In the Face of Death: An Historical Horror Novel (Count Saint-Germain series) [Paperback]

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (Author)

Book Description

Series: Count Saint-Germain series | Publication Date: March 11, 2004

This erotic and historical vampire novel is set in America in the years before and during the Civil War and features Madelaine de Montalia, sometime lover of Count St. Germain; General William Tecumseh Sherman; and, in a supporting role, St. Germain himself. Madelaine lives with and studies the native tribes of America, trying to document their culture and knowledge before they are changed unalterably by contact with the settlers new to North America, only to find herself in the middle of some of the most horrifying events of the war. The stubborn and highly disciplined Tecumseh wrestles with his conscience as he falls in love with Madelaine, while the strong-willed Madelaine is torn between her love for Tecumseh and the demands of her nature.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Aficionados of Yarbro's long-running Saint-Germain series (Blood Roses, etc.) will find this related novel to their liking, though its female point of view lends a different emphasis and emotional texture. French vampire Madelaine de Montalia, younger by many centuries than Saint-Germain, is not as immured to the pain of loving and losing mortals as her vampiric friend, lover and mentor. In 1845, Madelaine sets out to live with and study American Indian tribes in an effort to document their culture and knowledge before they're lost forever. (Admirably accurate research makes one wish these anthropological journals truly existed.) Arriving in 1855 San Francisco, the beautiful, charismatic Madelaine-who appears to be no more than 20 years oldâ€"and her banker, the unhappily married William Tecumseh Sherman, fall passionately in love. Madelaine eventually finds herself trapped in 1860 Alabama facing the vicissitudes of civil war. Sherman, who was actually a partner in a San Francisco bank before the Civil War, necessarily receives short shrift as a supporting character, but his role does allow Madelaine to make her points about the true meaning of undying love. Romance and history predominate in a story whose horrors, as in the Saint-Germain novels, are all of human origin.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Yarbro steps away from her St. Germaine series to follow the fortunes of one of the vampire count's many lovers, Madelaine de Montalia, whom St. Germaine fell in love with in the very first novel in the series, Hotel Transylvania (1978). Madelaine, also a vampire, leaves her home in London to travel to the U.S. to write a book about Indians in the mid-1800s. The country is inching toward civil war when Madelaine meets William Tecumseh Sherman, a senior officer at her bank in San Francisco. The two are immediately drawn to one another, despite the fact that Sherman is married and extremely devoted to his children. His wife is away visiting her parents, allowing the beginning of a passionate affair. Circumstance separates them when Madelaine heads off to study Indian tribes and Sherman is pulled back toward a military career, but they are fated to meet again. An engaging blend of historical fiction and romance. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: BenBella Books (March 11, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932100296
• ISBN-13: 978-1932100297
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #501,871 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Twentieth in the "Saint Germain" series., November 25, 2004

By 

James Yanni (Bellefontaine Neighbors, Mo. USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: In the Face of Death: An Historical Horror Novel (Count Saint-Germain series) (Paperback)

Or second in the "Madeline" offshoot series, depending on how you look at things. In any case, this is one of the best of a very good series.

For one thing, the character of Madeline de Montalia has been underexplored in the Saint Germaine novels, only a few of which have been set in time periods after Madeline was born, much less became a vampire. And unlike "Out Of The House Of Life", this is truly a novel centering on Madeline's life; that one split its focus between her adventures in Egypt and Saint Germaine's early history there.

For another thing, the time period and place setting of this one, the American Civil War, is a fascinating focus for the story, as is the character of William T. Sherman, her lover for the story.

For a third thing, the writing in this book is better than that in "Out of the House of Life", or at least the proofreading is less sloppy. There are only about a half-dozen instances of sloppy proofreading here, as opposed to the two dozen or so in that book. ("How strange that you should call white men them to me..." for instance.) Also, in this book one of the conventions of the Saint Germaine series that I've always found moderately annoying has been adjusted in a positive manner: the correspondence that has always come before and after every chapter has been replaced by entries from Madeline's journal, and instead of getting one and only one entry right where we would expect it every time (which always struck me as rather a contrived style) we get one, or two, or several; whatever better advances the plot at that point, which seems a much better system.

