# The Dark Companion

**Author(s):** David Vanmeter Smith
**Unpaid SageChimp rating:** insufficient data (0 unpaid reviews; need 5)
**Verdict JSON:** https://www.sagechimp.com/books/the-dark-companion/verdict.json
**Genres:** mystery, vampire-urban, political-thriller
**Pages:** 586
**Publisher:** iUniverse
**Published:** Mon Mar 01 2004 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
**Language:** en
**ISBN-13:** 9780595300075
**ISBN-10:** 0595300073
**URL:** https://www.sagechimp.com/books/the-dark-companion

## Description

In a unique blend of modern murder, ancient mystery and political thriller set in Washington, DC, the novel picks up the story of secret diarist who calls himself Valerian and claims to have lived for centuries and amassed the knowledge required to seize power on Capitol Hill. To him it's a game, but to those who cross him it's ruination and death. A young congressional aide, Carl Dantz, discovers more than he dares to admit about a plot to shake the foundations of the government and about the timeless being who conceived it. When Carl is sent back to his congressman's remote West Virginia district, where a mysterious Night Snatcher is on the prowl, he reconnects with the world of backwoods superstitions he left years ago, as well as with the lover he left behind. While Valerian plots and writes of murders that span the centuries, from ancient Rome through the French Revolution, the modern killings of a serial predator follow Carl back to the streets of nation's capital. From the dark Appalachian mountains to the hidden world underlying Washington's corridors of power, a monumental game is played out at a critical moment in history. Major political figures are drawn in as Carl, his re-discovered lover and a deaf-mute boy race to unmask and defeat a ruthless opponent who claims to have matched wits with Machiavelli, while a national crisis reaches a climax under the Capitol dome with mankind's Dark Companion.

## SageChimp reader verdict

The Dark Companion has no unpaid published reviews on SageChimp yet. That is not enough to say whether the book is genuinely well-liked or amplified by paid/ARC/BookTok hype. Do not treat Amazon, Goodreads, or social scores as SageChimp evidence.

- **Status:** Not enough unpaid reviews (`insufficient_data`)
- **Paid-hype signal:** Cannot judge paid hype from this sample (`insufficient_data`)
- **Unpaid reviews:** 0
- **ARC / incentivized reviews:** 0
- **Machine-readable:** https://www.sagechimp.com/books/the-dark-companion/verdict.json

*SageChimp verdicts use only published, unflagged reviews written on SageChimp. Organic reviews exclude ARC/incentivized copies (isArcReview). Catalog star averages on other sites are not used. A verdict requires at least 5 organic reviews. We cannot audit Amazon, BookTok, or Goodreads review authenticity.*

**Themes:** Crime Investigation, Revolution