Prince of Darkness, by Barbara Michaels

I can't remember the last time I reread Prince of Darkness, by Barbara Michaels. In fact, I could barely remember what Prince of Darkness was about!

A mysterious visitor from England has come to the exclusive and captivating town of Middleburg, Maryland. And when this handsome stranger becomes a bit too involved with the beautiful Tiphaine Blake, the local villagers fear the revelation of dark secrets. Secrets of the living and the dead -which can only be resolved by the great Prince himself...

Prince of Darkness started out intriguing and mysterious, but I thought it lost a bit of its charm near the end. My grade would be a B-.

The first two-thirds of the book are narrated from the point of view of the mysterious Peter. In this part, Michaels manages to keep Peter's motivations and intentions a mystery, without making me feel she was being obnoxiously enigmatic (the blurb didn't help at all in explaining this). We saw Peter's actions and some stray clues as to what he intended and why, but it wasn't until the last third that everything got explained.

And when we finally know who he is, and the point of view changes to Kate, the story loses some interest. It's not that the explanations don't make sense, it's just that for all the over-the-top drama, I didn't think it was all that interesting or frightening.

Still, an interesting book, the first part more than makes up for the weaker ending.