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The Fifth House of the Heart
Filled with characters as menacing as they are memorable, this chilling twist on vampire fiction packs a punch in the bestselling tradition of ’Salem’s Lot by Stephen King.
Asmodeus “Sax” Saxon-Tang, a vainglorious and well-established antiques dealer, has made a fortune over many years by globetrotting for the finest lost objects in the world. Only Sax knows the true secret to his success: at certain points of his life, he’s killed vampires for their priceless hoards of treasure.
But now Sax’s past actions are quite literally coming back to haunt him, and the lives of those he holds most dear are in mortal danger. To counter this unnatural threat, and with the blessing of the Holy Roman Church, a cowardly but cunning Sax must travel across Europe in pursuit of incalculable evil—and immeasurable wealth—with a ragtag team of mercenaries and vampire killers to hunt a terrifying, ageless monster…one who is hunting Sax in turn.
From author Ben Tripp, whose first horror novel Rise Again “raises the stakes so high that the book becomes nearly impossible to put down” (Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother), The Fifth House of the Heart is a powerful story that will haunt you long after its final pages.
Asmodeus “Sax” Saxon-Tang, a vainglorious and well-established antiques dealer, has made a fortune over many years by globetrotting for the finest lost objects in the world. Only Sax knows the true secret to his success: at certain points of his life, he’s killed vampires for their priceless hoards of treasure.
But now Sax’s past actions are quite literally coming back to haunt him, and the lives of those he holds most dear are in mortal danger. To counter this unnatural threat, and with the blessing of the Holy Roman Church, a cowardly but cunning Sax must travel across Europe in pursuit of incalculable evil—and immeasurable wealth—with a ragtag team of mercenaries and vampire killers to hunt a terrifying, ageless monster…one who is hunting Sax in turn.
From author Ben Tripp, whose first horror novel Rise Again “raises the stakes so high that the book becomes nearly impossible to put down” (Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother), The Fifth House of the Heart is a powerful story that will haunt you long after its final pages.
400 pages, Paperback
First published July 28, 2015
37 people are currently reading
2348 people want to read
About the author
Ben Tripp
16 books286 followersBEN TRIPP is the author of Fifth House of the Heart; Rise Again and Rise Again: Below Zero, a two-part apocalyptic zombie saga for Gallery; he has also completed the first volume of the Accidental Trilogy, The Accidental Highwayman, which is a young adult fantasy. The Accidental Giant will be the next book in the series.
Tripp is an artist, writer, and designer who has worked with major entertainment companies and motion picture studios for more than two decades. He was for many years one of the world's leading conceptualists of public experiences, with a global portfolio of projects ranging from urban masterplanning to theme parks. Now he writes novels full-time.
He lives with his wife (Academy Award-winning writer/ producer Corinne Marrinan) in Los Angeles and Europe.
Tripp is an artist, writer, and designer who has worked with major entertainment companies and motion picture studios for more than two decades. He was for many years one of the world's leading conceptualists of public experiences, with a global portfolio of projects ranging from urban masterplanning to theme parks. Now he writes novels full-time.
He lives with his wife (Academy Award-winning writer/ producer Corinne Marrinan) in Los Angeles and Europe.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 128 reviews
November 5, 2015
5 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum http://bibliosanctum.com/2015/10/31/b...
So the other day I was having this conversation with another blogger about what makes us give a book 5 stars. Admittedly, my own reasons can be pretty nebulous and oftentimes the finer details can differ from a lot of others’ “criteria”, but ultimately I think it always comes down to the question: Did the book blow my mind? Maybe the author impressed with some crazy unique ideas, or made me see something in a whole different light. Or maybe the book touched my emotions in some way, destroyed my feels and left me blubbering like an idiot.
Or maybe sometimes, like in the case of The Fifth House of the Heart, the reasons don’t have to be either cerebral or emotional. Maybe I just want to give a book 5 stars because it was just so damn fucking fun. DEAL WITH IT!
Seriously, though. Horror, humor, and a heist all in one? I couldn’t have asked for more. Say what you want about vampires being a tired old trope, but they can still be pretty terrifying, especially when you have an author who knows how to portray them like the monsters that they are—the way they’re meant to be. Next, throw in a motley group of mercenaries led by a septuagenarian antiquities dealer, our rather zany protagonist who is as motivated by his desire to rid the world of vampires as he is by the opportunity to get his hands on some of their priceless loot.
For you see, vampires are as bad as dragons when it comes to hoarding; they have an obsession for the past as well as an eye for expensive, beautiful, and exquisitely crafted things. Unfortunately, they are also fiercely attached to their possessions and will guard them with as much fervor. This is precisely how Asmodeus “Sax” Saxon-Tang draws the attention of a vampire at an antiques auction, after barely winning a bidding war for an ormolu clock. But Sax is no stranger to vampires, having profited greatly from a couple of run-ins with them in the past. So when the clock is later stolen from his warehouse, leaving the watchman on duty brutally murdered, Sax knows only one thing can be responsible. Determined to settle the score, he travels to the Vatican to assemble a crack team of vampire hunters to counter this new threat—and hopefully to make another fortune while he’s at it.
Everyone in this book is a character, in the sense that they all possess interesting and notable traits or personalities. First there’s Fra Paolo, the guileless monk admiringly described by the openly gay Sax as a dark, handsome young “piece of Italian beefcake.” Next is Min, a small innocuous-looking Korean woman who just happens to be one of the deadliest, most frighteningly accomplished vampire killers in the world–and the sanest one the Vatican could come up with on short notice. Rock is the team’s muscle, an ex-US Army Special Forces guy who is as rugged and strong as his name suggests. Gheorghe plays the role of the rogue, a Romanian burglar who moonlights as a street acrobat in between bank heists. Then there are the unwitting additions to the crew, those who just happened to fall into this deadly caper by happy circumstance: Nilu, the Bollywood actress who became a vampire victim; Emily, Sax’s concerned niece who trails her uncle to Europe; and finally, Abingdon the British blacksmith/professional jouster whose impeccable physique and devastatingly good looks make him popular with the ladies at Ren Faires all across the continent.
Hard to imagine a more dubious or random group of people getting together to slay monsters, but there you are. But of course, the most interesting and entertaining one of all is Sax, the leader of this jolly band and the one who holds everyone together. Sax is one of the best protagonists I’ve read in years, a man of contrasts if I’ve ever seen one. I can’t decide whether he’s closer in type to the gentle elderly man who gives smiles to children in the park, or to the crotchety one who brandishes his cane at them from his porch yelling “Get off my lawn!” In truth, he’s probably both in equal parts.
One thing is certain though: this novel owes a lot of its greatness to Sax. Certainly, his wry and wicked sense of humor is a huge part of it; I laughed and I laughed and I laughed. Throughout the book, Sax will say all sorts of scandalous or outrageously inappropriate things but you’ll still find yourself busting a gut without feeling too guilty about it because he reminds you of your 100-year-old eccentric grandpa. Plus, the guy has already survived two vampire attacks, and yet even now he’s preparing to charge headlong into another. RESPECT. I could only hope to be so spritely when I’m pushing eighty.
You might have noticed by now that I haven’t talked much about the plot – and I’m not going to. Because as with most heist stories, the less you know about the novel before you read it the better. The less you know about the vampires in this book the better too, but I just want to say how much I loved Tripp’s return to the ruthless, bestial portrayal of these creatures while still giving it a refreshingly unique twist. The Fifth House of the Heart will remind you that vampires are monsters. They don’t love you. They want to kill you.
So if you want some terrifyingly good entertainment, read this book. What an uproarious mix of thrills and chills! Needless to say, I enjoyed it thoroughly, from the first page to the last!
So the other day I was having this conversation with another blogger about what makes us give a book 5 stars. Admittedly, my own reasons can be pretty nebulous and oftentimes the finer details can differ from a lot of others’ “criteria”, but ultimately I think it always comes down to the question: Did the book blow my mind? Maybe the author impressed with some crazy unique ideas, or made me see something in a whole different light. Or maybe the book touched my emotions in some way, destroyed my feels and left me blubbering like an idiot.
Or maybe sometimes, like in the case of The Fifth House of the Heart, the reasons don’t have to be either cerebral or emotional. Maybe I just want to give a book 5 stars because it was just so damn fucking fun. DEAL WITH IT!
Seriously, though. Horror, humor, and a heist all in one? I couldn’t have asked for more. Say what you want about vampires being a tired old trope, but they can still be pretty terrifying, especially when you have an author who knows how to portray them like the monsters that they are—the way they’re meant to be. Next, throw in a motley group of mercenaries led by a septuagenarian antiquities dealer, our rather zany protagonist who is as motivated by his desire to rid the world of vampires as he is by the opportunity to get his hands on some of their priceless loot.
For you see, vampires are as bad as dragons when it comes to hoarding; they have an obsession for the past as well as an eye for expensive, beautiful, and exquisitely crafted things. Unfortunately, they are also fiercely attached to their possessions and will guard them with as much fervor. This is precisely how Asmodeus “Sax” Saxon-Tang draws the attention of a vampire at an antiques auction, after barely winning a bidding war for an ormolu clock. But Sax is no stranger to vampires, having profited greatly from a couple of run-ins with them in the past. So when the clock is later stolen from his warehouse, leaving the watchman on duty brutally murdered, Sax knows only one thing can be responsible. Determined to settle the score, he travels to the Vatican to assemble a crack team of vampire hunters to counter this new threat—and hopefully to make another fortune while he’s at it.
Everyone in this book is a character, in the sense that they all possess interesting and notable traits or personalities. First there’s Fra Paolo, the guileless monk admiringly described by the openly gay Sax as a dark, handsome young “piece of Italian beefcake.” Next is Min, a small innocuous-looking Korean woman who just happens to be one of the deadliest, most frighteningly accomplished vampire killers in the world–and the sanest one the Vatican could come up with on short notice. Rock is the team’s muscle, an ex-US Army Special Forces guy who is as rugged and strong as his name suggests. Gheorghe plays the role of the rogue, a Romanian burglar who moonlights as a street acrobat in between bank heists. Then there are the unwitting additions to the crew, those who just happened to fall into this deadly caper by happy circumstance: Nilu, the Bollywood actress who became a vampire victim; Emily, Sax’s concerned niece who trails her uncle to Europe; and finally, Abingdon the British blacksmith/professional jouster whose impeccable physique and devastatingly good looks make him popular with the ladies at Ren Faires all across the continent.
Hard to imagine a more dubious or random group of people getting together to slay monsters, but there you are. But of course, the most interesting and entertaining one of all is Sax, the leader of this jolly band and the one who holds everyone together. Sax is one of the best protagonists I’ve read in years, a man of contrasts if I’ve ever seen one. I can’t decide whether he’s closer in type to the gentle elderly man who gives smiles to children in the park, or to the crotchety one who brandishes his cane at them from his porch yelling “Get off my lawn!” In truth, he’s probably both in equal parts.
One thing is certain though: this novel owes a lot of its greatness to Sax. Certainly, his wry and wicked sense of humor is a huge part of it; I laughed and I laughed and I laughed. Throughout the book, Sax will say all sorts of scandalous or outrageously inappropriate things but you’ll still find yourself busting a gut without feeling too guilty about it because he reminds you of your 100-year-old eccentric grandpa. Plus, the guy has already survived two vampire attacks, and yet even now he’s preparing to charge headlong into another. RESPECT. I could only hope to be so spritely when I’m pushing eighty.
You might have noticed by now that I haven’t talked much about the plot – and I’m not going to. Because as with most heist stories, the less you know about the novel before you read it the better. The less you know about the vampires in this book the better too, but I just want to say how much I loved Tripp’s return to the ruthless, bestial portrayal of these creatures while still giving it a refreshingly unique twist. The Fifth House of the Heart will remind you that vampires are monsters. They don’t love you. They want to kill you.
So if you want some terrifyingly good entertainment, read this book. What an uproarious mix of thrills and chills! Needless to say, I enjoyed it thoroughly, from the first page to the last!
September 4, 2020
This. Book. Was. Fantastic!!! I was excited for the premise (aging antique dealer steals from vampires) and then floored by the writing and the story. The cast of characters were unique and well-developed (AND diverse!! Yay!!) and the story was suspenseful and engaging. Oh, and not to mention FUNNY! The author’s humor was sarcastic but compassionate and I adored the “hero,” Asmodeus Saxon-Tang (please call him Sax). The vampires were suitably evil (no “Twilight-types” here) and refreshingly intelligent. Overall, this journey was thrilling and adventurous and would make a fabulous movie someday. I really do hope Mr. Tripp considers writing more novels featuring Mr. Sax; I would gobble them up!
