Two Past Twilight
By David Conlin McLeod

       David Conlin McLeod, author of Dancing with the Moon, gives vampire fiction a fresh bite in the arm in Two Past Twilight, a vampire “double feature” in which he once again plays the Danse Macabre. He pursues his other favorite themes: horrendous child abuse, innocent and clever girls named Amy, and the triumph of a child’s spirit. Also mixed in are several helpers who see that children are to be cherished (it’s a sad commentary that these people emerge as special heroes in an ever-insane society); a vivacious, lovely elder Gypsy vampire who “turns” David, the hero of “Ghost Story”; a formidable cross between Auntie Mame and Auntie Em, Aunt Emma; a Margaret Hamilton-type headmistress (Harry Potter’s Professor McGonagall crossed with Dolores Umbridge from The Order of the Phoenix); a kindly female gymnastics teacher in “Wish” who, like all gymnastics teachers, also becomes a drill sergeant; two girl bullies named Kristen and Sara in “Wish” (used to be we only had to worry about the boys); a talking raven; and a cast of characters that might seem like clichés if they weren’t caught up in a surreal world we recognize as our own, seen through a glass darkly. Or does the horror genre, like the science fiction genre, allow us to see through a lens of truth, much like “The Twilight Zone” did?

“Wish,” with its seemingly empowering rescue for poor tormented eight-year-old Amy that becomes a nightmare, reminds one of the best episodes of Rod Serling’s masterpiece anthology. Even the worst episodes of “The Twilight Zone” (can you name any?) were better than the “Must See” comedies of today, to say nothing of “My Mother, The Car.”

      Similarly, McLeod’s characters have originality about them similar to Brandon Massey’s Dark Corner or “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” Most vampire stories center around vampires drinking blood, which, according to one online horror magazine, is like writing about someone eating a hamburger. David Conlin’s stories focus on fundamental struggles in which innocence, redemption and the immortal soul hang in the balance. You’ll enter the “Two Past Twilight” Danse Macabre with joyful willing abandon.