By Mats Strandberg, translated by Agnes Broome

Jo Fletcher Books, out now

A booze cruise across the Baltic – a happy hunting ground for predators of all sorts…

When a book comes through for review with the tagline “On the Baltic Sea no one can hear you scream,” and you’re only a few weeks off heading to the Baltic Sea for your honeymoon, there’s no question which book is going to be among those packed for the cruise. (And yes, there were one or two interesting reactions when people saw what I was reading). From its Shining-esque cover, with the passageways of a cruise ship dripping with blood, to its suitably glaring colour, Blood Cruise is quite clear from the start what you’re getting into.

Mats Strandberg is clearly a fan of slow burning horror, and the first hundred or so pages of the book spend far more time introducing us to the various (not very pleasant) characters aboard this overnight cruise – a real excursion that takes advantage of various loopholes in international law, and seems, at least as portrayed here, to be an excuse for excess on the lines of, what happens on the ship stays on the ship (if you happen to remember any of it at all, that is). I’ll admit freely that after reading this, I did wonder what the crew of the ship I was on really thought about the passengers – Strandberg’s officers and crew are, shall we say, on the whole not enamoured of their cargo.

But the supernatural horror element (as opposed to the horror that is drunken people en masse!) builds across that opening section as we meet Strandberg’s take on vampires. He doesn’t pull his punches in his descriptions, and at times has an economy of words that makes the gruesome events even more vivid. And as with any massacre, there’s no rhyme or reason to the choice of who is killed – everyone is a target, and while there may be some lucky escapees, chances are it won’t be those you expect (or even want) to survive who make it.

There’s a Scandi noir flavour to the characterisation of all involved, which coupled with excellent pacing and well thought out modifications to the vampire mythology (dealing with one of the often-quoted complaints about their existence), leads to a thoroughly enjoyable novel.

Verdict: Gripping, tense and well-told – an excellent addition to the vampire mythos. 9/10

Paul Simpson