December 10, 2015
This book was an undulating wave.
At times it crested the peaks with magnificent suspense and thrilling scares, but in between it just sort of wallowed in the troughs.
Meet Asmodeus Saxon-Tang.
Here’s the thing. I am, as is obvious, a homosexual. That is the least of my disqualifications, but it does cause the narrow-minded some discomfort. But there’s more to me than just that. I am, in addition, an unscrupulous, greedy, spiteful coward—with the scruples of a jackal and the reliability of a Renault 9. I’ll betray anybody for a profit. Judas wouldn’t have stood a chance against me; I’d have been down at the Pharisees’ office with a copy of Christ Jesus’s driving license for thirty pieces of copper, no questions asked. Any stories you’ve heard about some dashing vampire killer are absolute rubbish. Look at me. I can scarcely get across a room without widdling myself, let alone bung a spike through some bloodthirsty monster. Every single bit of the hard work on this job will be done by others. I won’t do a bloody thing. And afterward, when everyone else is dead, injured, and infected with plague, I’ll shove everything worth having in a couple of suitcases and off I’ll go. Not a glance backward. That’s who I am.
“Yes,” said Paolo. “So I was told.”
Sax was terribly offended. But at least he’d made his case. He’d gotten it all out there. Now Fra Paolo could bow out of any personal involvement, find Sax some proper assistants—meaning sociopathic mercenaries—and Sax could get on with the job.
Sax found he was sweating. He fumbled out his handkerchief and wiped his face.
“I see,” Sax said, when Fra Paolo failed to add just kidding.
“I was told you are a bad man for this job. I was also told you are the only man for this job.”
“Sax” is an antiques collector and finds himself at an auction, bidding too much for an ormolu clock, because someone else is driving up the price. Sax wins the the bid though, only to make an enemy. The enemy REALLY wants the clock. That enemy also turns out to be a vampire, and Asmodeus Saxon-Tang has had run-ins with vampires, twice before. He knows they are VERY. BAD. NEWS.
When you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares into you.
He also knows, that once they have you in their sights, they do not forget about you. And so he assembles one of the weirdest teams ever in order to eliminate the vampire.
MIN
“This is Min Hee-Jin, from South Korea. She is our vampire killer,” Paolo said.
“Is she not a trifle too small for the work?” Sax asked.
“The bigger ones are all psychopaths, which you said was no good. She is very good,” Paolo said, as if enticing Sax to sample a morsel of cake. “She may be only this tall, but she’s killed four vampires.”
GHEORGHE
The man in the next file was Gheorghe Vladimirescu, a Romanian burglar who also did bank heists, conducted strong-arm work for the Russian Mafia, and occasionally performed as a street acrobat.He was available because he happened to be in Italy under an assumed name, avoiding a conversation the Romanian authorities wished to have with him. The Vatican had better contacts than the police.
ROCK
The next candidate was the paramilitary sort.
“Did you find this chap at Central Casting?” Sax asked. The photograph revealed an umber-skinned man with immense muscles. His head was shaven and his skull had a rippled surface that telegraphed the convolutions of his brain. Manfield K. Rocksaw was his name, which Sax assumed had to be some kind of joke, and he had been with Special Forces in the United States Army. He was a Green Beret, or had been. Then he went freelance, following a disciplinary action when an examination of the details of the recent unpleasantness in the Middle East revealed he’d made some decisions contrary to the word, if not the spirit, of certain international treaties and conventions. He made no attempt to defend himself during the proceedings except to say, as was noted in the file, Shit rolls downhill.
ABINGDON
Abingdon answered the phone on the fifth ring, his voice muddy with sleep.
“Oozat?” He coughed into the phone.
“Asmodeus Saxon-Tang,” Sax said, and waited. There was a long pause.
“Fuck me, mate, what dost this fucking ringaling portend?” Abingdon was delighted. Sax could hear it in his voice, genuine pleasure. Gratifying, of course, especially at 6:53 in the morning. There was a muffled female voice in the background on Abingdon’s end of the line. Abingdon said something back that Sax couldn’t make out, and then his attention was back on Sax.
“Abingdon,” Sax began, as if to remind his listener who he was. “Still bucketing about on horses, shoving bits of wood at your enemies, and so forth?”
“Living fucking history, that is, princess.” Abingdon was a rugged, active man. A professional jouster and blacksmith, he worked the circuit of European history–themed events. Sax had seen him in action, clad in jingling hauberk and plate and a great heavy helmet on the back of a big, wild-eyed horse, charging down the muddy tilt. He could handle a twelve-foot lance like it was a pencil. Biceps like pumpkins. He didn’t just shatter lances and hack his way through exhibition swordsmanship, either: when he wasn’t in the arena, he was making iron candlesticks and swords and flails in his portable forge. Tourists loved it. Steel weapons for the gents, huge sweating muscles in a leather apron for the ladies.
FRA PAOLO
The monk explained simply that he was a servant of God, and it was his job to defeat the evil ones. It was only his specialty, like missionary work or beer brewing.
And of course,
SAX
I’m here because this thing needs killing. After that, I expect to get paid.”
And so this highly unlikely team of vampire killers set off to rid the world of some evil. Unfortunately, they soon discover that things are easier said than done and not all of them will be coming back. Vampires are tough bastards.
“I about shit myself back there, running through the woods,” Rock said. “I was so scared, I was like a little baby. That ugly fucker came after us like the motherfuckin’ Terminator, man. You add a couple werewolves to the mix and I’m going home with my pride busted but my ass intact, you follow me? ’Cause this is just a job.
As I stated, the story had some great moments, but I found myself dragging my feet in between these. The actual confrontations with the vampires, as well as the flashbacks to previous encounters were all superb, but every time they ended, it felt like being dumped back into the real world and out of the fantastical. Maybe I just love all out fantasy too much. Apart from the instances of nothing much happening, the book was funny, and horrific, and entertaining.
Worth the read for me, but nothing to really write home about.
At times it crested the peaks with magnificent suspense and thrilling scares, but in between it just sort of wallowed in the troughs.
Meet Asmodeus Saxon-Tang.
Here’s the thing. I am, as is obvious, a homosexual. That is the least of my disqualifications, but it does cause the narrow-minded some discomfort. But there’s more to me than just that. I am, in addition, an unscrupulous, greedy, spiteful coward—with the scruples of a jackal and the reliability of a Renault 9. I’ll betray anybody for a profit. Judas wouldn’t have stood a chance against me; I’d have been down at the Pharisees’ office with a copy of Christ Jesus’s driving license for thirty pieces of copper, no questions asked. Any stories you’ve heard about some dashing vampire killer are absolute rubbish. Look at me. I can scarcely get across a room without widdling myself, let alone bung a spike through some bloodthirsty monster. Every single bit of the hard work on this job will be done by others. I won’t do a bloody thing. And afterward, when everyone else is dead, injured, and infected with plague, I’ll shove everything worth having in a couple of suitcases and off I’ll go. Not a glance backward. That’s who I am.
“Yes,” said Paolo. “So I was told.”
Sax was terribly offended. But at least he’d made his case. He’d gotten it all out there. Now Fra Paolo could bow out of any personal involvement, find Sax some proper assistants—meaning sociopathic mercenaries—and Sax could get on with the job.
Sax found he was sweating. He fumbled out his handkerchief and wiped his face.
“I see,” Sax said, when Fra Paolo failed to add just kidding.
“I was told you are a bad man for this job. I was also told you are the only man for this job.”
“Sax” is an antiques collector and finds himself at an auction, bidding too much for an ormolu clock, because someone else is driving up the price. Sax wins the the bid though, only to make an enemy. The enemy REALLY wants the clock. That enemy also turns out to be a vampire, and Asmodeus Saxon-Tang has had run-ins with vampires, twice before. He knows they are VERY. BAD. NEWS.
When you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares into you.
He also knows, that once they have you in their sights, they do not forget about you. And so he assembles one of the weirdest teams ever in order to eliminate the vampire.
MIN
“This is Min Hee-Jin, from South Korea. She is our vampire killer,” Paolo said.
“Is she not a trifle too small for the work?” Sax asked.
“The bigger ones are all psychopaths, which you said was no good. She is very good,” Paolo said, as if enticing Sax to sample a morsel of cake. “She may be only this tall, but she’s killed four vampires.”
GHEORGHE
The man in the next file was Gheorghe Vladimirescu, a Romanian burglar who also did bank heists, conducted strong-arm work for the Russian Mafia, and occasionally performed as a street acrobat.He was available because he happened to be in Italy under an assumed name, avoiding a conversation the Romanian authorities wished to have with him. The Vatican had better contacts than the police.
ROCK
The next candidate was the paramilitary sort.
“Did you find this chap at Central Casting?” Sax asked. The photograph revealed an umber-skinned man with immense muscles. His head was shaven and his skull had a rippled surface that telegraphed the convolutions of his brain. Manfield K. Rocksaw was his name, which Sax assumed had to be some kind of joke, and he had been with Special Forces in the United States Army. He was a Green Beret, or had been. Then he went freelance, following a disciplinary action when an examination of the details of the recent unpleasantness in the Middle East revealed he’d made some decisions contrary to the word, if not the spirit, of certain international treaties and conventions. He made no attempt to defend himself during the proceedings except to say, as was noted in the file, Shit rolls downhill.
ABINGDON
Abingdon answered the phone on the fifth ring, his voice muddy with sleep.
“Oozat?” He coughed into the phone.
“Asmodeus Saxon-Tang,” Sax said, and waited. There was a long pause.
“Fuck me, mate, what dost this fucking ringaling portend?” Abingdon was delighted. Sax could hear it in his voice, genuine pleasure. Gratifying, of course, especially at 6:53 in the morning. There was a muffled female voice in the background on Abingdon’s end of the line. Abingdon said something back that Sax couldn’t make out, and then his attention was back on Sax.
“Abingdon,” Sax began, as if to remind his listener who he was. “Still bucketing about on horses, shoving bits of wood at your enemies, and so forth?”
“Living fucking history, that is, princess.” Abingdon was a rugged, active man. A professional jouster and blacksmith, he worked the circuit of European history–themed events. Sax had seen him in action, clad in jingling hauberk and plate and a great heavy helmet on the back of a big, wild-eyed horse, charging down the muddy tilt. He could handle a twelve-foot lance like it was a pencil. Biceps like pumpkins. He didn’t just shatter lances and hack his way through exhibition swordsmanship, either: when he wasn’t in the arena, he was making iron candlesticks and swords and flails in his portable forge. Tourists loved it. Steel weapons for the gents, huge sweating muscles in a leather apron for the ladies.
FRA PAOLO
The monk explained simply that he was a servant of God, and it was his job to defeat the evil ones. It was only his specialty, like missionary work or beer brewing.
And of course,
SAX
I’m here because this thing needs killing. After that, I expect to get paid.”
And so this highly unlikely team of vampire killers set off to rid the world of some evil. Unfortunately, they soon discover that things are easier said than done and not all of them will be coming back. Vampires are tough bastards.
“I about shit myself back there, running through the woods,” Rock said. “I was so scared, I was like a little baby. That ugly fucker came after us like the motherfuckin’ Terminator, man. You add a couple werewolves to the mix and I’m going home with my pride busted but my ass intact, you follow me? ’Cause this is just a job.
As I stated, the story had some great moments, but I found myself dragging my feet in between these. The actual confrontations with the vampires, as well as the flashbacks to previous encounters were all superb, but every time they ended, it felt like being dumped back into the real world and out of the fantastical. Maybe I just love all out fantasy too much. Apart from the instances of nothing much happening, the book was funny, and horrific, and entertaining.
Worth the read for me, but nothing to really write home about.
January 8, 2016
Amazing. Utterly so. Enthralling. To the final page.
I LOVE THIS BOOK. (I won it in a Goodreads giveaway and thank you thank you, Goodreads!)
Okay, it's the story of Asmodeus Saxon-Tang (known as Sax), who's pushing seventy and feeling the limits most of us will at that age. Regardless, he's an antique dealer, an avaricious soul, and determined to pursue to the ends of the Earth the antiques, little gems, rarities, etc., which have given his long life meaning. Problem is this...
Many of those little gems belong to vampires, and if anyone knows anything from reading 1001 vampire tales, you really don't want to tangle with vampires.
Tripp has taken the vampire trope and pushed it up a couple of dozen notches. The classic elements are all there and these vampires are hideous, not the friendly sort that fall in love with feckless human maids (or youths.) (Omg I used the word 'youths' in a review.)
