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Daylight (Paperback)
I did like it, but I didn't find it as captivating as some of her other books, such as Billie's Kiss or The Vintner's Luck (or Dreamhunter/Dreamquake, for that matter). The characters ranged from "okay" to "somewhat interesting", and I never really felt attached to any of them. The writing was pretty, but didn't make me stop to reread bits like the other books. I hate to say that I was disappointed, because if I hadn't read her other books, I would have really liked this - but my expectations were incredibly high because of how amazing her other books are. Overall, a good read, but I had been hoping for better from this author, just because of the very high standards she had set (with me) based on her other books.
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