Those Who Hunt the Night

by Barbara Hambly Book 1 in the James Asher Vampire Novels series.

First published 1988

Amazon

3.9(5,124)

Retired British spy James Asher has settled into academic life at Oxford with his physician wife Lydia when the ancient Spanish vampire Don Simon Ysidro appears in their home. Someone is destroying London’s vampires in their coffins during daylight, and Ysidro coerces Asher into finding the killer by threatening Lydia.

James’s espionage skills and Lydia’s scientific reasoning lead them through London’s hidden vampire society and onwards to Paris. Their investigation reveals that the murders are part of an attempt to alter the physical limits of vampirism, leaving the Ashers dependent on an ally who is intelligent, honourable by his own standards and still a predator.