Anyhow, tangled Sax gets, and drags into the fray several colorful, unique, totally non-stereotypical friends, allies and others. The writing, brilliant. The attention to detail, impeccable. I'd read this book again just to read the descriptions of vampires, French chateaus and antique furniture. There's violence and intrigue, mystery and atmosphere. I listened to classic Wolfsheim and Peter Heppner while reading this book. Just like Peter, this story races up and down. One moment you're gloomy, the next you're ignoring your kids' phone calls because you can't NOT read the next page...
And the next, and the next. I loved Mr. Saxon-Tang. I adore him. He's a coward; he's brave. He's utterly REAL. I want to adore him again in another book. Please, Mr. Tripp!
Five stars doesn't seem near enough! :D
I LOVE THIS BOOK. (I won it in a Goodreads giveaway and thank you thank you, Goodreads!)
Okay, it's the story of Asmodeus Saxon-Tang (known as Sax), who's pushing seventy and feeling the limits most of us will at that age. Regardless, he's an antique dealer, an avaricious soul, and determined to pursue to the ends of the Earth the antiques, little gems, rarities, etc., which have given his long life meaning. Problem is this...
Many of those little gems belong to vampires, and if anyone knows anything from reading 1001 vampire tales, you really don't want to tangle with vampires.
Tripp has taken the vampire trope and pushed it up a couple of dozen notches. The classic elements are all there and these vampires are hideous, not the friendly sort that fall in love with feckless human maids (or youths.) (Omg I used the word 'youths' in a review.)
Anyhow, tangled Sax gets, and drags into the fray several colorful, unique, totally non-stereotypical friends, allies and others. The writing, brilliant. The attention to detail, impeccable. I'd read this book again just to read the descriptions of vampires, French chateaus and antique furniture. There's violence and intrigue, mystery and atmosphere. I listened to classic Wolfsheim and Peter Heppner while reading this book. Just like Peter, this story races up and down. One moment you're gloomy, the next you're ignoring your kids' phone calls because you can't NOT read the next page...
And the next, and the next. I loved Mr. Saxon-Tang. I adore him. He's a coward; he's brave. He's utterly REAL. I want to adore him again in another book. Please, Mr. Tripp!
Five stars doesn't seem near enough! :D
July 18, 2015
Asmodeus “Sax” Saxon-Tang is an aging antiques dealer who just outbid a woman on an over-priced antique clock in an auction. Later that night the clock is stolen and the watchman for Sax’s warehouse is murdered. Sax knows who wanted the clock and who would be willing to kill for it. Vampires! For Sax has tangled with them before. What he doesn’t know is why nor does he know that the particular vampire who would have a motive to steal it is the one who almost killed him before. Now Sax, despite his age and what he sees as having a natural cowardice tendency which is only beaten by his greed, will assemble a team and reclaim his prize even though he knows it may be the last thing he will do.
That is the starting premise of The Fifth House of the Heart which may be one of best vampire novels in years. It is certainly a trifle different than the recent horde of undead fiction. Tripp has already had his fling recasting zombies in the unconventional Rise Again novels and he seems to want to do the same thing with vampires. The author‘s vampires are close enough to be familiar but have their own little variations that make them different and interesting. Tripp’s vampires are ancient, basically natural creatures who are practically ageless yet they are, for the most part, solitary and vicious with a vain urge to collect priceless relics of the past which explains why an antique dealer would risk his life pursuing them. Crosses and garlic do not work but Sax and his fellow vampire hunters have their own special arsenal to battle the creatures’ unique physiology. And therein lies the clue to the book’s title.
But while Tripp’s take on vampires is intriguing, it is Saxon-Tang himself that pulls the story together. Sax is aging, vain, and a self-proclaimed coward. Yet his love for his work and his pronounced greed tempts him into putting his life at risk several times. It also places himself in the radar of the vampires. The third person narration is usually in the perspective of Sax so we gets a good perspective of his motives and his own conflictual views of his life and his goals. It is that conflict that drives his mission while he seeks out help from the Catholic Church, worries about his niece who seems to be the only person that can pull him out of his self-centered thoughts, and lusts after the young monk that the church orders to accompany him on his quest.
The action in The Fifth House of the Heart is impeccable, moving at lightning speed. It is the best part of the book. Two scenes take place as flashbacks, one in 1965 and another in 1989. The rest of the book, and the climatic ending, takes place in present day. It is these very exciting parts of the novel that highlight one of the book’s weakness. Once the horror is done, much of the rest of the novel seems like set-ups for the thrills. We follow Sax’s journey and his collection of his team yet despite some very clever writing and dialog we yearn for the meaty parts. Except for the young monk Paolo, the rest of the team feels like filler.
Fortunately when all is done and bled, there ends up more meat than fat. Sax may have flaws and be slightly sleazy but he is very clever and sometimes wise. He embodies us older people who are set in our ways yet still have room for improvement. I just hope I do not need to battle vampires to find that improvement. Overall The Fifth House of the Heart is a welcome addition to the vampire genre and if it tends to drag a little too much in parts for my taste, it is still a rollicking bloody epic of a story.
That is the starting premise of The Fifth House of the Heart which may be one of best vampire novels in years. It is certainly a trifle different than the recent horde of undead fiction. Tripp has already had his fling recasting zombies in the unconventional Rise Again novels and he seems to want to do the same thing with vampires. The author‘s vampires are close enough to be familiar but have their own little variations that make them different and interesting. Tripp’s vampires are ancient, basically natural creatures who are practically ageless yet they are, for the most part, solitary and vicious with a vain urge to collect priceless relics of the past which explains why an antique dealer would risk his life pursuing them. Crosses and garlic do not work but Sax and his fellow vampire hunters have their own special arsenal to battle the creatures’ unique physiology. And therein lies the clue to the book’s title.
But while Tripp’s take on vampires is intriguing, it is Saxon-Tang himself that pulls the story together. Sax is aging, vain, and a self-proclaimed coward. Yet his love for his work and his pronounced greed tempts him into putting his life at risk several times. It also places himself in the radar of the vampires. The third person narration is usually in the perspective of Sax so we gets a good perspective of his motives and his own conflictual views of his life and his goals. It is that conflict that drives his mission while he seeks out help from the Catholic Church, worries about his niece who seems to be the only person that can pull him out of his self-centered thoughts, and lusts after the young monk that the church orders to accompany him on his quest.
The action in The Fifth House of the Heart is impeccable, moving at lightning speed. It is the best part of the book. Two scenes take place as flashbacks, one in 1965 and another in 1989. The rest of the book, and the climatic ending, takes place in present day. It is these very exciting parts of the novel that highlight one of the book’s weakness. Once the horror is done, much of the rest of the novel seems like set-ups for the thrills. We follow Sax’s journey and his collection of his team yet despite some very clever writing and dialog we yearn for the meaty parts. Except for the young monk Paolo, the rest of the team feels like filler.
Fortunately when all is done and bled, there ends up more meat than fat. Sax may have flaws and be slightly sleazy but he is very clever and sometimes wise. He embodies us older people who are set in our ways yet still have room for improvement. I just hope I do not need to battle vampires to find that improvement. Overall The Fifth House of the Heart is a welcome addition to the vampire genre and if it tends to drag a little too much in parts for my taste, it is still a rollicking bloody epic of a story.
July 31, 2015
The nitty-gritty: A stylish, horrifying and wryly humorous reading experience like no other.
The weather that day was warm in the sunlight, cold in the shade. It had been a terrible summer in Manhattan, humid and wet; now the autumn was dry but feverish, with skies that seemed somehow the wrong color, lurid, like old nickel postcards of New England scenes. Winter would come eventually, and it would be ferocious.
Sax wondered, without much emotion, if he would live to see the spring.
Curious about Ben Tripp’s latest? Well, you should be. For those of you who like comparisons, I’m calling this one “Dracula meets Ocean’s Eleven.” The simplest way to describe it would be a heist story with vampires. But it’s so much more. The Fifth House of the Heart has officially risen to the top of my favorite books so far this year, and I would have to say it’s neck and neck with Daryl Gregory’s Afterparty at the moment.
There are layers upon layers to this complex story, but here’s the basic plot. Asmodeus Saxon-Tang (or Sax for short) is a notorious antiques dealer who has made a name for himself amassing incredible wealth over the years, mostly by seeking out vampire lairs and stealing their treasures. But his latest acquisition, a French Napoleon ormolu clock, has earned him the unwanted attention of a very dangerous vampire, and Sax fears his days may be numbered. When the clock is stolen from his warehouse, he knows exactly who stole it: the dreaded vampire. Sax gathers together a motley crew of thieves and killers to track down the vampire, and the game is afoot.
Oh, there is so much to talk about in this review! I’ve decided to abandon my regular format, and bring you my Top Ten Reasons To Read The Fifth House of the Heart instead:
1. Sax.
“I’ve been infected since nineteen hundred and sixty-five, mate,” Sax complained. “There’s more vampire junk in me than in Nosferatu’s underpants.”
Sax is one of the most unique and enjoyable characters I’ve run across in a long time. He absolutely steals the show, and his wry humor and self-deprecating ways earned him a permanent home in my heart. Sax is a seventy-something unabashedly gay man, and despite his uncertain ability to keep an erection, he’s continually making titillating sexual comments. When he meets Fra Paolo, the young priest who joins the crew, he makes it his mission to seduce him. (Or at least that's what he tells himself.) Sax admits he’s a coward, despite all his adventures with vampires, and yet he’s willing to walk into danger in order to save his friends.
2. The rest of the characters.
Sax may steal the show, but the story wouldn't be nearly as interesting without the supporting characters. I absolutely loved the mismatched group of people he gathers together as his crew, to infiltrate the vampire’s lair: Paolo, the priest, who is lusting after Sax’s niece Emily; Min, the vampire killer, who has her own score to settle; Rock, the muscle, a big, bold and lovable hunk of man whose bravery is unmatched; Abingdon, the forger, who wants to sleep with everyone; and Gheorghe, the Romanian burglar. And more. Yes, it’s a big cast of characters, but somehow Tripp makes them all fit together.
3. The writing.
Ben Tripp is such a good writer he could probably convince the devil to let him go, were he ever to find himself trapped in Hell. There were so many times while I was reading that I wanted to grab someone and read out loud to them. I could honestly fill this review with quotes from the story, but I’d rather you discover (most of) them for yourself.
4. The humor.
I seriously laughed out loud more than I’ve ever laughed out loud before, while reading this book. Humor and timing go hand in hand, and Tripp has both down to a science. Sax had a way of stating the obvious that just worked for me every time. And Sax isn't the only character who made me chuckle. One of my favorite lines in the entire book—and there were a lot of them—was when Min is watching Abingdon forging weapons, wondering if she should sleep with him. She then observes that “He was just an erection with a man standing behind it.”
5. The history.
Tripp’s story spans not only the world—different scenes take place in Manhattan, Paris, England, Czechoslovakia, Mumbai and Rome—but centuries. We get to see Sax as a young man just making a name for himself, but Tripp takes us back even further, to the discovery of vampires in the Holy Land nearly a thousand years ago. I truly felt the weight of history while reading this book.
6. The story construction.
The Fifth House of the Heart is full of stories within stories within stories. Tripp leads the reader down a path that turns into a cave then falls down a rabbit hole. During his adventure in the present day, he remembers his dangerous encounters with two other vampires, one in 1965 and one in 1989, seamlessly tying everything neatly together. It was one of the most masterful displays of story building I’ve ever seen.
7. The details.
It was an odor Sax loved. It was the smell of ancient beauty, of things that needed bringing back to life. Gentle cleaning, damp sponges, white vinegar, beeswax and oil, new air, new eyes to gaze upon them: time itself leaves a skin on things, the way the air leaves sulfur on silver, turning it black. When that obscuring film is removed, the light in the heart of things radiates. The beauty, like some princess in a story by Perrault, awakens after a long sleep.
By making Sax a collector of all things antique, Tripp has wonderful opportunities to describe incredible works of art, antique furniture and fixtures, and rare gems in loving detail. And I never got bored with these descriptions. In fact, I eagerly soaked it all up. I could visualize each item as Tripp described it, and I could tell these details were carefully and painstakingly researched. Before this book, I had no idea there were famous paintings that have been lost to the world, and now I want to know more! And wait until you read his descriptions of food…
8. The name dropping.
Because Sax is so well known and infamous in his own right, he’s met some very interesting people over the past fifty years, including George Harrison, Grace Slick, and Givenchy, to name a few. I loved the way he remembers each one fondly,
9. The action.
The story may start out slow and meandering, but watch out, because just when you least expect it, all hell breaks loose. The Fifth House of the Heart is a page-turner even before the action starts, so you can imagine how quickly you’ll be turning pages once the gang meets up with the vampires. And remember, this is a heist story, which means Sax and his friends are stealing stuff. And sometimes things go wrong, and then you get more action.
