Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's epic of the vampire Ragoczy, the Count Saint-Germain (including Mansions of Darkness, Darker Jewels, and Writ in Blood) has slowly gathered a dedicated readership, while each installment has garnered increasing critical praise. For new readers, Blood Roses is perhaps the most accessible in the series. In 14th-century France, Saint-Germain is caught amidst the devastation of the Black Plague. Though he is unaffected by the disease, his resistance draws the suspicion of each new town he visits--even as he uses ancient Egyptian healing techniques to save lives. Yarbro's impressive novel offers the flavor of the late Middle Ages while flawlessly integrating the elements of horror and the supernatural that mark this eloquent series. One wonders, for example, if the letters and documents that Yarbro integrates into the text are embellishments of the real. But, as with all the Saint-Germain novels, the most satisfying aspect of the narrative is the author's complex rendering of her central character. With the exception of Anne Rice, few writers have as effectively captured the wearied soul of a being living through the great expanse of human history. --Patrick O'Kelley


From Publishers Weekly
As an exiled foreigner living in the village of Orgon in the midst of 14th-century France, the 3000-year-old vampire Saint-Germain (Mansions of Darkness, etc.) has enough trouble at the best of times convincing the locals that his unusual habits and interests are no threat. It's bad enough to be a man of culture and learning during the Dark Ages without being thought a minion of Satan. Yet even the purest motives aren't enough to withstand the suspicion of the church when Saint-Germain uses his medical skills to heal the Vidame Saint Joachim of a wound no other healer has been able to diagnose. When the church accuses Saint-Germain of helping to spread the plague, the vampire is forced to flee as his lands and goods are seized. In the disguise of an itinerant jongleur, he finds himself attached to a noble house where his learning and sympathetic manner make him first confidant, then secret lover of the Lady Huegenet. Yarbro moves her story along swiftly, filling each page with the period detail for which her work has become known. As is also customary with her writings, the well-told tale is less about vampirism than about the texture of life during a pivotal moment in time long past. Agent, Donald Maass. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
The onset of the plague in 14th-century France ends the peaceful existence of Sieur Ragoczy?also known as the Comte de Saint-Germain?as his foreign origins attract suspicion and persecution from greedy nobles and churchmen alike. The latest in Yarbro's series featuring her seductive vampire hero (Writ in Blood, LJ 7/97) re-creates in lavish detail one of history's darkest and least understood periods. Series fans and lovers of period fantasy should enjoy this well-researched, sumptuously written tale of honor and compassion in the midst of death and superstition. For most fantasy collections.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Yarbro's new St. Germain novel is much superior to the last few adventures of her vampire hero, perhaps because of its setting. In 1345 Sieur Racoczy (i.e., St. Germain) is living comparatively peacefully in Provence, enduring only minor annoyances, such as greedy tax collectors and the church. Then the Black Plague (the title translates the French sobriquet for it) reaches Europe and begins its northward march, ravaging civilization as it goes. Anything different or foreign--and, even carefully disguised, St. Germain is both--becomes suspect, for this is an era when suspicion can be as deadly as the plague, especially when there are people trying to profit from others' suffering. The Black Death provides a sufficient amount of sheer gruesomeness, so that Yarbro doesn't have to add any gratuitous grunge. Moreover, she balances description, action, and romance excellently, producing a briskly paced, highly readable historical fantasy and the only recent series installment that is a good starting point for entering the St. Germain saga. Roland Green


Review
"Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's 'Saint-Germain' novels are probably the best series of vampire novels ever written." --The Hartford Courant

"Yarbro re-creates in lavish detail one of history's darkest and least understood periods. [A] well-researched, sumptuously written tale of honor and compassion in the midst of death of superstition."--Library Journal



Review
"Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's 'Saint-Germain' novels are probably the best series of vampire novels ever written." --The Hartford Courant

"Yarbro re-creates in lavish detail one of history's darkest and least understood periods. [A] well-researched, sumptuously written tale of honor and compassion in the midst of death of superstition."--Library Journal



Book Description
The Comte de Saint-Germain is living in relative peace and prosperity in the village of Orgon in fourteenth-century France. He has won a grudging acceptance from the local populace, who are uneasy with his strange and foreign ways but appreciative of his generosity. But a new threat has upset the precarious balance: Plague has come to France, and the people's fear turns to xenophobia. To avoid the scrutiny that could reveal his true nature, Saint-Germain must flee. However, his travels drive him deeper into the heart of the Black Death--and danger.



