The Keep (Mass Market Paperback)

As far as horror stories go, this one is definitely up with the best of them. The author has written a riveting page turner with this tautly written, inventive tale. The author has taken some vampire folklore and given it a new twist. In the hands of this master of the horror genre, the quintessential battle between good and evil takes on a new dimension.

In Romania, deep in the heart of the Transylvanian Alps, lies the Dinu Pass. In April of 1941, a small squadron of German soldiers has been ordered to occupy a small, deserted, five hundred year old castle keep at the Dinu pass. From the beginning, Captain Klaus Woermann senses that there is something unusual about the keep. Looking as if it had just been built and inlaid with brass and nickel crosses in every corridor, crosses that the caretaker for the keep exhorts the Germans not to touch, the keep is an architectural oddity.

Soon the games begin, as an unseen force begins murdering his men. Captain Woermann sends a message to the high command. To his dismay, they respond by sending a Nazi squadron of einsatzkommandos under the leadership of SS Major Kaempffer to quell whatever local guerilla activity is, undoubtedly, responsible for the murders. Soon, these death's head troopers begin succumbing to the same fate as their German Army counterparts, and all hell breaks loose.

Enter the ailing Dr. Theodor Cuza, a Romanian Jew and former professor at the University of Bucharest. Although suffering from the ravages of scleroderma, he is ordered by the Nazis to the keep, as he is an expert in the history of the region. It is hoped that he will be able to shed some light on the mysterious keep and enable his hosts to defeat their unknown adversary.

Accompanied by Magda, his daughter, they find themselves confronted with the cruelty of the Nazis, the unexpected kindness of Captain Woermann, and something from their worst nightmares that has them call into question their deepest beliefs. Then, a mysterious red-headed stranger with piercing blue eyes also appears, and nothing is ever the same again.

This is one of the premier horror stories of all time. Bravo!

Then word comes through that Kaempffer is to make a detour. A small regular German army detachment is stationed in an ancient castle called the Keep, in the Dinu Pass, a remote area of the Transylvanian Alps. The location is of interest to the Germans because of its strategic position to nearby oil fields. The captain, senior officer in charge, had sent a communique to Headquarters in Berlin: "Request immediate relocation. Something is murdering my men." The SS major must make the inconvenient trip to investigate, along with a contingent of his einsatzkommandos (SS goons).

Kaempffer and his men arrive and soldiers continue to die, both army and SS now, each in a more gruesome manner. Clearly something supernatural is involved. Some heinous creature is sucking the life from living souls. The Keep's occupation by foreign soldiers, and their continual tampering with the castle's structure while searching for hidden gold, have released an evil entity - the MOST EVIL entity. When a message is found, written in blood in an unknown language, it is decided an expert must be called in to assist the investigation. Unfortunately for everyone, the SS major refuses to abandon the Keep, as this may look like a failure to his superiors in Berlin. An elderly, sickly Jewish scholar from Bucharest, knowledgeable about Romanian history, folklore and extinct languages, is ordered to the castle. Accompanying him is his lovely daughter, Magda.

Meanwhile, in Tavira, Portugal, a red-haired man awakens from a nightmare with a sense of foreboding. Grim-faced, he suddenly understands. He had hoped this moment would never come, but he is ready and immediately begins a trip across the 2300 mile length of Mediterranean Sea, through Turkey to Romania. Soon another war will begin, one which will rival even Hitler's war.

Parts of "The Keep" are extremely scary, horrifying actually. A fantasy element is also present in the explanation of the evil "entity's" history, along with the story of the building of the Keep. I found this to be fascinating stuff. During these segments, the novel is fast-paced and riveting. However, there are areas of the narrative which plod, and while I enjoyed the romantic subplot, I am pretty sure hard core horror fans will not. The gratuitous gore, is just that - unnecessary, and becomes almost comical at times - especially since the gore belongs to Nazis. Overall though, I did enjoy "The Keep" enormously. It will hold you spellbound!
JANA