10. The vampires.
And yes, the vampires are terrifying. I loved Tripp’s take on them, because even though vampires have been reinvented thousands of times, he manages to come up with fresh ideas, including the only way to truly kill a vampire, which I’ll let you discover for yourself. (Hint: it has something to do with the title of the book.) You won’t find any handsome, brooding types here. These vamps are fast and strong and deadly. Oh, and they love to collect beautiful things, which makes them the perfect target for one very determined collector of antiques. There were times when I clearly felt the influence of Dracula, its atmospheric and slow creeping terror, but there were other times when the story felt completely new.
If you read one horror story this year, I hope you'll read this one, because it's so much more than just a simple vampire tale. The Fifth House of the Heart is a feast of humor, beauty, terror and emotion. And blood, of course. Highly recommended.
Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy. Quotes above were taken from an uncorrected proof and may differ in the final version of the book.
This review originally appeared on Books, Bones & Buffy.
The weather that day was warm in the sunlight, cold in the shade. It had been a terrible summer in Manhattan, humid and wet; now the autumn was dry but feverish, with skies that seemed somehow the wrong color, lurid, like old nickel postcards of New England scenes. Winter would come eventually, and it would be ferocious.
Sax wondered, without much emotion, if he would live to see the spring.
Curious about Ben Tripp’s latest? Well, you should be. For those of you who like comparisons, I’m calling this one “Dracula meets Ocean’s Eleven.” The simplest way to describe it would be a heist story with vampires. But it’s so much more. The Fifth House of the Heart has officially risen to the top of my favorite books so far this year, and I would have to say it’s neck and neck with Daryl Gregory’s Afterparty at the moment.
There are layers upon layers to this complex story, but here’s the basic plot. Asmodeus Saxon-Tang (or Sax for short) is a notorious antiques dealer who has made a name for himself amassing incredible wealth over the years, mostly by seeking out vampire lairs and stealing their treasures. But his latest acquisition, a French Napoleon ormolu clock, has earned him the unwanted attention of a very dangerous vampire, and Sax fears his days may be numbered. When the clock is stolen from his warehouse, he knows exactly who stole it: the dreaded vampire. Sax gathers together a motley crew of thieves and killers to track down the vampire, and the game is afoot.
Oh, there is so much to talk about in this review! I’ve decided to abandon my regular format, and bring you my Top Ten Reasons To Read The Fifth House of the Heart instead:
1. Sax.
“I’ve been infected since nineteen hundred and sixty-five, mate,” Sax complained. “There’s more vampire junk in me than in Nosferatu’s underpants.”
Sax is one of the most unique and enjoyable characters I’ve run across in a long time. He absolutely steals the show, and his wry humor and self-deprecating ways earned him a permanent home in my heart. Sax is a seventy-something unabashedly gay man, and despite his uncertain ability to keep an erection, he’s continually making titillating sexual comments. When he meets Fra Paolo, the young priest who joins the crew, he makes it his mission to seduce him. (Or at least that's what he tells himself.) Sax admits he’s a coward, despite all his adventures with vampires, and yet he’s willing to walk into danger in order to save his friends.
2. The rest of the characters.
Sax may steal the show, but the story wouldn't be nearly as interesting without the supporting characters. I absolutely loved the mismatched group of people he gathers together as his crew, to infiltrate the vampire’s lair: Paolo, the priest, who is lusting after Sax’s niece Emily; Min, the vampire killer, who has her own score to settle; Rock, the muscle, a big, bold and lovable hunk of man whose bravery is unmatched; Abingdon, the forger, who wants to sleep with everyone; and Gheorghe, the Romanian burglar. And more. Yes, it’s a big cast of characters, but somehow Tripp makes them all fit together.
3. The writing.
Ben Tripp is such a good writer he could probably convince the devil to let him go, were he ever to find himself trapped in Hell. There were so many times while I was reading that I wanted to grab someone and read out loud to them. I could honestly fill this review with quotes from the story, but I’d rather you discover (most of) them for yourself.
4. The humor.
I seriously laughed out loud more than I’ve ever laughed out loud before, while reading this book. Humor and timing go hand in hand, and Tripp has both down to a science. Sax had a way of stating the obvious that just worked for me every time. And Sax isn't the only character who made me chuckle. One of my favorite lines in the entire book—and there were a lot of them—was when Min is watching Abingdon forging weapons, wondering if she should sleep with him. She then observes that “He was just an erection with a man standing behind it.”
5. The history.
Tripp’s story spans not only the world—different scenes take place in Manhattan, Paris, England, Czechoslovakia, Mumbai and Rome—but centuries. We get to see Sax as a young man just making a name for himself, but Tripp takes us back even further, to the discovery of vampires in the Holy Land nearly a thousand years ago. I truly felt the weight of history while reading this book.
6. The story construction.
The Fifth House of the Heart is full of stories within stories within stories. Tripp leads the reader down a path that turns into a cave then falls down a rabbit hole. During his adventure in the present day, he remembers his dangerous encounters with two other vampires, one in 1965 and one in 1989, seamlessly tying everything neatly together. It was one of the most masterful displays of story building I’ve ever seen.
7. The details.
It was an odor Sax loved. It was the smell of ancient beauty, of things that needed bringing back to life. Gentle cleaning, damp sponges, white vinegar, beeswax and oil, new air, new eyes to gaze upon them: time itself leaves a skin on things, the way the air leaves sulfur on silver, turning it black. When that obscuring film is removed, the light in the heart of things radiates. The beauty, like some princess in a story by Perrault, awakens after a long sleep.
By making Sax a collector of all things antique, Tripp has wonderful opportunities to describe incredible works of art, antique furniture and fixtures, and rare gems in loving detail. And I never got bored with these descriptions. In fact, I eagerly soaked it all up. I could visualize each item as Tripp described it, and I could tell these details were carefully and painstakingly researched. Before this book, I had no idea there were famous paintings that have been lost to the world, and now I want to know more! And wait until you read his descriptions of food…
8. The name dropping.
Because Sax is so well known and infamous in his own right, he’s met some very interesting people over the past fifty years, including George Harrison, Grace Slick, and Givenchy, to name a few. I loved the way he remembers each one fondly,
9. The action.
The story may start out slow and meandering, but watch out, because just when you least expect it, all hell breaks loose. The Fifth House of the Heart is a page-turner even before the action starts, so you can imagine how quickly you’ll be turning pages once the gang meets up with the vampires. And remember, this is a heist story, which means Sax and his friends are stealing stuff. And sometimes things go wrong, and then you get more action.
10. The vampires.
And yes, the vampires are terrifying. I loved Tripp’s take on them, because even though vampires have been reinvented thousands of times, he manages to come up with fresh ideas, including the only way to truly kill a vampire, which I’ll let you discover for yourself. (Hint: it has something to do with the title of the book.) You won’t find any handsome, brooding types here. These vamps are fast and strong and deadly. Oh, and they love to collect beautiful things, which makes them the perfect target for one very determined collector of antiques. There were times when I clearly felt the influence of Dracula, its atmospheric and slow creeping terror, but there were other times when the story felt completely new.
If you read one horror story this year, I hope you'll read this one, because it's so much more than just a simple vampire tale. The Fifth House of the Heart is a feast of humor, beauty, terror and emotion. And blood, of course. Highly recommended.
Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy. Quotes above were taken from an uncorrected proof and may differ in the final version of the book.
This review originally appeared on Books, Bones & Buffy.
February 16, 2021
This was an enjoyable vampire book, not a new favorite but a decent read.
October 24, 2024
This vampire book has the basic structure of Dracula by Bram Stoker. By this, I mean it is a story of a group of vampire hunters tracking their quarry with the intention of destroying it. From there the similarity ends. While Stoker's team of hunters ran around like the Keystone Cops, this team is intense and focused. More like Marvels Avengers but without the super powers. There's a tiny Asian psycho girl with Ninja skills, a mercenary with terrible manners, a womanizing blacksmith, a huge Black ex-military man with a heart of gold, and an Italian monk assigned to the mission by the Vatican.
My favorite character is the leader, Asmodeus "Sax" Saxon-Tang. He is a gay antiques dealer. Sax became a vampire expert due to past exploits confiscating dead vampire hoards of antiques "and other collectibles".
At the beginning of the book the author, Ben Tripp, used dark humor while introducing the scenario. Later as the story intensified the humor ceased and it became edge-of-your seat exciting. It's a shame this book didn't receive the popularity it deserves.
I liked this better than Dracula. I'm beginning to have trouble appreciating books written in the 19th century. Through the decades I've started expecting modern R-rated action packed plots. This book, in addition to the action, had plenty of interesting subtleties making it more sophisticated. But I need to read more old classics so I don't lose my ability to appreciate their charms.
My favorite character is the leader, Asmodeus "Sax" Saxon-Tang. He is a gay antiques dealer. Sax became a vampire expert due to past exploits confiscating dead vampire hoards of antiques "and other collectibles".
At the beginning of the book the author, Ben Tripp, used dark humor while introducing the scenario. Later as the story intensified the humor ceased and it became edge-of-your seat exciting. It's a shame this book didn't receive the popularity it deserves.
I liked this better than Dracula. I'm beginning to have trouble appreciating books written in the 19th century. Through the decades I've started expecting modern R-rated action packed plots. This book, in addition to the action, had plenty of interesting subtleties making it more sophisticated. But I need to read more old classics so I don't lose my ability to appreciate their charms.
Read
July 29, 2015This book is bloody good fun! Sax is a rich, successfully antiques dealer. What's his secret to finding some of the world's most amazing objects? He travels the world, killing vampires for their hoards of treasure. As you can image, the vampires don't appreciate it. And they've finally caught up with Sax. Now he's on the run for his life across Europe, joined by mercenaries and vampire killers, as he is hunted by the scariest vampire of them all. Creepy and exciting, The Fifth House is a perfect summer read for a hot night.
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June 1, 2016
This was actually a really good, original vampire novel. The main character, an antiques dealer who thinks he's a worse person than he is (although he is pretty greedy) was a different kind of protagonist for this kind of story, and I really liked him. Some of the other characters could have used more development, but the writing was still quite good, and I would read more by this author.
March 31, 2016
WOW!! Gay, geriatric antique dealer who is also a vampire hunter? Sold! I love this fresh, original take on vampires and it definitely kept me interested. This book follows Sax, a relic procurer who gathers a motley crew to help him hunt a vampire who tried to outbid him at an auction and what happens from there is quite entertaining and also thrilling. Sax is quite the character, with his quirks and hilarious quips. His inner dialogue and daydreaming during his visit to the Vatican to compile a team to catch this vampire made me laugh so hard that I snorted. Don't get me wrong-This book also had gore and guts too and made me anxious to turn the page at times. The author wrote one hell of an entertaining and unique vampire book!
November 24, 2015
the take on vampire mythos in tripp's book is a welcome relief from a genre often filled (especially as of recent) with emotionally fragile and effortlessly beautiful vampires--those who spend more time pondering existentialism than acting as the monsters they decry themselves to be.
Read
September 3, 2025Ridiculously readable but also very capably written, this is that most maligned of things, a vampire novel. Its take on vampires—what they are, how they function—is fresh and interesting: they’re just another species of creature, albeit one that ends up looking like whatever its main food source is. Structurally, the book’s a heist. Our human protagonist, Asmodeus Saxon-Tang (he knows how silly his name is, please call him Sax) puts together a group of specialists to assault the hoard of an ancient vampire in central Europe who has marked him for her revenge. Sax is a septuagenarian gay antiques dealer who has known of vampires since the ’60s; he occasionally works, to his immense resentment, with the Vatican, who are interested in the creatures for reasons that sort of fall apart when you consider that there’s no metaphysics involved given that they’re just organisms like any other organism, but it doesn’t matter.
