Meandering, slogging, hair-pulling, mess of a read. The Da Vinci code on crack-cocaine. This book needs to lose some weight. The book started off paced really well but quickly lost steam. The SLLLOOOWWW build up dies in the arms of the final pages, thankfully. By the end of this novel? historical fiction? university dissertation on the Ottoman invasion of the Byzantine empire as seen through the eyes of Dracula enthusiasts? I was ready to be staked through the heart. The one good point was that if you are a fan of the vampire genre then you will be taught (thoroughly) on the legend of the man that started it all.