A Dangerous Climate by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

The Count Saint-Germain, in our world, is said by some to have been a spy for most or all of his life. Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, who has changed the historical figure into an extremely long-lived vampire, disagrees, but in this volume, she has run with the idea, giving readers a new Saint-Germain story to delight us.

Saint-Germain is called upon by Augustus II, Elector of Saxony and current ruler of both Hungary and Poland, to travel to Piyotr Alexeiovich Romanov's new city on the marshes, Sankt Pieterburkh, to take up the role of Arpad Arco-Tolvay, Hercegek Gyor, the husband of a Polish woman Zosia, the Ksiezna Nisko, and support her in her role as a spy in Sankt Pieterburkh. Because her true husband has disappeared, it would not be wise to leave her alone in the city without a man, and so Saint-Germain is to support her, but to also leave her alone to do her job.

However, he is but shortly come to the city, a miserable collection of wooden houses in a swamp that alternately freezes and is rife with bugs and disease, when he is attacked quite viciously and nearly killed. Through his infirmity, Saint-Germain meets three people: the Finnish Guardsman Yrjo Saari, the Russian Boyar's Daughter Ludmilla Svarinskaya and the Dutch Doctor Herr Hoek. The first is one of his rescuers, and the other two help care for him when he is injured.

Although he recovers slowly and is able to take up his post, Saint-Germain, who has always been interested in healing ever since he was a servant in the House of Healing in Pharonic Egypt, begins helping out Herr Hoek and Ludmilla Svarinskaya, first with money and medicines, and then with asking the Tsar for a larger home for them to inhabit, to help them treat more people, and for more men to help them.

But as the title of the book promises, Sankt Pieterburkh is in a climate that leaves people open to disease, from bugs in the summer and from cold in the winter. And given that most of the workmen are conscripted criminals who are driven like beasts by their supervisors, with whip and abuse, it's not surprising that the workers drop like flies whenever disease rears its ugly head. Luckily for the Tsar, criminals are in abundance in Russia, and the skilled craftsmen necessary for draining the swamps and building the sorts of public buildings, streets, squares and so on that the new city desperately needs are available for hire in other European cities and nations.

Tsar Piotyr's (though he prefers to spell it Pieter because of his love of things Dutch and his determination to make Sankt Pieterburkh a Euopean rather than a Russian city) determination has attracted the attention of all the European powers, and many of them have set up Embassies like those staffed by Saint-Germain and his putative wife Zosia. As they jockey for power and the attention of the Tsar, each looks for information from the others. And that isn't all. Someone seems to have it in for Saint-Germain, as the first attack on him isn't the last. But who could hate him, when he was so newly come to the city?

Perhaps the answer comes later, when a man shows up claiming to be Lajos Racgoczi, Grofok Saint-Germain, and his supposed heir, his "uncle" having died. Saint-Germain finds himself in the unique position of having to defend himself while pretending to be someone other than himself. But with Hroger having come along as his manservant, who can Saint-Germain call upon to pretend to be him, and have it be believed? For when the false Saint-Germain realizes that Arco Tolvay is calling him a liar, he won't accept anything else but blood in his quest to inherit all of Saint-Germain's lands and possessions, including those in Russia. And with Zosia's newly-arrived brother backing the false Saint-Germain, can our hero unmask an imposter while keeping his own imposture intact? Or will he be uncovered, along with the very real secret of what he truly is?

This was a fairly short volume compared to other Saint-Germain novels, and was really more about the history of Saint Petersburg in Russia, and about the possibly hyperactive Tsar who turned his dream into reality. From a small Swedish Fort that was underwater part of the year to a magnificent city, it would not have been accomplished without the kind of total power that the man who called himself Tsar held in his hands. That, and a vision and will that would not be denied.

Most of the book shows the slow growth of the city, and the toll it took on those building it, as well as the toll the swamp the city was built in took on the people inhabiting it, both common worker and noble foreign emissaries both. While Saint-Germain has nothing to fear from disease, those around him who he has come to care for are not as fortunate, and when Zosia and her brother shut him out of helping with the diplomatic mission, he chooses to turn his attention to helping Ludmilla and Herr Hoek with the frequent bouts of swamp fever and influenza that sweep the city in summer and winter, respectively.

Not that this saves him from politics and intrigue. The incident with the man pretending to be his heir provides enough thrills and worry to sustain the novel, and in the end, Saint-Germain is forced to leave Sankt Pieterburkh to deal with the various unsavory rumors that swirl around him after the man pretending to be his heir flees when his schemes come to naught. While some people fall after he leaves, others deal with what remains behind, and a chance encounter between a friend of Saint-Germain and one of the diplomats who had lived in Sankt Pieterburkh bring an end to the book, as we find out what happened after he left. And Tsar Piyotr sends a message to "Arco Tolvay" revealing that he knew the imposture all along, and tells Saint-Germain not to ever speak of it.

With its usual mix of history, intrigue, and a close look at the people who were living at the time, "A Dangerous Climate" offers the reader everything they want and are expecting from a Saint-Germain novel. A new place to explore, a lovely woman who finds affection, if not love, with the hero, and intrigue in plenty as well as a chance to meet actual historical figures. Those enamoured of the main character will find plenty to enjoy here, and those who enjoy reading fictionalized history will as well, although they may find the constant reference to the conditions of Hroger and Saint-Germain, one a ghoul, one a vampire, to be a bit tiresome by the end of the novel. But those who enjoy a good story will enjoy this book, and find Saint-Germain and Hroger to be more human than many of those around them, as they care more for the people they move amongst than the empty pursuits of power. political gain or money.

Try this series if you haven't already. It's well worth the reading time.