Tripp’s approach to diversity is 50:50. The heist gang is composed of an African-American soldier, an Eastern European criminal, and a South Korean professional vamp-hunter, with a minor Bollywood actress also getting involved, not to mention Sax and his mixed-race niece Emily, and each one is individuated. On the other hand, the Romanian guy is a boorish misogynist, and the Korean woman is a mostly silent figure whose response to the traumatic murder of her whole family is psychopathic violence, which seems to smush a bunch of stereotypes together in an effort to transcend stereotype. (There’s also one slur used in dialogue that, although the reader is clearly expected to disapprove, I think we could have done without.) For the most part, though, it’s all focalised through Sax in third person, and he’s a great protagonist: crotchety, pragmatic, cowardly, avaricious, kind. There are some terrific set pieces: a mission to escape a labyrinthine and elaborately booby-trapped Loire Valley château is particularly tense. The prose is a cut above, too; not self-conscious or poetic or anything, but Tripp knows how to use words interestingly without getting in his own way. Well worth the punt, and I’d definitely read him again. Source: Kindle
Tripp’s approach to diversity is 50:50. The heist gang is composed of an African-American soldier, an Eastern European criminal, and a South Korean professional vamp-hunter, with a minor Bollywood actress also getting involved, not to mention Sax and his mixed-race niece Emily, and each one is individuated. On the other hand, the Romanian guy is a boorish misogynist, and the Korean woman is a mostly silent figure whose response to the traumatic murder of her whole family is psychopathic violence, which seems to smush a bunch of stereotypes together in an effort to transcend stereotype. (There’s also one slur used in dialogue that, although the reader is clearly expected to disapprove, I think we could have done without.) For the most part, though, it’s all focalised through Sax in third person, and he’s a great protagonist: crotchety, pragmatic, cowardly, avaricious, kind. There are some terrific set pieces: a mission to escape a labyrinthine and elaborately booby-trapped Loire Valley château is particularly tense. The prose is a cut above, too; not self-conscious or poetic or anything, but Tripp knows how to use words interestingly without getting in his own way. Well worth the punt, and I’d definitely read him again. Source: Kindle
November 18, 2022
An interesting take on a vampire tale with an unusual choice for a protagonist: a cowardly wealthy gay geriatric antiques dealer moonlighting as a [reluctant] Nosferatu hunter. The tweaks to the vampire mythos here are also unique, with the bloodsuckers metamorphosing between genders and even species depending on what they choose to feed on (man to woman, woman to man, human to frog-man, lycanthrope, etc etc). Add in a motley crew of characters, globe-trotting, time-jumping, and a chimeric concoction of action, horror, and humor, and you’ve got yourself entertaining couple of hundred pages to pass the time. Worth checking out.
February 20, 2022
Describing the plot, this could easily have been action-centered, bland Saturday-night-Syfy-movie fare. Instead, it was a fucking bop.
I loved that the main character was an old gay man, because it secured that the plot wouldn't be sex-driven. I loved that it was international, because you get to experience Mumbai and France and Germany and all are described with care. I loved that his crew was built up by long association, so there was no dick measuring contest; everyone just did their jobs. And I loved that all of the characters felt fleshed out and real.
I loved that the main character was an old gay man, because it secured that the plot wouldn't be sex-driven. I loved that it was international, because you get to experience Mumbai and France and Germany and all are described with care. I loved that his crew was built up by long association, so there was no dick measuring contest; everyone just did their jobs. And I loved that all of the characters felt fleshed out and real.
March 17, 2017
Lots of great reviews here so I don't see the need to do that for y'all. Just pick it up and read it. Excellent mix of intelligent writing and take on the vampire/werewolf myths, fun quirky characters with a bit of nasty gore to keep it real.
Would be awesome to read more about this from the writer but I feel satisfied.
Would be awesome to read more about this from the writer but I feel satisfied.
July 27, 2015
4 of 5 stars
https://lynnsbooks.wordpress.com/2015...
I don’t know what in the wide wide world is going on but I seem to be on a roll with good books at the moment and Ben Tripp’s Fifth House of the Heart is no exception.
The story revolves around a central character known as Asmodeus Saxon-Tang – thankfully everyone calls him Sax for short! Sax specialises in obtaining and selling antiques. This is a business that he not only excels at and has a huge store of knowledge that guides him to pick and choose which pieces are the best to acquire but he’s also grown filthy rich in the process and has gained a certain level of fame (or notoriety).
At the start of the story Sax is bidding on an antique clock, a clock which whilst he started with fairly ambivalent feelings towards it is now growing in interest as he is matched bid for bid by an attractive newcomer who seems very anxious to make it’s purchase. Of course Sax wins the lot but in doing so he may have just bought himself some very unwelcome attention. Nonetheless he’s a bit puzzled as to why this rather unassuming clock seems to have generated such interest – well, he’s puzzled right up until somebody breaks into his warehouse and steals it from him, killing his night watchman in the process and giving him an unwelcome trip down memory lane and a cold jolt of realisation!
Basically Sax is in danger. This is definitely a world in which monsters go bump in the night and the monsters in question are vampires. Fortunately – most people remain blissfully unaware of their existence as death usually follows swiftly on the heels of those who get wise to their existence. Vampires are solitary creatures. They tend to live very isolated existences locked in their mansions and chateaus, brimming with antiques and antiquities many of which are believed to have been lost to the world. They put you in mind of dragons, sitting atop their wealth, sleeping but always keeping one eye alert to possibilities.
Now, realising his predicament Sax decides to take action – action being the best form of defence. He’s going to search out his predator but before doing so he pays his favourite niece a visit. He’s feeling a little guilty about potentially leaving her unprotected and wants to give her the heads up. Obviously she thinks he’s a little crazy but she listens to his stories and I’m so glad she did because they make for interesting reading. I won’t elaborate on them here other than to say they’re both different, set in different environments, totally compelling and both with vampires that appear to be entirely different in nature. The vampires here are unlike those in the myths we already know of. There is a thin veneer of similarity but there are also some very intriguing new developments – the biggest of which is that vampires are not the undead! Having regaled his niece with stories to give her nightmares and gifted her a strange object that turns out to be a vampire weapon he leaves. Sax is gathering about him a crew of mercenaries and having been granted permission by the Church and accompanied by a priest the ‘hunted’ is about to become the ‘hunter’. At least that’s what he hopes! Vampires tend to be one step ahead usually, they have all the time in the world so the end game is their ultimate goal.
I really found this an entertaining read. I liked the characters – well, Sax in particular just steals the show. The surrounding cast are a little more flimsy but still provide good support and anyway it would be impossible to upstage Sax. Put simply he’s a flamboyant, outrageous and self absorbed man and an unashamed coward to boot.
So, what did I really enjoy. Well, the writing is really good. Tripp manages to set the scene perfectly either from dusty chateau, damp and creepy cave to vampire laboratory! Yep, be intrigued. There are some great scenes where the mercenaries hide from hideous vampire hunters and a grand finale where the tension mounts and on top of this Tripp manages to inject humour here and there which prevents things becoming too heavy. Plus a twist at the end that I certainly didn’t see coming.
A great mash up of olde worlde vampire a la Dracula, meets Indiana Jones (albeit wickedly flamboyant) surrounded by evil and assisted by a motley crew of odd misfits.
There is definitely potential for more from this world and I seriously hope there will be further addition
https://lynnsbooks.wordpress.com/2015...
I don’t know what in the wide wide world is going on but I seem to be on a roll with good books at the moment and Ben Tripp’s Fifth House of the Heart is no exception.
The story revolves around a central character known as Asmodeus Saxon-Tang – thankfully everyone calls him Sax for short! Sax specialises in obtaining and selling antiques. This is a business that he not only excels at and has a huge store of knowledge that guides him to pick and choose which pieces are the best to acquire but he’s also grown filthy rich in the process and has gained a certain level of fame (or notoriety).
At the start of the story Sax is bidding on an antique clock, a clock which whilst he started with fairly ambivalent feelings towards it is now growing in interest as he is matched bid for bid by an attractive newcomer who seems very anxious to make it’s purchase. Of course Sax wins the lot but in doing so he may have just bought himself some very unwelcome attention. Nonetheless he’s a bit puzzled as to why this rather unassuming clock seems to have generated such interest – well, he’s puzzled right up until somebody breaks into his warehouse and steals it from him, killing his night watchman in the process and giving him an unwelcome trip down memory lane and a cold jolt of realisation!
Basically Sax is in danger. This is definitely a world in which monsters go bump in the night and the monsters in question are vampires. Fortunately – most people remain blissfully unaware of their existence as death usually follows swiftly on the heels of those who get wise to their existence. Vampires are solitary creatures. They tend to live very isolated existences locked in their mansions and chateaus, brimming with antiques and antiquities many of which are believed to have been lost to the world. They put you in mind of dragons, sitting atop their wealth, sleeping but always keeping one eye alert to possibilities.
Now, realising his predicament Sax decides to take action – action being the best form of defence. He’s going to search out his predator but before doing so he pays his favourite niece a visit. He’s feeling a little guilty about potentially leaving her unprotected and wants to give her the heads up. Obviously she thinks he’s a little crazy but she listens to his stories and I’m so glad she did because they make for interesting reading. I won’t elaborate on them here other than to say they’re both different, set in different environments, totally compelling and both with vampires that appear to be entirely different in nature. The vampires here are unlike those in the myths we already know of. There is a thin veneer of similarity but there are also some very intriguing new developments – the biggest of which is that vampires are not the undead! Having regaled his niece with stories to give her nightmares and gifted her a strange object that turns out to be a vampire weapon he leaves. Sax is gathering about him a crew of mercenaries and having been granted permission by the Church and accompanied by a priest the ‘hunted’ is about to become the ‘hunter’. At least that’s what he hopes! Vampires tend to be one step ahead usually, they have all the time in the world so the end game is their ultimate goal.
I really found this an entertaining read. I liked the characters – well, Sax in particular just steals the show. The surrounding cast are a little more flimsy but still provide good support and anyway it would be impossible to upstage Sax. Put simply he’s a flamboyant, outrageous and self absorbed man and an unashamed coward to boot.
So, what did I really enjoy. Well, the writing is really good. Tripp manages to set the scene perfectly either from dusty chateau, damp and creepy cave to vampire laboratory! Yep, be intrigued. There are some great scenes where the mercenaries hide from hideous vampire hunters and a grand finale where the tension mounts and on top of this Tripp manages to inject humour here and there which prevents things becoming too heavy. Plus a twist at the end that I certainly didn’t see coming.
A great mash up of olde worlde vampire a la Dracula, meets Indiana Jones (albeit wickedly flamboyant) surrounded by evil and assisted by a motley crew of odd misfits.
There is definitely potential for more from this world and I seriously hope there will be further addition
April 4, 2016
There's a lot of good to be had in "The Fifth House of the Heart." The writing is pithy, the main character is absolutely charming in his curmudgeonly-ness, and the plot is interesting and unique as far as vampire hunting stories go.
Asmodeous Saxon-Tang is a very interesting, well-rounded main character who, in his old age, embraces his cowardice and his desire for wealth as defining traits. When a recently purchased antique clock goes missing (and a night watchman dead from his warehouse) Sax begins an adventure to track down what or whomever is behind the theft and murder. The story takes us back and forth between the task at hand, and Sax's previous run-ins with treasure hoarding vampires. Occasionally we get chapters from the perspective of other characters, which don't really serve much purpose beyond plot. "Characterization?" you might suggest. No. And therein lies my biggest complaint with this novel.
Sax is an excellent main character. He's multi-faceted-- detestable one minute and absolutely charming the next. No other character, except maybe Paolo (the priest sent by the Catholic church to help coordinate Sax's hunt,) is given even a quarter of the characterization of Sax. Mostly they're plot devices or easy archetypes. Even Paolo falls prey to being "easily embarrassed man of the cloth" from time to time. It was disappointing to me that in a book so obsessed with description and innovation, that almost every character is one I've seen before. While so much of the book felt new and fresh, a lot of the characters felt rehashed and a little lazy. Maybe it's just that they aren't given enough time to fully realize, or maybe it's just that they don't matter in the end. For whatever the reason, when I was 75% of the way through the book, I still felt like I didn't really care about anyone other than Sax. Only caring about one character makes the part in the story where all the characters decide to go do something dangerous a little boring. By the end, the tension just wasn't there for me and so the climax fell a little flat.
While the book is clearly well-written, at least from a technical standpoint, and at times both fascinating and humorous, the lack of characterization and the pacing left something to be desired for me. If you like a one-character show and cool vampire lore (the idea of the literal "the fifth house of the heart" is awesome) then absolutely give this one a read. If you're looking for a book that's a more well-rounded experience, I'd pass.
Asmodeous Saxon-Tang is a very interesting, well-rounded main character who, in his old age, embraces his cowardice and his desire for wealth as defining traits. When a recently purchased antique clock goes missing (and a night watchman dead from his warehouse) Sax begins an adventure to track down what or whomever is behind the theft and murder. The story takes us back and forth between the task at hand, and Sax's previous run-ins with treasure hoarding vampires. Occasionally we get chapters from the perspective of other characters, which don't really serve much purpose beyond plot. "Characterization?" you might suggest. No. And therein lies my biggest complaint with this novel.
