Review: A Vampire with a Dilemma... or two
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 7, 2012
'The Blood of Cowards' introduces Lazarus Kalon, a supremely powerful vampire, to the world of fiction.  In this exploit, Lazarus finds himself starved for blood whilst caught up amidst the violence at the end of the American Civil War in the south east state of Georgia.  There is plenty of food available but it has its risks and then there's the little matter of hanging onto his hoarded treasure.  Dilemmas abound in this journey into the lonely mind of a blood-sucker.As with Matt Cole's other two short stories, this tale excels in character creation and descriptive narrative.  The author has a flair for the colourful sentence and it suits his genre well.  This story reads like the first part of many adventures to follow and I hope that Matt Cole continues with these excellently worded gems of horror.Bram Stoker would be proud of the evolution of his creation.I actually read `Ghost Drums' before this and realised that it was the wrong chronological order.  It didn't spoil my enjoyment but I would advise anyone else to read this first.