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Post by dem bones on Oct 19, 2007 17:48:13 GMT
Raymond Giles - Night Of The Warlock (Nel, Dec. 1969) Bruce Pennington Manhattan. Hugo Knox, powerful Black Magician, mummifies in a private hospital, his body being eaten away be cancer. It doesn't bother him overmuch as he knows he'll come back. To keep himself amused while he awaits death, he subjugates a young nurse to assist him in unleashing a tidal wave of evil vibes across the island sparking a series of brutal, entirely motiveless, murders and suicides. But he has more pressing matters to attend. Who best to inherit his considerable fortune? Knox summons his estranged niece to his deathbed. Dana, young, beautiful and deeply troubled by recurring nightmares of damnation, is ideal for his purpose. A powerful witch, her memory of childhood dabbling has been wiped clear from her mind and kindly old Uncle Hugo can't wait to corrupt her. She stands to inherit $4 million - with strings: She must pass a year at Knox House ('Limbo' to its jocular inhabitants) and retain the services of his 'house-keeper', Mrs. Duhamel and her strikingly handsome son, Bayard, who Dana vaguely remembers - and fears - from childhood. Should she refuse these terms, the Duhamels are the alternative heirs. The fly in the ointment is Martin Lott. Dana is desperately in love with him but he tries to resist falling for her, self-conscious about their age difference. Martin is a journalist turned author (specialist subject: the Black Arts) and Knox, rightly detecting dormant White Sorcery adeptness, despises him on sight. Well, Bayard can settle his hash! Nothing must be allowed to stand in the way of his plans! All of the above, although engrossing, is merely by way of setting the tone and the real action kicks in on the day of Knox's funeral, with Dana and Martin taking up residence at Limbo. The sneering, unabashedly Satanic Bayard takes no time in informing Martin that, not only is he going to nab Dana's soul but he'll have Hugo up and out of his grave within 48 hours. His idea of playing genial host is to gloat over the suicide of the young nurse, lace his guests' drinks with a hallucinogenic love filter, and order his mother to seduce Martin while he's having his end away with Dana. The two days prove to be eventful to say the least. Dana all but succumbs to Bayard's charms (and the spiked drink), only to remember that he is her brother. Martin, meanwhile, goes even further with Mrs. Duhamel. It looks as if the Warlocks will triumph without even breaking sweat when Hugo entices Dana to visit his grave by moonlight but the intervention of the hanged nurse postpones their victory. Martin, all his scepticism gone, realises the only way to save Dana and himself is to fight like with like and the final third of the novel is given over to as spectacular and utterly far out an occult duel I can remember. Giles' achievement is in playing it deadly straight from start to finish and avoiding the lovable but ultimately unsatisfying "Dennis Wheatley ending".
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Post by pulphack on Nov 30, 2007 17:41:15 GMT
picked this up in a charity shop about this time last year, and it's still languishing unread (like about 40-odd other pb's). rading this has made me put it towards the top of the pile, though. (i really MUST read those Man From Uncle books first!)
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Post by andydecker on May 31, 2009 15:55:33 GMT
After seeing the great NEL cover the other day on the NEL thread I decided I must have this. And guess what - I blew it. I ordered the cheaper one and forgot to check if it was really the NEL edition. And of course I got the Paperback Library one from 1968. I just hope that the copy of Night of the Vampires I also ordered from another dealer is the NEL one! Ah, well. See it here in its blandness. Ugh. Still, I don´t have anything to add to dem´s review. Great novel with some unexpected twists and a very good, also unexpected ending. Giles has here some memorable sick scenes which maybe work so well because he had to left something to the imagination, being this written in 1968. Even if it surely would be fun to see what a writer like, say, Edward Lee, would have made of this, I guess this is the better deal. ;D
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Post by dem bones on May 31, 2009 18:05:56 GMT
It could be worse, Andreas. Old superimposed face came back from the grave for the cover of FiveStar's The Killing Bone in 1972 - and didn't even have the good grace to bring the naked blonde with him. There's a nifty "Raymond Giles" thread on Vault Mk I. The uncredited review and posts are by Nightreader whose name went missing when their bloody server collapsed
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Post by morganscorpion on Nov 14, 2010 20:21:42 GMT
One of the first horror novels I ever read. It scared me silly, so of course I read it again later. It was, of course, a forbidden book that I wasn't supposed to know my mother had.
She must have thrown it out, because it disappeared.
But a few years later I found a second hand copy and bought it. Pretty damn good for a pulp. There were two others by him I remember. Night of the Werewolf and Night of the Vampire. Not too sure about the last one though.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 14, 2010 21:07:04 GMT
we've a thread for Night of the Griffin (with some interesting revelations regarding the identity of 'Raymond Giles'), and i was certain there was one for Night Of The Vampire, too but can't find it. have never come across a copy of ... Griffin, but i love Warlock and Vampire as two of the finest NEL horrors. Raymond Giles - Night Of The Vampire (Nel, Sept. 1970) Richard Clifton-Day Blurb They thought that the vows that they had taken so long ago in Sanscoeur had been meaningless, part of ignorant, childish, obscene game.