Sax is an excellent main character. He's multi-faceted-- detestable one minute and absolutely charming the next. No other character, except maybe Paolo (the priest sent by the Catholic church to help coordinate Sax's hunt,) is given even a quarter of the characterization of Sax. Mostly they're plot devices or easy archetypes. Even Paolo falls prey to being "easily embarrassed man of the cloth" from time to time. It was disappointing to me that in a book so obsessed with description and innovation, that almost every character is one I've seen before. While so much of the book felt new and fresh, a lot of the characters felt rehashed and a little lazy. Maybe it's just that they aren't given enough time to fully realize, or maybe it's just that they don't matter in the end. For whatever the reason, when I was 75% of the way through the book, I still felt like I didn't really care about anyone other than Sax. Only caring about one character makes the part in the story where all the characters decide to go do something dangerous a little boring. By the end, the tension just wasn't there for me and so the climax fell a little flat.
While the book is clearly well-written, at least from a technical standpoint, and at times both fascinating and humorous, the lack of characterization and the pacing left something to be desired for me. If you like a one-character show and cool vampire lore (the idea of the literal "the fifth house of the heart" is awesome) then absolutely give this one a read. If you're looking for a book that's a more well-rounded experience, I'd pass.
April 5, 2016
I adored this book, almost solely because of the main character. Asmodeus Saxon-Tang is a septuagenarian antiques dealer who dresses like Quentin Crisp and has led three expeditions to kill vampires. These aren't your sparkly broody vampires, either. In fact, they take Dracula a step farther. Sax undervalues the courage he shows, all the while remarking on the hotness of the killers he's assembled around him. He's the most fascinating character I've met in a long time.
The only time the book was in danger of losing me was its first chapter, which concerns a Mumbai dancer in Bollywood movies. For one thing, I had trouble believing that a woman so concerned with being "ruined" would go alone to a party. For another, she seemed set up as a classic victim, someone you care about solely so she can be torn apart. I won't say that I became satisfied with her part in the story, but I am glad I looked past it to read the rest of the book.
I could barely put the book down last night and it troubled my dreams. I actually got up early so that I could finish it this morning. That almost never happens to me any more.
The only time the book was in danger of losing me was its first chapter, which concerns a Mumbai dancer in Bollywood movies. For one thing, I had trouble believing that a woman so concerned with being "ruined" would go alone to a party. For another, she seemed set up as a classic victim, someone you care about solely so she can be torn apart. I won't say that I became satisfied with her part in the story, but I am glad I looked past it to read the rest of the book.
I could barely put the book down last night and it troubled my dreams. I actually got up early so that I could finish it this morning. That almost never happens to me any more.
August 27, 2016
Imagine that Indiana Jones is gay. And a bit of a coward. And yet hunts vampires for their treasure hoard, because his love/greed for highly valuable antiques sometimes overrides his cowardice. Ok? That's what this book is about. Had a few dry/rough spots (a bit tedious), but also some great horror action, along with a unique twist on vampire lore, in which vampires gradually take on the appearance of their most favoured (or just plain readily available) food source. A pretty good, and fairly easy read.
March 15, 2020
4.5 stars!
Under the radar vampire classic. Like Stephen King before him, Ben Tripp's strength is an original voice. Contrast Tripp's sophisticated baritone with King's avuncular old man on a porch, spinning horror tales.
Opens at a New York City auction. Quickly, the action spreads its bat wings globally. A classy A-team ( can I say that?) determined to bring down an extremely dangerous master vampire.
Welcome addition to any serious vampire horror collection.
Under the radar vampire classic. Like Stephen King before him, Ben Tripp's strength is an original voice. Contrast Tripp's sophisticated baritone with King's avuncular old man on a porch, spinning horror tales.
Opens at a New York City auction. Quickly, the action spreads its bat wings globally. A classy A-team ( can I say that?) determined to bring down an extremely dangerous master vampire.
Welcome addition to any serious vampire horror collection.
October 23, 2024
This is a tough book to review. I remarked to friends early on that it felt something like a contemporary Dracula tale--with a similar pacing and formality in many ways. And yet, this is undoubtedly contemporary and can't be mistaken for anything else; the level of gore/graphic violence also speaks to a far more modern author, though as I mention that, I should also say I don't think it was overdone.
What I really struggled with here was the uneven pacing. I didn't truly sink into the book until the POV character--a hilariously greedy antiques and antiquities dealer who a reader can't help finding likeable, whether he's lusting after a young priest or ogling a particularly handsome clock--took us back in time to his first vampire hunt, and I admit that at that point the book had me hooked. Who couldn't fall in love with a vampire hunter who didn't mean to become a vampire hunter, and did so only because he was curious about their furniture? But when we did go back in time, the action and the atmosphere were incredibly page-turning.
Really, the whole book is wonderfully written. It just takes quite a bit of time for the contemporary timeline to really develop any feeling of danger or inertia--though, once it does, it doesn't stop--so the reader is relying on the power of the memories and the slow-burn build-up of what's coming, which doesn't disappoint.
All told, this did feel like an uneven read, but the wonderful writing, the memorable characters, and the overall payoff made it more than worthwhile, and I believe I'll look forward to picking up another Ben Tripp book as a result.
What I really struggled with here was the uneven pacing. I didn't truly sink into the book until the POV character--a hilariously greedy antiques and antiquities dealer who a reader can't help finding likeable, whether he's lusting after a young priest or ogling a particularly handsome clock--took us back in time to his first vampire hunt, and I admit that at that point the book had me hooked. Who couldn't fall in love with a vampire hunter who didn't mean to become a vampire hunter, and did so only because he was curious about their furniture? But when we did go back in time, the action and the atmosphere were incredibly page-turning.
Really, the whole book is wonderfully written. It just takes quite a bit of time for the contemporary timeline to really develop any feeling of danger or inertia--though, once it does, it doesn't stop--so the reader is relying on the power of the memories and the slow-burn build-up of what's coming, which doesn't disappoint.
All told, this did feel like an uneven read, but the wonderful writing, the memorable characters, and the overall payoff made it more than worthwhile, and I believe I'll look forward to picking up another Ben Tripp book as a result.
July 20, 2016
The summary on Goodreads likens this book to ‘Salem’s Lot, which seems to be a requirement for a book with a vampire in it and not an actual comparison having to do with story, character, mood, or language. I suppose it is scary at times, like ‘Salem’s Lot, but it is also hugely funny and heist-tacular (or how about caper-iffic?; yes, I made up these words).
I picked up this book because it was the horror winner on the Reading List, an award picked by ALA librarians for outstanding genre works (http://www.ala.org/rusa/awards/readin...). I’m not that into vampires (I prefer zombies or Lovecraftian creatures) but I LOVE heist stories, especially the flippant variety like Oceans Eleven (not the sequels, which are wretched). I love stories about thieves and con men and ambiguous heroes and I also love horror. There are not enough novels that combine horror, humor, and heists, as far as I’m concerned. Also, in the list of read-alikes for this novel, the committee suggested Buffy the Vampire Slayer, my favorite TV show, so how could I not read this?
So, there is this elderly gay antiques dealer named Asmodeus “Sax” Saxon-Tang who is wealthy, worldly, always fashionably dressed, obsessed with beautiful objects, and snarky as all get out. (I picture Michael Caine in Miss Congeniality.) While he has an eye for spotting rare and valuable antiques and restoring them to life, he primarily made his money with a big score in his 20s, when he ran afoul of a vampire in a booby-trapped mansion, survived by his wits and some strategic cowardice, killed the vampire and then looted its hoard of priceless treasures. This windfall happened again years later in a vampire prince’s underground lair, except not by accident this time.
At the start of this novel, Sax enters into a bidding war at an antiques auction with a mysterious beautiful woman over an ormolu clock. He wins by pure stubbornness, bidding far past the item’s actual value, but he learns that the clock has a hidden price tag when it’s later stolen from his warehouse, the night watchman murdered. After careful old-school research (no smart phone Googling for Sax!), Sax learns that the clock once belonged to a vampire based in Germany. Sax has a reputation to protect and a greed that is never satiated, so he petitions the Vatican (which oversees the eternal war against evil) for permission to take his revenge (and some more loot). The Vatican gives its permission and awards a gorgeous young priest, Fra Paolo, as an assistant.
Sax adds a motley assortment of criminals, mercenaries, and psychopaths to his team who strike a balance between being scary weird-o’s and oddly vulnerable, likable people. This is a horror novel at its heart, so it’s not at all assured that these people will survive, especially when his beautiful niece crashes the vampire hunting party and insists on helping.
The story shifts back and forth between the present mission to Sax’s past battles with vampires in 1965 and 1989, which happen all over the globe. There is plenty of action and bloody gore, and unlike a lot of vampire novels, each confrontation with a vampire is totally different. In the lulls between the scary parts there is enough attention paid to setting up the caper plot and the characters that the story is never boring. Plus, Sax is such a delight that he could narrate anything and make it funny. Everything about him is vibrant, mercurial, and complicated. Tripp also has a cool vampire mythos going in this novel that I don’t want to spoil, but it’s a unique take on the origin and “reproduction” of these bestial creatures.
Finally, Tripp’s writing is sprinkled with vivid descriptions and unexpected images that fit the place or character described, like “Jean-Marc broke off a small piece of a laugh and chewed on it,” or when Sax marches into the cave “bold as pink buttons”. And among all the scares and “heist-tacular” hijinks, there are some moments that put Sax’s obsession with the past and greed for beautiful things into a greater context:
I loved this odd horror novel and definitely need to look for Tripp’s zombie novels next.
I picked up this book because it was the horror winner on the Reading List, an award picked by ALA librarians for outstanding genre works (http://www.ala.org/rusa/awards/readin...). I’m not that into vampires (I prefer zombies or Lovecraftian creatures) but I LOVE heist stories, especially the flippant variety like Oceans Eleven (not the sequels, which are wretched). I love stories about thieves and con men and ambiguous heroes and I also love horror. There are not enough novels that combine horror, humor, and heists, as far as I’m concerned. Also, in the list of read-alikes for this novel, the committee suggested Buffy the Vampire Slayer, my favorite TV show, so how could I not read this?
So, there is this elderly gay antiques dealer named Asmodeus “Sax” Saxon-Tang who is wealthy, worldly, always fashionably dressed, obsessed with beautiful objects, and snarky as all get out. (I picture Michael Caine in Miss Congeniality.) While he has an eye for spotting rare and valuable antiques and restoring them to life, he primarily made his money with a big score in his 20s, when he ran afoul of a vampire in a booby-trapped mansion, survived by his wits and some strategic cowardice, killed the vampire and then looted its hoard of priceless treasures. This windfall happened again years later in a vampire prince’s underground lair, except not by accident this time.
“Right, those of you with guns and things, you go in first. I’ll keep lookout,” Sax commanded. He was standing at the mouth of the cave, pale December sunlight at his back. Nobody moved. “I hired you lot to do the heavy lifting,” he added. When the rest still didn’t move, he swore under his breath. Then he fixed them all with his manliest gaze, one after the other. It was clear they weren’t going into the cave without their feckless leader. He must act. He could almost smell the precious metals. So Sax marched into the chilly darkness, bold as pink buttons.
At the start of this novel, Sax enters into a bidding war at an antiques auction with a mysterious beautiful woman over an ormolu clock. He wins by pure stubbornness, bidding far past the item’s actual value, but he learns that the clock has a hidden price tag when it’s later stolen from his warehouse, the night watchman murdered. After careful old-school research (no smart phone Googling for Sax!), Sax learns that the clock once belonged to a vampire based in Germany. Sax has a reputation to protect and a greed that is never satiated, so he petitions the Vatican (which oversees the eternal war against evil) for permission to take his revenge (and some more loot). The Vatican gives its permission and awards a gorgeous young priest, Fra Paolo, as an assistant.
Sax was energized, he suspected, by the simple act of making something happen. Not everyone, after all, got the Vatican’s blessing to go out and look for a vampire’s hoard, and was given a piece of Italian beefcake to go along with it.
Sax adds a motley assortment of criminals, mercenaries, and psychopaths to his team who strike a balance between being scary weird-o’s and oddly vulnerable, likable people. This is a horror novel at its heart, so it’s not at all assured that these people will survive, especially when his beautiful niece crashes the vampire hunting party and insists on helping.
