Latest Finds!

[Calenture]

Jun 3, 2008 15:56:27 GMT dem said:

William Harrington - Columbo : The Grassy Knoll (Titan, 1994): Columbo's investigates the murder of an obnoxious talk show and blithely unravels the truth behind the assassination of JFK. Sure, I'd have preferred the next book in the series - Columbo tackles the Manson Family in The Helter Skelter Murders - but this will do to be getting along with.

I wonder how you got on with this one, Dem? I've just found a short scribble about it, 230 words, but won't post if it's on your 'to read' stack. On the other hand, I could be mean...

Anyway, went to town for the first time in a month and visited that shop again:

Translation by Stephen Marlowe (Sphere, 1978)

The Camp on Blood Island J M White & Val Guest (Panther, 1958-70)

Blackwater 3: The House by Michael McDowell (Corgi/Avon, 1983-85) Grisly murder, torn apart bodies and stuff.

The Roundabout by Michael Allwright (Panther, 1968-73) "A macabre little yarn..." Sunday Times (and that must be a pseudonym surely)

Key Out of Time by Andre Norton (Ace, 1963) Bought because it was an old Ace.

Enter the Saint by Charteris (Pan, 1963) Three short stories, mediocre cover. Wish I hadn't given those Yellow Jackets away to Oxfam.

The Haunting of Clifton Court by Dana Ross (Popular Library, 1972) "...hideous forces of corruption were vying for her very soul."

Burnt Offerings by Robert Marasco (Coronet, 1973-77) Never saw this painted cover before. Post-film.

Duel For a Dark Angel by Marc Marais (NEL Original, 1975) Possibly a new NEL find?

Horror Novels edited by Mike Ashley (W H Smith, 2004) Includes Fengriffen and Kirk's There's a Long, Long Trail a'Winding.

The Sweetwater Point Motel by Peter Saab (Guild Publishing, 1981-86) I sold this exact copy to that shop years back. Perhaps I'm more in the mood to read crap now?

Also saw but didn't buy, in case you're looking for them:

Three Professionals novels by Ken Blake: Long Shot, Where the Jungle Ends, and Fall Girl

Witch Mark by S F Roland - (Trojan, undated but good as new)

Also, a Sphere Revelations novel from the 70s, like the Confessions series. Can't remember the damn title now, but there were only two listed in the series.

[andydecker]

Blackwater is great stuff.

A rather laughable concept which shouldn´t work but does. A generational southern gothic horror soap. I re-read it every few years. Hm... maybe I should write it up.

McDowell was a gifted writer.

[dem]

The Patron Saint of junkyard dogs was looking out for me last week.

From a creepy crawl along the Charing Cross Road ....

Anon - Sweeney Todd or The String Of Pearls (Wordsworth Editions, 2007): Reprint of penny dreadful (1846-7), usually attributed to Thomas Peckett Press, but Dick Collins excellent introduction controverts this. By his reckoning, as many as four authors worked on it. I've read several extracts in Haining's works on the subject but now, at long last, here's the entire story going at around an unbelievable £2.50 a throw.

George W. M. Reynolds - Wagner The Werewolf (Wordsworth Editions, 2006). Another 'dreadful, from the notoriously prickly Reynolds whose work will also be familiar to those who go in for early Haining's. Again, I've read several chapters but never the entire 450 + pages monstrosity in it's entirety

Michael Marshall Smith - Spares (Harpercollins, 1996)

Bernard Pickton - The Expert (Sphere, 1979) "Based on the popular TV series". Never heard of it but evidently centers around a top pathologist.

John Robert Columbo & Michael Richardson - Not To Be Taken At Night (Ravette, 1988). Thirteen tales of terror, etc. I gave my previous copy of this away unread, but that won't happen this time.

From those lovely people at Constable-Robinson (on the back of eight Mammoth's)!

Paul Bibeau - Sundays With Vlad (Constable, 2008): Looks like if fun, although those who share my aversion for all things Count Dracula Fan Club are advised that I just spotted a reference to "Penthouse North."

Last but by no means least

From Benedict:

One Eyed Gray #5

Thank you!

Where to start ......

.... it certainly won't be Columbo .....

