A Review of The Possession Legacy by Trevor Dalton

The Possession Legacy, a horror fantasy by Trevor Dalton, published by Libros International, is a tale of modern day vampires, set in Wales and the West Midlands. The book’s monsters walk the streets of Bromsgrove, but their power came not from Transylvania, but from the mythical invincibility of Llewellyn, first prince of Wales.

Llewellyn is a legendary warrior who struggles with the Normans. His prowess on the field of combat seems almost superhuman. There are many rumours. Llewellyn travels to Carmarthen where he learns of a prophecy by the wizard Merlin that predicts his ultimate heritage is to become a vampire. Whilst fighting a Norman knight he is bitten by a female mosquito. The mosquito is crushed underfoot by the combatants’ dray horses and spends the next 500 years trapped.

The plot then moves to the present. A tremendous storm alters the course of a river and the waters release the mosquito. She is awakened by the blood from a fox kill and begins her quest to procreate and establish a brood of her own.

Sarah, a sixteen year old girl, and prepubescent Lynette are both bitten by mosquitoes and become strangely linked. Several characters all visit a particular hotel in Wales and their lives are transformed by chance events that conspire to determine their common future. Their lives thus become interwoven as the story unfolds.

Sarah´s story occupies a single week, during which time she discovers her own vampire heritage and also her links with Lynette. The bloodlust she has inherited from Llewellyn and the needs of the mosquito brood-mother lead Sarah on a rampage of killing that seals her ultimate demise. In the Possession Legacy we follow several characters and eventually Sarah, herself, to bizarre and bloody endings.

Throughout, Trevor Dalton keeps the pace fast, relating parallel lives and their stories like the cuts in a mental film. We have canine spontaneous combustion, pubescent girls sprouting claws, scales and exceedingly voracious sanguinary appetites, and deadly insects that survive millennia trapped in vitreous prisons.

For those who read horror books, there is plenty in The Possession Legacy to provide the tingle and curdle that is the genre’s signature.