There is no moral ambiguity, no tentativeness in their characterization. The SS officer, and all of the troops under his command, are painted as absolutely inhuman creatures. As more of his troops are murdered, Woermann eventually gets assistance from the SS through Erich Kaempffer, an absolutely monstrous officer who gleefully intends to set up concentration camps in Romania. The monster proceeds to murder Woermann’s men, one Nazi per night. When Woermann’s troops are stationed in the mysterious keep, they inadvertently set loose a monster that had been trapped there, presumably for centuries. Irrespective of the source of this tentativeness, I found it an interesting aspect of the character that lent some degree of depth to him. It is unclear to me whether this tentativeness stems from the author’s uncertainty as to how sympathetic to make the Nazi, or whether it stems from Woermann’s own uncertainties as to his loyalty. The scenes written from Woermann’s perspective are interesting in that they show a tentativeness in Wilson’s characterization that is absent when he writes from other (less morally ambiguous) characters, like Magda Cuza or the SS commander Kaempffer. He is painted as conflicted, not enamoured of the fuhrer, and disgusted by what the Nazis are doing to the Jews. Throughout the book, Woermann is the only Nazi depicted in any kind of positive light. Klaus Woermann, a disillusioned Nazi officer, is given a somewhat-punitive assignment to guard a remote Romanian castle. Wilson primarily chooses to take the easiest of these four paths, keeping both the Nazis and the creature who murders them monstrous. With a setup like this, Wilson has an opportunity to do one of four things: he can turn the vampire into a hero (a fun role reversal for a traditional monster), he can turn one of the Nazis into a hero (a challenging prospect, considering their historical baggage), he can show both as somewhat-justified, or he can show both as monstrous.

On the other hand, we have a supernatural monster (possibly a vampire, possibly not) who brutally murders Nazis one-by-one in the night. The Nazis are realists, hard-hearted murderers marching across Europe, slaughtering innocents by the millions. Set in 1941 in a remote mountain keep high in the Romanian Alps, the book pits two inhuman monsters against each other. Wilson’s deft command of craft as shown in his management of setting, and the gradual reveal of his monster make this book a worthwhile purchase. Paul Wilson does an excellent job subverting staid vampire tropes and reveling in the devices of Gothic horror. In The Keep ( first in his Adversary Cycle ), F.

The keep by f paul wilson