Kiss of Death

While touring France, California wine grower Donald Clermont and his teenage daughter become drawn into a web of sorcery and black magic as they battle to free themselves from the power of the seductive queen of hell, the goddess Selena

The many good moments in this tale of witchery by the author of Adversary are undone by its silly, unsatisfying ending. In 1966, recently divorced California vintner Donald Clermont, in France with his teenage daughter Lisa, visits an abandoned abbey with a history of withcraft, blood oaths, succubi and incubi. On a whim, he inscribes a runic symbol on a rock with his own blood. That night, after Clermont has slept with a beautiful stranger, Lisa is apparently raped. At first Clermont puts it down as a nightmare but Lisa is pregnant; she dies giving birth to Selena, and Clermont kills himself. In 1988 Selena returns from Europe to the family winery and takes up with a pedophiliac dentist and a vicious biker, both of whom die horribly as suicides. Young doctor Gene Farrell is smitten, but Selena warns him away, opposing her satanic "companions." Farrell, threatened by nightmares, bones up on sorcery and decides to resort to murder, leading to the brief, disappointing showdown and unconvincing epilogue.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

An ancient sacrifice reenacted in France by an American tourist results in a curse that follows him to California, with tragic consequences. Twenty-one years later, Selena, half-human/half-goddess product of the curse, seduces and detroys evil men by the dark of the moon. Idealistic, naive Gene falls in love with Selena, and as he uncovers her secret he is marked as her demons' next victim. Selena is seen only through Gene, as a distant, beautiful, but rather spoiled and willful image. The reader is given no insight into her character or understanding of her powers or beliefs. As a result, what is supposed to be a tragic torment for Selena doesn't pack much emotional punch. And Gene's final desperate act, meant to illustrate his inevitable, irresistible love for Selena, is simply unbelievable. Too little character development and too much unexplained action make Gene, Selena, et al. appear not just innocent but pretty darned stupid.
- A.M.B. Amantia, Population Crisis Committee Lib., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.