Review: Honor at Stake by Declan Finn

What happens when you drop all the modern nonsense about vampires, bring them back to the creatures that don’t like holy water any more than they like sunlight and throw them into the modern world?

(Ed. note: While this is an older review, held over from our previous URL, not only was it corrupted during the transfer, the books were discounted from the previous publisher. They are now back in print, and thus, a republished review.)

What happens when you drop all the modern nonsense about vampires, bring them back to the creatures that don’t like holy water any more than they like sunlight and throw them into the modern world?

You get the world of Declan Finn’s Honor at Stake.

The story

An intense young man named Marco Catalano with a reputation for violence has finally found a worthy challenge in his fencing class.

Amanda Colt is just as happy to be challenged; it isn’t everyday she finds someone with reflexes that can match her own. Which makes sense given that she’s a vampire.

The two begin to fall in love as they discuss theology, culture, and vampires, as one does after going out for lunch a couple times. While the romance grows, strange bodies are turning up in New York City, bodies drained of blood. Simultaneously, there are attacks being committed by people who seem to be going out of their way to look like stereotypical vampires.

Soon, Marco and Amanda are drawn into a confrontation with an army of the undead alongside an unlikely magician and a special division of the Swiss Guard.

It’s a fun, action packed page turner that will keep you in the recliner until it’s done.

The characters

Marco is one of my favorite characters. He is a devout Catholic who is also wired to be a ruthless killer, a dichotomy that torments him as he struggles to channel his impulses. He also is a certifiable genius, working his way through med school while also training himself to be a fighter that can easily best your run of the mill vampire. In short, he’s a more ruthless Batman.

Amanda Colt is far more than just a love interest. She’s a vampire that has refused to give in to the urges that go along with that. Determined to not become a killer, she usually stays away from people, living a quiet life feeding herself in part with the Precious Blood at Mass, an idea I’m surprised I hadn’t seen before. Being a vampire, she doesn’t like to get close to people but with Marco, she can’t seem to help herself.

The two make an excellent team. Imagine if Batman and Wonder Woman ever had a serious relationship and it might look something like this.

They’re joined by plenty of supporting characters as well. Merle Kraft is particularly interesting. The owner of a magic shop who sometimes works with the FBI, Merle is a character of uncertain abilities. The mystery surrounding just who and what he is, is supported by his roguish nature. While Marco is intense and no nonsense, with all the charm of an angry cobra, Merle is like a Han solo, ready with a joke and able to talk his way in or out of plenty of situations.

And who could forget the addition of literal Vatican Ninjas into the mix? I don’t care who you are, if you have literal ninjas from the Vatican toting machine guns that shoot wood bullets to kill vampires with, you are in for a good time.

The world

Finn gives us a world with vampires that I’ve never seen before. Rather than following the modern tropes of ignoring the religious aspects of vampires such as the fact that holy water and crucifixes are deadly to them, he restores these to their rightful place in vampire lore. He thankfully doesn’t stop in the middle ground staked out by Fright Night and Salem’s Lot – the idea that the religious repellants to the undead are dependent on the faith of the user. No, the religion works because it’s true and the average vampire is existentially repelled by it. The faith of the user is irrelevant.

Yet, this is no mere return to the world of Bram Stoker. These vampires exist squarely in the modern world, which allows Finn to play with the way they would operate in the real world, as well as new ways to kill them. Marco and his bellicose imagination dives full in, using rosaries, squirt guns, and water balloons aplenty to dispatch the undead.

What of Amanda Colt, the devout Catholic vampire? Finn has created a take on vampires that leaves them with the faculties of reason and of free will. In essence, a vampire is by no means doomed to turn into a Dracula. A vampire can choose good or evil and his appearance and power will reflect those choices. A vampire becomes more powerful the more evil or the more good he is. Unfortunately, most of them either choose evil or try to remain in the middle. The latter are the vast majority and aren’t that much more powerful than a strong man.

Finn’s world is also one that has plenty of people who know about the supernatural. The Vatican’s special unit of the Swiss Guard is highly trained and equipped to track and kill vampires, indicating that the Catholic Church has been fighting the undead for quite a while. The best part is that Finn does it all without a lot of info dumps. He simply gives the reader the information that is needed in the moment and moves on to let the story do the rest.

The politics?

I describe Finn’s work as “punch you in the face Catholicism”. As such, there is little concern for the feelings of anyone on the side of the vampires and Marco in particular is shown as having little patience for the modern world. Religion of course is held up as a positive good and demons and angels are treated as being very real.

Why read it?

Honor at Stake is a great introduction to the writing of Declan Finn. It is fun, thought provoking at many points and manages to convey a lot of theology without ever seeming preachy. The action moves at a brisk pace and the characters move in and out of the story at just the right places. Would I let a 10 year old read it? Probably not, but someone a little older will enjoy it, as will any adult that just wants to have a good time reading about evil getting vanquished.

Full disclosure: Declan Finn is a contributor to Upstream Reviews