But an eerie, insistent voice was calling them back and they knew - Roxanne and Duffy and the others - they knew that they had to come back to face the lurking inhuman horror that awaited them.
For thirteen years ago, they had committed themselves to Satan. And now their fiendish master was calling them back to take his fearful revenge and turn their childhood game into one fearful NIGHT OF THE VAMPIRE.
Here is a story full of black magic terror written with frightening realism. A story of an evil and corrupt battle between modern vampires and werewolves and satanic possession.
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Post by morganscorpion on Nov 14, 2010 21:10:06 GMT
Ah, it WAS a long time ago. The book I remember as Night of the Werewolf was in fact, Night of the Vampire. I remember wishing Roxanne Sanscoeur-Johnson was my big sister.
Night of the Griffin was the least impressive of the three.
So, who was Raymond Giles really? I can't wait to find out.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Mar 5, 2014 15:50:43 GMT
After seeing the great NEL cover the other day on the NEL thread I decided I must have this. And guess what - I blew it. I ordered the cheaper one and forgot to check if it was really the NEL edition. And of course I got the Paperback Library one from 1968. The same thing just happened to me. Curses.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Apr 26, 2014 15:50:36 GMT
Giles' achievement is in playing it deadly straight from start to finish and avoiding the lovable but ultimately unsatisfying "Dennis Wheatley ending". Having mistakenly ordered a copy of Night of the Warlock with the bad cover (the Paperback Library), I broke down and ordered a copy with the good cover (the NEL). As for the story itself, I had a hard time getting into it. However, I did like the ending. I recently read my first Dennis Wheatley novel, so I now have a better understanding of the "Dennis Wheatley ending." Two quotations from Neil Barron's Horror Literature: A Reader's Guide: [On The Devil Rides Out] After much frenetic action, including a Black Mass, the situation is belatedly saved by a mind-bogglingly extravagant deus ex machina. [On The Haunting of Toby Jugg] ... the Wheatley brand of deus ex machina can reach depths never plumbed by more scrupulous plotters.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Apr 26, 2014 16:58:48 GMT
I recently read my first Dennis Wheatley novel, so I now have a better understanding of the "Dennis Wheatley ending." Could you tell us which one it was? I really enjoyed THE DEVIL RIDES OUT and TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER, and am currently reading THE HAUNTING OF TOBY JUGG. Speaking of deus ex machina endings, surely a prime example must be Richard Marsh's THE BEETLE, which is ended by a train crash at an arbitrary point in the narrative.
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Post by andydecker on Apr 27, 2014 10:14:38 GMT
Wheatley has this weakness, hasn't he? But a lot of writers can't write a decent ending. I think I hated nearly every ending of Graham Masterton In Wheatley's case I tend to be more forgiving, because the novels are so old and sensibilities have changed so much.
Warlock is imho the best of the three Giles.
How do you like HAUNTING, Jojo? I read this ages ago and only remember being a bit disappointed at the end.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Apr 27, 2014 15:42:07 GMT
How do you like HAUNTING, Jojo? I read this ages ago and only remember being a bit disappointed at the end. I have only read about a third of it, so far, but I like it well enough. It is structured somewhat oddly (it starts with a number of political and philosophical rants), and is not as thrilling as the other Wheatleys I have read, though.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Apr 27, 2014 16:18:15 GMT
Could you tell us which one it was? I really enjoyed THE DEVIL RIDES OUT and TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER, and am currently reading THE HAUNTING OF TOBY JUGG. It was The Devil Rides Out. Despite the ridiculous ending and the reactionary attitudes, I enjoyed it enough to go ahead and purchase To the Devil a Daughter. After I get around to reading that, I'll probably try The Haunting of Toby Jugg as well. Speaking of deus ex machina endings, surely a prime example must be Richard Marsh's THE BEETLE, which is ended by a train crash at an arbitrary point in the narrative. I liked The Beetle more than I expected to (I read it a few months ago), but it isn't exactly a masterpiece of plotting. Wasn't Marsh making it up as he went along? I seem to remember that he had to insert an awkward explanation for how a character who dies could narrate part of the story.
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Post by franklinmarsh on Apr 27, 2014 19:41:21 GMT
Shame all this Dennis Wheatley stuff is going on on a completely unrelated thread. For the all time shite Dennis the menace ending, I refer you gents to The Satanist. It beggars belief.
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Post by dem bones on Apr 28, 2014 10:55:21 GMT
Shame all this Dennis Wheatley stuff is going on on a completely unrelated thread. For the all time shite Dennis the menace ending, I refer you gents to The Satanist. It beggars belief. That may well be the case, but Gateway To Hell surely runs it close? If I remember, The Ka Of Gifford Hillary is another that concludes on a spectacularly rubbish note.
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