The Tugurlan Chronicles: Vampire Iniquity (Book One) (By Eileen Sheehan)

Vampire Iniquity by Eileen Sheehan is the first book in the supernatural fantasy series, The Tugurlan Chronicles. Dan Tugur was not always a vampire hunter, but when his friend Shen seeks his help, he is violently introduced to a sinister world where Dragomar, the vampire leader, is concerned only with the continuity of his bloodline. Dan is captured by the vampires, brutally mangled, and forced to perform a mock martial arts battle. Once Dan escapes, he learns of his family's legacy as vampire slayers. He recruits his cousin and returns to the den of iniquity to eradicate the evildoers, solidifying Dan's return to hunting and a profession that becomes deeply personal and terrifyingly dangerous.

Eileen Sheehan gives Dan the space to tell his own story in Vampire Iniquity, and in doing so we are able to journey with Dan in a first-person narrative for a fully immersive experience. Dan's aiding Shen is the catalyst that starts Dan's character arc and, by shifting to an omniscient point of view among the vampires, readers see how the transition to a hunter is made. It is a tragic start, but it is just the start of the big-picture goal of ousting these horrific entities and gunning for one in particular. Sheehan keeps the pace moving without disruption to depicting that all-important intersection of the human and the supernatural worlds, and witnessing an outsider become the ultimate insider. As a woman of Asian descent, I did find the portrayal of characters like Mei-Lien to fall into culture trope territory and that is unfortunate. Beyond this, the story is quite good and while there are nods to traditional vampire lore, Sheehan goes for her own fresh spin and sets her book apart in a heavily saturated genre.

I wanted to yank a few characters from the book and give them a dose of what they'd dished out. With that said, this was a really great book and kept my attention.

Well thought out and structured Vampire thriller.
Great characters!

Eileen Sheehan’s Vampire Iniquity Book One (Turgurlan Chronicles Trilogy 1) is a good vs evil story with lots of twists and turns. The bad guys, mostly vampires, but not all of them, were very, very bad, using humans barbarically to strengthen their bloodline.

It’s not a typical vampire story, but the author revisited the legend of Dracula in a clever way, adding interesting elements that had implications for all the major characters in the story.

There were also good humans – particularly the narrator, Dan and his friend, Shen, both accomplished marshal artists. And good vampires (or almost vampires) who worked with the Dan and Shen to escape from and then return to the vampire den.

It was an exciting, topsy-turvy, unapologetic adventure well worth the read.

This story was written point of view by Dan Tugurlan which didn't surprise me. I've read some of Eileen Sheehan's other books and she tends to favor point of view. What did surprise me is that the plot was very different than the others I've read. It had a lot more thrills and villains in the story. I really liked her other works, but I like this style too. I've become a fan of Sheehan's so I read her historical romance that she wrote with the pen name of Ailene Frances and found she's quite consistent with her quality and creativity. She's proving to be a versatile author who deserves to get noticed. I'll definitely read the other two books in this collection.