Merrick by Anne Rice (The Vampire Chronicles: Book 7)

The Vampire Armand finished with a tantalising moment - the Vampire Lestat rising from the dead in present-day New Orleans to walk again among Anne Rice's unforgettable undead. Now Lestat lives again but in a twilight world of music and memory. In this volume it is his mesmerizing friend and coeval Louis de Pointe du Lac (originating in 18th century France and Interview with the Vampire) who is tortured by the memory of the child vampire, Claudia, whom he loved and lost. With the help of David Talbot, vampire and ultimate fixer from the secret Talamasca organisation, Louis calls on the help of Merrick, young and gorgeous mixed-race by-blow of the rich New Orleans Mayfair clan. To save Louis' sanity, Merrick must use her black witchcraft to call up the ghost of Claudia - however dangerous this may be. There are other Mayfair spirits who will not lie still, and her search takes her close to the edge, through blood and terror, ritual and violence. Sweeping from New Orleans to the Brazilian jungle and the island of Haiti, this is vampire literature at its most tantalising, sexy and irresistible.

7/10 A massive, sprawling canvas, teeming with colour and invention.