Necroscope
First sentence
CENTRAL IN A DENSELY WOODED TRACT OF LAND NOT FAR out of the city-where the Serpukhov road passed through a saddle between low hills and gazed for a moment across the tops of close-grown pines towards Podolsk, which showed as a hazy smudge on the first lights of evening-stood a house or mansion of debased heritage and mixed architectural antecedents...
Description
From the back cover: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES Except to Harry Keogh, the Necroscope. And what they tell him is horrifying. Long buried in the mountains of Romania, bound by earth and silver, a master vampire lies trapped between death and life. Thibor Ferenczy hungers for freedom and plots an unearthly revenge. The vampire's human tool is Boris Dragosani, an agent for a supersecret Russian spy agency. Dragosani is eager to plumb the depthless evil of the vampire's mind. Ferenczy teaches Dragosani the terrible skills of the necromancer, giving him the ability to rip secrets from the minds and bodies of the dead. Dragosani's hidden goal is to rule the world, forging an iron grip with knowledge raped from the dead. His only opponent: Harry Keogh, champion of the living and the dead. To protect Harry, the dead will do anything -- even rise from the graves!