Vlad

A superb gothic novel about the real Dracula, Vlad the Impaler - one of history''s greatest psychopaths or a hero of the West? Perhaps both...
''A chilling masterpiece that weaves fact and fable. Bedtime reading? Only if you don''t need much sleep...'' BEST

DRACULA. A name of horror, depravity and the darkest sensuality.

Yet the real Dracula was just as alluring, just as terrifying, his story not of a monster but of a man - and a contradiction. For the one they called ''The Devil''s Son'' was both tyrant and lawgiver, crusader and mass slaughterer, torturer and hero, lover and murderer.

His tale is told by those who knew him best. The only woman he ever loved, who he must sacrifice. His closest comrade and traitor. And his priest, betraying the secrets of the confessional to reveal the mind of the man history would forever remember as Tepes - ''The Impaler''.

But Vlad''s actions defy such labels. His extraordinary life burns with passion, taking him from his years as hostage to the Turk, through torture, battle, triumph and betrayal, ultimately to a last crusade - there perhaps, beneath the twin banners of the Dragon and the Cross, to find redemption for his innumerable sins.