Drawn to the ominous house of Scarabae by the promise of passion, Rachaela soon finds herself a prisoner of her own desire, seduced into a dark and dangerous existence by a lover who bears her family name.
From the back cover
THE KISS OF ADAMUS
A Mahler symphony plays in this house. Eve tempts Adam in stained glass. A dead mouse, a pink bow around its neck, lies on the dresser. A topaz=eyed cat, as big as a Labrador stalks for food. A madman gallops in the hallway. And Rachaela waits, waits for her lover, her seducer...
She worked in a bookstore, a conventional young woman in a conventional life. Then they beckoned Rachaela, using a lawyer as a front, using a variety of ruses, beckoning her to the house on the sea—the house of Scarabae...
Now she is here: not a prisoner, but she cannot leave; not a criminal, but stained with sin, seduced...
A man's body burns on the beach. Madness cries out in her head. This is her family. This lover bears her family name. He comes to her in black, bearing his passion, his thirst for her blood, his ecstasy—his terrible seed...
REVIEWS
"ENTHRALLING... top-notch demonology and atmosphere... it is Lee's talent for realizing an exquisite and appalling mingling of lust and horror, sexual pleasure and loathing, yearning and revulsion.”—Kirkus Reviews
"Lee writes with lyricism... ominous wit... she is able to effortlessly build to a climax of breathtaking menace with overtones of dislocation and loss."—Publishers Weekly
"Lee's seductive prose and sensitivity to nuance restore the 'atmosphere' to a genre too easily overwhelmed by gore."—Library Journal
"Lee's creations are so rich that one can savor the details." —Booklist
"Restores one's faith in fiction as the expression of imagination and original thought." —The Guardian
"STUNNING... Tanith Lee has written some truly remarkable books ... with Lee it is always wise to expect the unexpected... a testament to Lee's extraordinary reputation and skill as a writer."—Starburst
"STYLISH, CURIOUS, LANGUID, DIFFERENT... sexual ambiguities, clammy obsessions and erotic
polymorphisms, set forth amid a welter of rich detail."—Kirkus Reviews
"Lee upholds her reputation for exotic storytelling... RECOMMENDED!" —Library Journal
"Tanith Lee writes in sensual, emotion-rich prose that is given a dark piquancy by a sexuality tending toward the sado-masochistic." —Publishers Weekly
"Lee is equally gifted in both novels and shorter works."—Booklist
"A dose of glamorous perversity and elegant wit."—Locus
Rachaela Day is an emotionally distant bookshop clerk in present-day London. Abandoned before birth by her enigmatic father, Rachaela has lived alone since the death of her mother. She accepts a mysterious invitation to stay at the seaside house of Scarabae with her estranged father and his family. The Scarabae, whose existence Rachaela's mother fearfully concealed, eventually reveal themselves to be a clan of vampires who must interbreed to keep their bloodlines intact. Mesmerized by her father's spell and seduced, Rachaela flees, only to find that she is pregnant with the heir to the family's legacy. Twelve years later, Rachaela must return to the Scarabae to rescue her daughter, Ruth, who has been taken back in order to fulfill her horrible destiny.
Description:
Drawn to the ominous house of Scarabae by the promise of passion, Rachaela soon finds herself a prisoner of her own desire, seduced into a dark and dangerous existence by a lover who bears her family name.
From the back cover
THE KISS OF ADAMUS
A Mahler symphony plays in this house. Eve tempts Adam in stained glass. A dead mouse, a pink bow around its neck, lies on the dresser. A topaz=eyed cat, as big as a Labrador stalks for food. A madman gallops in the hallway. And Rachaela waits, waits for her lover, her seducer...
She worked in a bookstore, a conventional young woman in a conventional life. Then they beckoned Rachaela, using a lawyer as a front, using a variety of ruses, beckoning her to the house on the sea—the house of Scarabae...
Now she is here: not a prisoner, but she cannot leave; not a criminal, but stained with sin, seduced...
A man's body burns on the beach. Madness cries out in her head. This is her family. This lover bears her family name. He comes to her in black, bearing his passion, his thirst for her blood, his ecstasy—his terrible seed...
REVIEWS
"ENTHRALLING... top-notch demonology and atmosphere... it is Lee's talent for realizing an exquisite and appalling mingling of lust and horror, sexual pleasure and loathing, yearning and revulsion.”—Kirkus Reviews
"Lee writes with lyricism... ominous wit... she is able to effortlessly build to a climax of breathtaking menace with overtones of dislocation and loss."—Publishers Weekly
"Lee's seductive prose and sensitivity to nuance restore the 'atmosphere' to a genre too easily overwhelmed by gore."—Library Journal
"Lee's creations are so rich that one can savor the details." —Booklist
"Restores one's faith in fiction as the expression of imagination and original thought." —The Guardian
"STUNNING... Tanith Lee has written some truly remarkable books ... with Lee it is always wise to expect the unexpected... a testament to Lee's extraordinary reputation and skill as a writer."—Starburst
"STYLISH, CURIOUS, LANGUID, DIFFERENT... sexual ambiguities, clammy obsessions and erotic
polymorphisms, set forth amid a welter of rich detail."—Kirkus Reviews
"Lee upholds her reputation for exotic storytelling... RECOMMENDED!" —Library Journal
"Tanith Lee writes in sensual, emotion-rich prose that is given a dark piquancy by a sexuality tending toward the sado-masochistic." —Publishers Weekly
"Lee is equally gifted in both novels and shorter works."—Booklist
"A dose of glamorous perversity and elegant wit."—Locus
Rachaela Day is an emotionally distant bookshop clerk in present-day London. Abandoned before birth by her enigmatic father, Rachaela has lived alone since the death of her mother. She accepts a mysterious invitation to stay at the seaside house of Scarabae with her estranged father and his family. The Scarabae, whose existence Rachaela's mother fearfully concealed, eventually reveal themselves to be a clan of vampires who must interbreed to keep their bloodlines intact. Mesmerized by her father's spell and seduced, Rachaela flees, only to find that she is pregnant with the heir to the family's legacy. Twelve years later, Rachaela must return to the Scarabae to rescue her daughter, Ruth, who has been taken back in order to fulfill her horrible destiny.