[bushwick]

Just got:

Crow 2: Worse Than Death
GNS: Bamboo Guerillas
Sloane by Steve Lee (kung fu PC Western)

but they were off amazon so that's cheating. But, I found all 4 GNS Sabat books in good nick for £1.40 each today, and Edge 51 for a quid! Also got some other stuff like a Mick Farren novel and a Christopher Pike, but they pale in comparison really innit.

[H_P_Saucecraft]

Quite a few since I last posted:

Haul 1:

The Dead - Mark Rogers
Tree House - Victor Mullen
Beasts - Stephen R. George
Runaway - Stephen Gresham
Satan's Snowdrop - Guy N. Smith (with wonderful nazi zombie cover ;D)
The Bad Seed - William March - £1.50 the lot
The Blood Snarl - Ivor watkins 10p

Haul 2:

The Rivard House - F.Edwin Lambirth
Hell-O-Ween - David Robbins
The Wild Bunch - Brian Fox
The Rage - Jack Ramsay
Croc - David James - £1 the lot

Haul 3:

I got this lot today, at £1 a piece & all in good condition:

Best New Horror 1
The Slime Beast - Guy N. Smith
Bloodshow - " "
Fiend - " "
The Walking Dead - " "
Ogre - Mark Ronson
The Tribe - Glenn Chandler
Devil's Coach Horse - Richard Lewis
The Cannibal - Stuart Kinder
Blowfly - David Loman
Snowman - Norman Bogner

So you could say I'm a happy shoggoth
There are some wonderful covers on some of these books, I shall have to scan some of them & post them.

Unfortunately I didn't get it the first time I went round the market, but I could have had a hardback of The Plague Chronicles by Guy N. Smith for £1. But when i went round again someone had picked it up & was buying it, despite me mentally willing them to put it back.

[franklinmarsh]

What a fantastic triple haul Saucey! (green with envy) Which Wild Bunch cover didja get?

[H_P_Saucecraft]

Jun 20, 2008 7:42:26 GMT franklinmarsh said:

What a fantastic triple haul Saucey! (green with envy) Which Wild Bunch cover didja get?

It's this one:

[jkdunham]

On 'earlies' this week ("When there's no more room on the late shift, the dead will stumble out of bed at half four in the morning with a low growling moan...") and come half two today I was dragging myself through town en route back to the old sucking pit, more than ready to hurl myself in, when I was siezed by an odd compulsion to stop off at Eagle Books in the indoor market (the last great bookstall in Derby) and treat myself to a poundsworth from his 25p "non-returnable" basket.

Here's just some of what I turned up during a brief 15 minute rummage;

Let's Go Play At The Adams' by Mendal Johnson (Granada)

Mendal Johnson's "experiment in horror... more terrifying than Lord Of The Flies and The Exorcist combined!" isn't a personal favourite but as my mate's one of those people who love it (and for 25p) it'd have been rude not to...

The Glass Cage by Colin Wilson (1973 Bantam edition, originally published 1966, Arthur Barker)

"An extraordinary novel of occult power and evil obsession - from the publishers of The Exorcist"

Nine violent deaths... Nine quotes from Blake...

draw Damon Reade into a strange and baffling mystery that interrupts his self-imposed isolation and plunges him into a compelling clairvoyant connection with a maniacal killer!

Subtitled, "An unconventional detective story", this one just seemed to appeal to me more than some of the other (possibly even greater) finds. The "Nine violent deaths... Nine quotes from Blake..." idea hooked me on the spot and made me want to start reading it there and then.

But then I wouldn't have found...

Mod Rule by Richard Allen (NEL 1980)

LONDON MODS IN HASTINGS RIOT!

"The war started now! A biker splayed brokenly on the road, his machine wheel-spinning against the kerb. Other bikers roared their engines and bore down on Joe's crowd.
It boiled down to a battle between nutty bikers and gutsy mods..."

Rather disappointingly, no reference whatsoever to The Exorcist on the cover. It's been a while since I read this (or any other of the Richard Allens) but I seem to remember it not quite living up to the cover. Even so, still arguably the best book ever to start with the line;
"Where's me socks?"

And still a right result. Rummage, rummage... what have we here..?

