Department 19: The Rising by Will Hill - NO

Hill, Will. Department 19: The Rising, pgs. 577. Razorbill an Imprint of Penguin Group Publishing, Inc., 2012. FICTION. Language, 30 swears; Sexual Content, PG (suggested); Violence, R.   

The story unfolds after Lindisfarne (in book one) and it is ninety-one days until zero hour. The book ends at eighty-five days until zero hour. An epidemic of vampirism has swept through Europe and now the world. Different countries now have certain agencies that fight vampires. The British Prime Minister has established Department 19. The main characters are the members of Department 19, Jamie, Kate and Larissa, who together try to find Vlad Tepes, otherwise known as Dracula, who has been dead for more than a century. Dracula’s brother, Valeri, finds Dracula’s body and starts to feed him fresh blood. When Vlad has replenished his body with enough fresh blood he will then have the strength to take over the world. Replenishing his body with blood will take ninety-one days. As the mounting deaths occur graffiti is left at the crime scene, He Rises.

I loved the idea and plot of the book. I thought each character both good and evil brought a great deal to the story and that’s what kept me reading; however, the mounting violence as the story unfolds was too much for me. The graphic depiction of the dismembering of human bodies finally got me on page 209 and I couldn’t read any further. I was disappointed that the violence became the focus rather than the suspense and characters. Since the book covers only six hours in 577 pages of the time left to find Dracula, I wonder how many books will be in this series. 

NO. Reviewer, Kathleen Dale, Library Media Specialist, RJH Library.