The story shifts back and forth between the present mission to Sax’s past battles with vampires in 1965 and 1989, which happen all over the globe. There is plenty of action and bloody gore, and unlike a lot of vampire novels, each confrontation with a vampire is totally different. In the lulls between the scary parts there is enough attention paid to setting up the caper plot and the characters that the story is never boring. Plus, Sax is such a delight that he could narrate anything and make it funny. Everything about him is vibrant, mercurial, and complicated. Tripp also has a cool vampire mythos going in this novel that I don’t want to spoil, but it’s a unique take on the origin and “reproduction” of these bestial creatures.
Finally, Tripp’s writing is sprinkled with vivid descriptions and unexpected images that fit the place or character described, like “Jean-Marc broke off a small piece of a laugh and chewed on it,” or when Sax marches into the cave “bold as pink buttons”. And among all the scares and “heist-tacular” hijinks, there are some moments that put Sax’s obsession with the past and greed for beautiful things into a greater context:
He could smell the musty air from within the chateau, now, a cool, dry scent of old dust, stone, and the exhalation of ancient wood.
It was an odor Sax loved. It was the smell of ancient beauty, of things that needed bringing back to life. Gentle cleaning, damp sponges, white vinegar, beeswax and oil, new air, new eyes to gaze upon them: time itself leaves a skin on things, the way the air leaves sulfur on silver, turning it black. When that obscuring film is removed, the light in the heart of things radiates.
I loved this odd horror novel and definitely need to look for Tripp’s zombie novels next.
November 22, 2020
I'm so impressed with Ben Tripp. Wow, what an amazing, literary vampire novel. Imaginative, brilliant, and extremely well crafted. The action scenes were some of the best I've read in years. It had me racing through the pages. Incredible and utterly astounding. Now off to read everything this author has written.
Jonas Saul
Jonas Saul
June 12, 2015
If I was not, at the time, in a mood for some urban horror story, I probably would not have requested The Fifth House of the Heart. It’s not a typical type of book I like to read.
LIKES
* Mystery. Ben Tripp knows how to intrigue and tantalize you by throwing in facts and information. I always thought a was a breath away from solving the puzzle where are vampires hiding or what they are planning.
* Vampires got revamped.Vampires are most common paranormal creatures in literature. Ben Tripp refashioned their myth and lore completely. There are enough similarities left with classic vampires, but Ben Tripp’s vampires are way more hideous and scary.
* Humor. To kill a vampire, Sax assembles a weird group of quirky characters. The way they interacted was very entertaining. Don’t expect laugh-out-loud humor, but there were a lot of situations that made me chuckle.
* Homosexual hero. I usually gravitate toward books with straight couples, so Sax was something new for me. Ben Tripp wrote his POV very well, without making it offensive, but still allowing us to feel how his mind works. When Sax gets a cute monk as a helper, his commentary about “a piece of Italian beefcake” (his descriptions not mine) made me chuckle.
* Anti-hero. Sax is not brave or noble. Instead, he’s a coward who always looks for a way to make the others do all the dirty works, while he grabs the antiques and earns some cash. Sax reminded me of Stephen R. Donaldson’s Thomas Covenant, who is also worshiped as a savior while he only tries to go back home.
"I am, in addition, an unscrupulous, greedy, spiteful coward—with the scruples of a jackal and the reliability of a Renault 9. I’ll betray anybody for a profit. Judas wouldn’t have stood a chance against me; I’d have been down at the Pharisees’ office with a copy of Christ Jesus’s driving license for thirty pieces of copper, no questions asked. Any stories you’ve heard about some dashing vampire killer are absolute rubbish."
DISLIKES
* Tough and slow start. At the beginning, the narration meanders a lot and you don’t have a clue where the story is heading. As soon as I got intrigued, the POV would switch. It took about 40% of the book for the plot to get rolling.
* Made me feel old. I know that this is my personal problem, but whenever I read a book with old heroes, I start feeling weary and tired of life. My back starts to hurt, I feel aches in my bones. If I was exposed to The Fifth House of the Heart a bit longer, I would have probably started to start saying things like: ‘Kids these days…’
IN THE END…
The Fifth House of the Heart turned out to be not as scary as a hoped, but it was amusing with new interesting vampire lore and charming anti-hero. I would recommend it to fans of thrillers with a dash of paranormal and bits of horror whom don’t mind having homosexual anti-hero as main character.
Disclaimer: I received this ebook from Edelweiss in exchange for a fair and honest review. This text is also posted on my blog Bookworm Dreams in a little bit more styled edition.
LIKES
* Mystery. Ben Tripp knows how to intrigue and tantalize you by throwing in facts and information. I always thought a was a breath away from solving the puzzle where are vampires hiding or what they are planning.
* Vampires got revamped.Vampires are most common paranormal creatures in literature. Ben Tripp refashioned their myth and lore completely. There are enough similarities left with classic vampires, but Ben Tripp’s vampires are way more hideous and scary.
* Humor. To kill a vampire, Sax assembles a weird group of quirky characters. The way they interacted was very entertaining. Don’t expect laugh-out-loud humor, but there were a lot of situations that made me chuckle.
* Homosexual hero. I usually gravitate toward books with straight couples, so Sax was something new for me. Ben Tripp wrote his POV very well, without making it offensive, but still allowing us to feel how his mind works. When Sax gets a cute monk as a helper, his commentary about “a piece of Italian beefcake” (his descriptions not mine) made me chuckle.
* Anti-hero. Sax is not brave or noble. Instead, he’s a coward who always looks for a way to make the others do all the dirty works, while he grabs the antiques and earns some cash. Sax reminded me of Stephen R. Donaldson’s Thomas Covenant, who is also worshiped as a savior while he only tries to go back home.
"I am, in addition, an unscrupulous, greedy, spiteful coward—with the scruples of a jackal and the reliability of a Renault 9. I’ll betray anybody for a profit. Judas wouldn’t have stood a chance against me; I’d have been down at the Pharisees’ office with a copy of Christ Jesus’s driving license for thirty pieces of copper, no questions asked. Any stories you’ve heard about some dashing vampire killer are absolute rubbish."
DISLIKES
* Tough and slow start. At the beginning, the narration meanders a lot and you don’t have a clue where the story is heading. As soon as I got intrigued, the POV would switch. It took about 40% of the book for the plot to get rolling.
* Made me feel old. I know that this is my personal problem, but whenever I read a book with old heroes, I start feeling weary and tired of life. My back starts to hurt, I feel aches in my bones. If I was exposed to The Fifth House of the Heart a bit longer, I would have probably started to start saying things like: ‘Kids these days…’
IN THE END…
The Fifth House of the Heart turned out to be not as scary as a hoped, but it was amusing with new interesting vampire lore and charming anti-hero. I would recommend it to fans of thrillers with a dash of paranormal and bits of horror whom don’t mind having homosexual anti-hero as main character.
Disclaimer: I received this ebook from Edelweiss in exchange for a fair and honest review. This text is also posted on my blog Bookworm Dreams in a little bit more styled edition.
December 5, 2025
4.5 rounded up!
This one was a reread, and I was delighted to discover that a) I’d forgotten a lot of details, which tends to make a reread more fun, and b) this was as excellent as I remembered, and I don’t have to remove it from my favourites shelf!
The Fifth House of the Heart follows an elderly gay antiquarian, who we learn gained the treasures that made his career by hunting vampires. Vampires, you see, hoard treasures a lot like dragons, which is one of the main reasons for killing them. (They’re also, you know, super evil and murdery, but that doesn’t get anyone but fanatics motivated. If you want the big guns, you need to incentivise them, and treasure often does that.) ‘Course, Sax hasn’t gone after vampires in years – he’s old now! But circumstances conspire, and he decides he’s going to try and go vampire-slaying one more time.
The book is divided into parts, alternating the present with Sax’s previous vampiric encounters. (The first one was an accident. For some reason, that still tickles me.) Sax-as-elderly-queen is a really fun character, and even in his younger incarnations he is fascinatingly Not Nice – cowardly and greedy and terribly selfish, all of which he freely admits to being. I don’t come across a lot of unlikeable characters in the kinds of stories I read, and even fewer elderly ones, and somehow the combination here makes Sax extremely endearing. I am so fond of this ridiculous man!
Besides the fabulous protagonist and the adoring descriptions of treasure, I think it’s Tripp’s vampire lore that makes Fifth House a stand-out. Vampires must be staked in the heart because it’s a tiny appendix-like organ attached to the heart that makes them immortal; they transform into what they eat over time, which can result in sex changes (if they switch from eating women to eating men) or horrifically warped bestial forms (if they eat bugs or animals). There’s a bunch of stuff about their venom, how bitten victims who escape a vampire are marked, and the SUPER GROSS way they reproduce (the latter being part of a wonderfully neat explanation as to why vampires are so much rarer than they used to be!) And of course, there’s the dragon-like hoarding, which isn’t something I’ve seen depicted as a inherently vampiric trait before. All of it made my worldbuilding-nerd self SO happy.
It’s viscerally gory, action/horror-movie levels of tense, and the amount of description feels luxurious without crossing the line into purple prose. I love it. I’m still surprised it’s not vastly more well-known, I really think it should be. It will not be coming down from my favourites shelf any time soon!
This one was a reread, and I was delighted to discover that a) I’d forgotten a lot of details, which tends to make a reread more fun, and b) this was as excellent as I remembered, and I don’t have to remove it from my favourites shelf!
The Fifth House of the Heart follows an elderly gay antiquarian, who we learn gained the treasures that made his career by hunting vampires. Vampires, you see, hoard treasures a lot like dragons, which is one of the main reasons for killing them. (They’re also, you know, super evil and murdery, but that doesn’t get anyone but fanatics motivated. If you want the big guns, you need to incentivise them, and treasure often does that.) ‘Course, Sax hasn’t gone after vampires in years – he’s old now! But circumstances conspire, and he decides he’s going to try and go vampire-slaying one more time.
The book is divided into parts, alternating the present with Sax’s previous vampiric encounters. (The first one was an accident. For some reason, that still tickles me.) Sax-as-elderly-queen is a really fun character, and even in his younger incarnations he is fascinatingly Not Nice – cowardly and greedy and terribly selfish, all of which he freely admits to being. I don’t come across a lot of unlikeable characters in the kinds of stories I read, and even fewer elderly ones, and somehow the combination here makes Sax extremely endearing. I am so fond of this ridiculous man!
Besides the fabulous protagonist and the adoring descriptions of treasure, I think it’s Tripp’s vampire lore that makes Fifth House a stand-out. Vampires must be staked in the heart because it’s a tiny appendix-like organ attached to the heart that makes them immortal; they transform into what they eat over time, which can result in sex changes (if they switch from eating women to eating men) or horrifically warped bestial forms (if they eat bugs or animals). There’s a bunch of stuff about their venom, how bitten victims who escape a vampire are marked, and the SUPER GROSS way they reproduce (the latter being part of a wonderfully neat explanation as to why vampires are so much rarer than they used to be!) And of course, there’s the dragon-like hoarding, which isn’t something I’ve seen depicted as a inherently vampiric trait before. All of it made my worldbuilding-nerd self SO happy.
It’s viscerally gory, action/horror-movie levels of tense, and the amount of description feels luxurious without crossing the line into purple prose. I love it. I’m still surprised it’s not vastly more well-known, I really think it should be. It will not be coming down from my favourites shelf any time soon!
April 21, 2023
The Fifth House of the Heart (2015) by Ben Tripp should have been a series. The success of a book series hinges on a strong main character, who is compelling enough to carry a readers’ attention from one adventure to the next. Asmodeus Saxon-Tang is that kind of character. Smart, witty, and a master of understatement, “Sax” is absolutely hilarious. What I don’t find funny is Tripp’s representation of non-native English speakers. If Sax’s verbal sophistication is a source of admiration–and who wouldn’t want to have his words at their command–the other characters’ EAL (English as an Additional Language) practice of transliteration is a source of comedy; they are Sax’s foil. This is a huge blemish on what is, otherwise, a perfect book.
Asmodeus Saxon-Tang is a wealthy and successful antiques dealer, who keeps his warehouse and bank account full by robbing vampires. As immortal and highly sentimental creatures, vampires are naturally hoarders of beautiful artifacts, from Egyptian crowns to French silks. After destroying two of these creatures, Sax is set for life and ready to put vampire hunting behind him until his curiosity and insatiable greed are piqued at an auction: When he faces unusually stiff competition for a French ormolu clock, Sax wonders if his opponent in the bidding war is actually the agent of a vampire. Many vampires lost their collections during WWII and, Sax reasons, only one of these deeply nostalgic monsters would be willing to pay so much for a beautiful but not particularly valuable piece of Napoleon III bric-a-brac. By outbidding the agent, Sax has brought himself to the attention of the vampire and put everyone he knows at risk. To protect others, save himself, and–perhaps most importantly–capture the vampire’s treasure, he must travel to Europe, find the monster, and kill her. Or, really, pay someone else to do it, because, second only to his avarice, cowardice is Sax’s defining feature. With the blessings and assistance of the Vatican, Sax gathers a diverse group of mercenary vampire hunters at his French farmhouse and prepares for a final confrontation with an evil.