For those unfamiliar with the basic concept behind Yarbro's vampires, a few quick points are in order: 1) they are not (neccessarily) ravening monsters. 2) they do need the blood of the living to survive, but very little of it, little enough that they need not kill or even injure anyone to get it. 3) although mere blood itself WILL suffice to keep them going, it would be a very unsatisfying life, like a mortal living on bread and water; to truly have a satisfying "meal", they must feed on the blood of a lover. Most of the time, they make do with lovers who they hypnotize into having amorous dreams of them, but even that is barely acceptable fare. What truly nourishes them is the blood of a willing lover who knows them for what they are. Not surprisingly, this sort of fare is very rare; they may go decades between such nourishing sustenence. 4) Other than immortality and somewhat exceptional strength, stamina, and speed, (and, of course, the hypnotic ability previously mentioned, which is a very mild power not at all useful in an offensive capacity) there is little to set them apart from mortals in a positive manner; on the other hand, they are more able to offset their vampiric drawbacks than many literary vampires; so long as they have their shoes lined with their native earth, they can move about unhindered during daylight, only slightly more susceptible to sunburn than a normal person, they can cross running water with only mild discomfort (again, as long as their soles are properly lined); the only real problems are that they do not eat normally, which consistently makes for awkward situations socially, and they do not reflect in mirrors, which can also prove awkward.

If you like traditional vampire stories with lots of supernatural powers, blood and gore and seductive evil, this novel and all of the related books from Yarbro may not be to your taste (although there is plenty of blood and gore in the scenes relating to the war, of course.) But if you enjoy historical romance and are intrigued (or at least not upset) at the prospect of a main character that is a somewhat untraditional vampire, you may find the Saint Germain series fascinating, and this book is one of the best of the lot.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Madelaine returns...., March 20, 2005

By 

shadodantz "shadodantz" (Billings Mt) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In the Face of Death: An Historical Horror Novel (Count Saint-Germain series) (Paperback)

It is such a pleasure to see Madelaine de Montalia again, and solo this time rather than in counterpoint with le Comte.
She emerges as a unique and complex character all her own, neither Saint-Germain (S-G) in drag, nor Olivia re-born.
Unlike S-G, who appears as a melancholy ex-warrior physician/philosopher/chemist, or feisty Olivia, who would have been in her element running a stud farm (take it as you will), Madelaine is a scholar/anthropologist/archeologist with a burning curiousity about How Things And People Work. This seems to have given her a flexibility and resilience that her seniors either don't quite have, or have lost along the way.
But I did not mean to analyze Madelaine, I meant to review the book.
It reads very quickly, the plot moving along via many entries from Madelaine's journals, differing somewhat from the format of the S-G/Olivia novels. The viewpoint switches between 1st person and 3rd, but the person is always Madelaine. While the story is not quite as deep, dark and heavy as some of the S-G chronicles it is by no means light. The painful and equivocal position of the various tribes, who had their own problems with the United States government, not to mention between their own nations is a factor that most people don't consider. The pathetic bloody aftermath of battle is not lovingly dwelt upon, but it is dealt with unflinchingly. The pain of separation from her beloved and respected friend and lover Tecumsah, all the time knowing there will be the final loss, is a sad note, a quiet undercurrent throughout the entire story.
Ms Yarbro has made her usual good effort at making people real and not dividing them into Good and Evil. An Underground Railroad conductor has a Bad Attitude when it comes to women-any woman. A dedicated, hard-working, abolitionist army nurse has some serious Issues when it comes to skin color, parentage and legitamacy. A Confederate soldier who hates Yankees (and with good reason) is Madelaine's best and most compassionate assistant at French Mill- where ANY wounded soldiers are treated. Even Madelaine is not perfect. She herself makes mistakes, becoming attracted, or 'drawn' as she says, to handsome guys who turn out to be a jerks and or possibly dangerous to her. Madelaine, unlike S-G, however, is more easily able to admit to herself that she was wrong and wonder what was she thinking. She also has the sense to take advice and to get outta Dodge BEFORE the shooting starts...at least some of the time. You can't do that TOO often (or where's the conflict in the story?) but it IS nice to have a heroine who is not stupid.
I like her. I hope there are more books about her.
I read that Ms. Yarbro's publisher thought this book wasn't going to sell as a bound book and she should just sell it via the net. Next time she should just tell her publisher where to get off and to publish the damn book. This lady knows what she is doing.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Something About General Sherman We Didn't Know About, September 24, 2005

By 

Mark R., Whittington "author of Children of A... (Houston, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: In the Face of Death: An Historical Horror Novel (Count Saint-Germain series) (Paperback)

Madelaine de Montalia, the former lover of Comte de St. Germain, returns to San Francisco of the 19th Century and finds herself involved with a young army officer named William T. Sherman. They are seperated and, after many adventures in the American West, Madelaine encounters her beau again, in Georgia of all places. I'm somewhat unconvinced that Sherman would have taken a French vampire lady into his bed, but the book is a good read nevertheless.