From the Publisher
"Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's 'Saint-Germain' novels are probably the best series of vampire novels ever written." --The Hartford Courant "Any book by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro is a keepsake; any new book by her is a must read." --Rapport "These solidly researched novels show us a Saint-Germain who genuinely learns and grows from a fiend into a being of great gentleness, wisdom, and compassion. The series is probably the most sustained and impressive treatment to date of extreme longevity." --Minneapolis Tribune "Yarbro re-creates in lavish detail one of history's darkest and least understood periods. [A] well-researched, sumptuously written tale of honor and compassion in the midst of death and superstition." --Library Journal


About the Author
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's interests range from music--she composes and has studied seven different instruments as well as voice--to history, from horseback riding to needlepoint. Her writing is similarly wide-ranging; under her own name and pseudonyms, she has written everything from westerns to mysteries, from science fiction to nonfiction history.

Yarbro's critically-acclaimed historical horror novels featuring the Count Saint-Germain, including Hotel Transylvania, A Feast in Exile, Communion Blood, and Night Blooming, have a loyal readership. Chelsea Quinn Yarbro has always lived in California and currently makes her home in the Berkeley area.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Spanning centuries, the saga of the immortal Count Saint-Germain is an ambitious and engrossing feat of the imagination that reimagines the place of vampires in our literary tradition. Unlike the dark monsters of myth, Saint-Germain is the last bastion of courtly virtue and honor in a society frequently overwhelmed by evil and cruelty. The Comte de Saint-Germain is living in relative peace and prosperity in the village of Orgon in fourteenth-century France. He has won a grudging acceptance from the local populace, who are uneasy with his strange and foreign ways but are appreciative of his generosity. But a new threat has upset the precarious balance. Plague has come to France, and the people's fear turns to xenophobia. Saint-Germain, of course, is beyond susceptibility to disease, but it is this very immunity that draws suspicion. To avoid the scrutiny that could reveal his true nature, Saint-Germain must use all of his wits and power to escape.

SYNOPSIS

In this lush new novel of the vampire of Saint-Germain, plague has come to France. As the people's fear manifests itself as xenophobia, Saint-Germain flees to avoid the scrutiny that could reveal his true nature -- only to find himself traveling deeper into the peril of the Black Death.

FROM THE CRITICS

These solidly researched novels show us a Saint-Germain who genuinely learns and grows from a fiend into a being of great gentleness, wisdom, and compassion. The series is probably the most sustained and impressive treatment to date of extreme longevity.

Library Journal

The onset of the plague in 14th-century France ends the peaceful existence of Sieur Ragoczy--also known as the Comte de Saint-Germain--as his foreign origins attract suspicion and persecution from greedy nobles and churchmen alike. The latest in Yarbro's series featuring her seductive vampire hero (Writ in Blood, LJ 7/97) re-creates in lavish detail one of history's darkest and least understood periods. Series fans and lovers of period fantasy should enjoy this well-researched, sumptuously written tale of honor and compassion in the midst of death and superstition. For most fantasy collections.

Kirkus Reviews

Another adventure for Ragoczy, the Count Saint-Germain, Yarbro's 3000-year-old saintly vampire. In the mid-4th century, the count settles in the Proven￯﾿ﾽal village of Orgon. This is a turbulent era, with the Hundred Years War racking England and France, a power struggle taking place between the Pope at Avignon, France, and the Holy Roman Emperor in Rome, and the subsequent period of two rival Popes dividing Europe. Worst of all is the advent of the Black Death, or bubonic plague, that will kill one third of the population and cause unprecedented social and economic upheavals. Saint-Germain is at first welcomed as a healer. But many plague survivors rapidly turn vengeful when their expectations are not fulfilled; and so, like some other physicians, heþs accused of spreading the plague and condemned to be burnt. The count and his loyal servant, Rogres, manage to escape, and adopt the guise of troubadours who, like monks, are permitted to wander about relatively unmolested. An absorbing account, bringing history to rich and resonant life.