The lies a gap between Anne Rice and Laurell K. Hamilton that the new series of Vampire novels from Morven Westfield have a great potential to fill. In her first book in the series, Darksome Thirst Westfield introduces us to the sharp-witted vampire Wesley and his accomplice Frederick. Unwillingly drawn into their world is a bright systems operator called Alicia Anderson, and her boss Meg McMillan.

As the story unfolds, a local coven begins to detect the presence of the vampires and zeroes in on their prey

. Clearly the author has done a lot of research (either objectively or subjectively) on Paganism and Wicca, and the attention to detail and accuracy of the rites and correspondences included is impressive.

If the book has a failing, it is that the characters do not have the depth of those created by Rice or Hamilton - there is a two-dimensional quality to them. The book could quite easily have been an extra 100 pages long without bogging down the storyline and would have given us deeper insight into its protagonists.

This may merely be because Westfield is still feeling her way, of course - this is her debut novel, after all. I feel sure that as the series progresses, this is something that will be corrected, and we will find a new Le Stat or Anita Blake to simultaneously love and hate...