Vampires of the Desert (1929)

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by A. Hyatt Verrill

Halloween Reviews 2020

A geologist for an oil company learns the deadly secret behind an outbreak of nighttime deaths in which the victims are drained of blood. 

Author A. Hyatt Verrill was the first professor of zoology at Yale University and his academic credentials certainly show, as he presents a well reasoned and interesting cryptozoological threat and chronicles its spread through the coastland of Peru with the skill of an epidemiologist. 

A. Hyatt Verrill

Unfortunately, he left out such tried and true narrative techniques as characterization and the building of suspense. 

Whatever its flaws, this short novella has a remarkable and beautiful scene toward the end wherein the nature of the menace becomes apparent and the hero barely escapes with his life.

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