Mozart's Blood

Mozart's Blood is a story very much in the vein (if you'll pardon the pun) of Rice's Vampire Chronicles series - it presents a vampire, Octavia Voss, who is a tortured soul that ponders the morality of the taking of human life, and who is introspective and reflective of the long, preternatural life that she's lived.

The twist to this that makes Mozart's Blood worth checking out is that Octavia is a soprano, as is author Louise Marley. This adds a certain level of complication for Octavia, given that operatic audiences eventually start to notice when their singers don't age, and also adds a delicious level of subtext to the book. I found myself enjoying the backstage drama and description of an opera in progress significantly more than the preternatural elements (including a rather forced-feeling connection to Mozart that gives the book its name).

It's decadent, it covers a lot of thematic material that other vampire stories have covered, but I would say that this is still an essential read in the canon of any fan of vampire fiction.