The novel makes interesting contributions to vampire lore. For example, the title refers to the distinctive sac or “fifth chamber” of the vampire heart which must be punctured in order to kill them. For vampire hunters, the small size of their target (not just the heart, but a special part of it) is why so many of their stakes fail to hit the mark. Another quality that, according to the novel, has helped vampires escape destruction and survive the centuries is their fluidity; they assume the species and gender of their prey, which means that they can change form by redirecting their appetites.
While I love these clever elaborations of the mythology, I also expect them from a good vampire novel and a talented writer like Tripp. What I didn’t expect were the lengthy and really enjoyable asides on other subjects. Sax is a connoisseur of fascinating people, sumptuous food, and rare objects. Offering a convincing first-hand account of the 60s bohemian scene, he drops all of the big names and seems to be acquainted with every influential figure in music, fashion and art. When he cooks for his militia of vampire hunters, he describes the food preparation in such detail that I actually recreated the recipe in my kitchen. And his exposition of the dangerous metallurgical processes behind ormolu had me going to the internet for more information on “phossy jaw.” I loved it all.
With a protagonist as nuanced as Sax, it isn’t surprising that the other characters are less developed–he’s the star, after all. But the novel really stumbles in its rendering of diverse perspectives. The vampire hunters all hail from different countries, and the vampire victim who convalesces with them at the French farmhouse is a Bollywood “item girl.” When Tripp depicts their speech, he uses transliteration. That is, the characters apply the syntactic rules from their native tongues to the English language, and this results in the patterns of error that can sometimes characterize EAL communication. All of this seems like an appropriate and realistic representation because they are not native speakers of English. But the problem is that their speech and this process of transliteration is a major source of humor in the novel. Gheorghe, the Roumanian vampire hunter, offers many examples of this kind of dialogue. On meeting the crew, his “first words” are “‘I must piss as racehorse’” (186). When asked to “keep an eye out” for an attractive vampire familiar, he responds, “I’ll keep out my pecker for her . . . You know is pecker, right? Is a word you use for the pula. The Johnson? Hahahahaha” (266). If Gheorghe is cast as a clown, so is Min Hee Jin, a South Korean slayer. When Sax announces that he is prematurely ending the mission, she struggles to express herself and control her rage:
“You make vampire go free!” she said, composing her thought with care. . . . “it’s not my favorite idea,” he said. . . . Min threw her head around at the entire crowd, furious. Her mouth worked on foreign words that wouldn’t come. “Everybody can go fuck you!” she barked and stomped outside (309).
What’s funny here isn’t her use of “fuck,” a word common enough in horror fiction, but her malaphor: In a mistranslation, she mistakenly combines two related but different phrases: “Fuck you” and “go fuck yourself.” The comedy comes from her “foreignness” to white English speaking readers and that’s a no go.
More surprising and disappointing still is the novel’s use of EAL characters to voice racist slurs. My mouth drops when Gheorghe calls Rock, an African-American character, a “big baby jungle bunny” (309). While it is supposed to have the opposite effect, Sax’s immediate disavowal of this language–”Gheorghe . . . please don’t use racial epithets”--actually makes the scene more unsettling. Tripp uses a marginalized character to articulate racist statements that he would never put in the mouth of his hero, who immediately repudiates them. In this way, the book suggests that poor eastern europeans are bigger anti-black racists than wealthy New York elites could ever be. A character who is not American becomes a repository for America’s linguistic past and symbolizes a stage of development beyond which Sax has evolved. This kind of smugness is off-putting, to say the least.
As a horror lover, I picked up The Fifth House of the Heart for the vampires–and it delivers on bloodsucking gore–but I kept reading for Sax. At the end of the novel, he is perfectly positioned for more adventures with the undead and I was ready to join him. But, in the eight years since it was published, there has never been a sequel. Despite the problems with the book, I hope that Tripp eventually revisits Sax’s story.
Asmodeus Saxon-Tang is a wealthy and successful antiques dealer, who keeps his warehouse and bank account full by robbing vampires. As immortal and highly sentimental creatures, vampires are naturally hoarders of beautiful artifacts, from Egyptian crowns to French silks. After destroying two of these creatures, Sax is set for life and ready to put vampire hunting behind him until his curiosity and insatiable greed are piqued at an auction: When he faces unusually stiff competition for a French ormolu clock, Sax wonders if his opponent in the bidding war is actually the agent of a vampire. Many vampires lost their collections during WWII and, Sax reasons, only one of these deeply nostalgic monsters would be willing to pay so much for a beautiful but not particularly valuable piece of Napoleon III bric-a-brac. By outbidding the agent, Sax has brought himself to the attention of the vampire and put everyone he knows at risk. To protect others, save himself, and–perhaps most importantly–capture the vampire’s treasure, he must travel to Europe, find the monster, and kill her. Or, really, pay someone else to do it, because, second only to his avarice, cowardice is Sax’s defining feature. With the blessings and assistance of the Vatican, Sax gathers a diverse group of mercenary vampire hunters at his French farmhouse and prepares for a final confrontation with an evil.
The novel makes interesting contributions to vampire lore. For example, the title refers to the distinctive sac or “fifth chamber” of the vampire heart which must be punctured in order to kill them. For vampire hunters, the small size of their target (not just the heart, but a special part of it) is why so many of their stakes fail to hit the mark. Another quality that, according to the novel, has helped vampires escape destruction and survive the centuries is their fluidity; they assume the species and gender of their prey, which means that they can change form by redirecting their appetites.
While I love these clever elaborations of the mythology, I also expect them from a good vampire novel and a talented writer like Tripp. What I didn’t expect were the lengthy and really enjoyable asides on other subjects. Sax is a connoisseur of fascinating people, sumptuous food, and rare objects. Offering a convincing first-hand account of the 60s bohemian scene, he drops all of the big names and seems to be acquainted with every influential figure in music, fashion and art. When he cooks for his militia of vampire hunters, he describes the food preparation in such detail that I actually recreated the recipe in my kitchen. And his exposition of the dangerous metallurgical processes behind ormolu had me going to the internet for more information on “phossy jaw.” I loved it all.
With a protagonist as nuanced as Sax, it isn’t surprising that the other characters are less developed–he’s the star, after all. But the novel really stumbles in its rendering of diverse perspectives. The vampire hunters all hail from different countries, and the vampire victim who convalesces with them at the French farmhouse is a Bollywood “item girl.” When Tripp depicts their speech, he uses transliteration. That is, the characters apply the syntactic rules from their native tongues to the English language, and this results in the patterns of error that can sometimes characterize EAL communication. All of this seems like an appropriate and realistic representation because they are not native speakers of English. But the problem is that their speech and this process of transliteration is a major source of humor in the novel. Gheorghe, the Roumanian vampire hunter, offers many examples of this kind of dialogue. On meeting the crew, his “first words” are “‘I must piss as racehorse’” (186). When asked to “keep an eye out” for an attractive vampire familiar, he responds, “I’ll keep out my pecker for her . . . You know is pecker, right? Is a word you use for the pula. The Johnson? Hahahahaha” (266). If Gheorghe is cast as a clown, so is Min Hee Jin, a South Korean slayer. When Sax announces that he is prematurely ending the mission, she struggles to express herself and control her rage:
“You make vampire go free!” she said, composing her thought with care. . . . “it’s not my favorite idea,” he said. . . . Min threw her head around at the entire crowd, furious. Her mouth worked on foreign words that wouldn’t come. “Everybody can go fuck you!” she barked and stomped outside (309).
What’s funny here isn’t her use of “fuck,” a word common enough in horror fiction, but her malaphor: In a mistranslation, she mistakenly combines two related but different phrases: “Fuck you” and “go fuck yourself.” The comedy comes from her “foreignness” to white English speaking readers and that’s a no go.
More surprising and disappointing still is the novel’s use of EAL characters to voice racist slurs. My mouth drops when Gheorghe calls Rock, an African-American character, a “big baby jungle bunny” (309). While it is supposed to have the opposite effect, Sax’s immediate disavowal of this language–”Gheorghe . . . please don’t use racial epithets”--actually makes the scene more unsettling. Tripp uses a marginalized character to articulate racist statements that he would never put in the mouth of his hero, who immediately repudiates them. In this way, the book suggests that poor eastern europeans are bigger anti-black racists than wealthy New York elites could ever be. A character who is not American becomes a repository for America’s linguistic past and symbolizes a stage of development beyond which Sax has evolved. This kind of smugness is off-putting, to say the least.
As a horror lover, I picked up The Fifth House of the Heart for the vampires–and it delivers on bloodsucking gore–but I kept reading for Sax. At the end of the novel, he is perfectly positioned for more adventures with the undead and I was ready to join him. But, in the eight years since it was published, there has never been a sequel. Despite the problems with the book, I hope that Tripp eventually revisits Sax’s story.
November 12, 2020
This was just okay for me.
Why only 3 stars: This could have been great but dragged at times especially at the beginning and was boring because of it. I liked the fun and intelligent writing and always like it when the author has a descriptive style that makes you feel like you are there inside the story but I don’t need to have a page long on what you eat for dinner. Lol I think instead of 390 pages it should have been 320 and it would have been so much better.
What I liked: As everyone else has reviewed this was a unique story about a homosexual antique collector and vampire slayer. When it was good it was great. Pages turned when it got interesting but when it was dragging or bad it was sooooooo boring and hard to keep reading.
Seems like a lot of people like this book. I would just beware when you are reading it and if you don’t like the beginning stop and move on. This is not the book for you. If you are really enjoying it then keep reading because it does get a lot better especially at the end.
Why only 3 stars: This could have been great but dragged at times especially at the beginning and was boring because of it. I liked the fun and intelligent writing and always like it when the author has a descriptive style that makes you feel like you are there inside the story but I don’t need to have a page long on what you eat for dinner. Lol I think instead of 390 pages it should have been 320 and it would have been so much better.
What I liked: As everyone else has reviewed this was a unique story about a homosexual antique collector and vampire slayer. When it was good it was great. Pages turned when it got interesting but when it was dragging or bad it was sooooooo boring and hard to keep reading.
Seems like a lot of people like this book. I would just beware when you are reading it and if you don’t like the beginning stop and move on. This is not the book for you. If you are really enjoying it then keep reading because it does get a lot better especially at the end.
June 7, 2016
This book was a recommendation from my daughter. It is a great story with lots of interesting characters and twists in plot. I particularly liked the pace of the story, it seemed to sail along smoothly and then suddenly great bursts of action and excitement erupted.
The main character is a 70ish gay antique collector and dealer living in New York, of course, who encounters vampires and other grisly creatures during his quest for great and rare antiques to be recovered anywhere in the world. There is enough detail in the description of each of the main characters to keep them interesting and enable the reader to follow their respective development and how they all blend into the enrichment of the plot.
Descriptions in the final 50 pages of the book, as the quest for a particular object and vampire comes to a head, are intricate but not so unnecessarily detailed as to be boring. Really enjoyed this book
The main character is a 70ish gay antique collector and dealer living in New York, of course, who encounters vampires and other grisly creatures during his quest for great and rare antiques to be recovered anywhere in the world. There is enough detail in the description of each of the main characters to keep them interesting and enable the reader to follow their respective development and how they all blend into the enrichment of the plot.
Descriptions in the final 50 pages of the book, as the quest for a particular object and vampire comes to a head, are intricate but not so unnecessarily detailed as to be boring. Really enjoyed this book
May 8, 2016
Enjoyed the tales of his past adventures, I found myself getting lost in them like reading a story within a story. This was a distraction to the current drawn out present day events. Still, I enjoyed this. The author did a fine job telling the tale and carving characters.
Special note: Author did a stupendous job on his vampires. An interesting take which was far from the average slick haired lothario we are use to.
The three star rating comes from the time it took me to finish it. When I am deeply engrossed in a fictional world I will have my nose growing out of it every free moment til it's finished.
Special note: Author did a stupendous job on his vampires. An interesting take which was far from the average slick haired lothario we are use to.
The three star rating comes from the time it took me to finish it. When I am deeply engrossed in a fictional world I will have my nose growing out of it every free moment til it's finished.
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