The Ghoul by Guy Smith (Sphere, 1976)

Creature From The House Of Horror

"Two cars roar away into the darkness from the noisy brilliance of a party, on a race to Land's End. But a few hours later impenetrable fog brings them to a halt on a deserted moorland road, and brings the occupants to the brink of an unspeakable fate. For nearby is a house of horror and death, a house which harbours a terrible creature which feeds on human flesh... the ghoul!"

Well, bugger me. It's Guy Smith's The Ghoul, as I live and breathe, in all its Les Edwards covered, 128 page glory. Eagle Books has previously provided copies of Bamboo Guerillas and a Werewolf or two at very affordable prices but 25p for this little beauty has to be a bit of a bargain (even if it is non-returnable).

So that was my quid gone. But the rummaging continued...

A Dark Shadows tie-in, Barnabas, Quentin and Dr. Jekyll's Son (Paperback Library, 1971); Martin Caidin's Cyborg novel, Operation Nuke (Mayflower edition with the Richard Clifton-Dey cover); Ivor Watkins' Demon (Futura, 1983), his follow-up to the ubiquitous The Blood Snarl (every second-hand book stall and charity shop in the country seems to have at least one copy of The Blood Snarl, and one day I really must buy one...); a Howard Baker which I didn't pick up and can't remember the name of now; and various other obscure gems all purporting to be the "First/Second/Third/Twenty-seventh in an explosive new action-packed series from (insert name of publisher of cheap paperback knock-offs here)". Also a brilliant looking sleaze title from the sixties 'exposing' the hedonistic lifestyles of hippies, beatniks and what have you (really might have to go back for that one).
The one I was perhaps most intrigued by, but ultimately decided to pass on, was Graham Masterton's How to Drive Your Man Wild in Bed (Star, 1984). I may go back for it but just felt that maybe there were others who might get more pleasure from it than I would.
There was other stuff too that escapes me now, and all 25p a go. It quite revives your flagging, world-weary spirit when you discover a basket like that, I'll tell you.

[killercrab]

Well, bugger me. It's Guy Smith's The Ghoul, as I live and breathe, in all its Les Edwards covered, 128 page glory. >>

You win *best* find of the week for 25p Steve! Hell it would be the winner at a quid or two in fact.

Of course you left Operation Nuke behind with it's brilliant Clifton-Dey cover - which you nearly got points deducted for. However I'll let that pass this time because The Ghoul is a major find !

KC

[Johnlprobert]

I'd love a copy of that GNS Tyburn movie adaptation & I am consequently very very jealous

[Calenture]

Available in Morrison's now for £3.99, for those of us still in mourning for regular helpings of spaghetti served up usually by actors who look almost exactly (but not quite) like their American counterparts, Death Rides a Horse. Starring Lee Van Cleef (complete with pipe), John Phillip Law, and with score by Ennio Morricone, this tells the tale of how Law survives a brutal attack in which his family and their employees are murdered and grows up to hunt the killers down with Lee Van Cleef.

You know you need this one...

More details below from here.

"Death Rides a Horse (aka Da uomo a uomo, or As Man to Man) is a 1967 spaghetti western directed by Giulio Petroni, written by Luciano Vincenzoni, and starring Lee Van Cleef and John Phillip Law. Bill Meceita, a boy whose family was murdered in front of him by a gang, sets out 15 years later to exact revenge. On his journey, he finds himself continually sparring and occasionally cooperating with Ryan, a gunfighter on his own quest for vengeance, who knows more than he says about Bill's tragedy. The film has lapsed into public domain.

"Whenever the angered hero encountered one of the bandits who wronged him and killed his family, footage of the wrong being avenged is superimposed over the hero's face. As a homage, this technique was used by Quentin Tarrantino in Kill Bill whenever The Bride confronted one of the Deadly Vipers.
The main theme of Death Rides a Horse is used in Kill Bill. It is the trilling flute and mixed choral piece played when The Bride calls out O-Ren and her bodyguards at the House of Blue Leaves.

"The scene when the main character, Bill, watches his family being murdered is referenced in the animated scene of Kill Bill. Here the skull necklace is depicted as a skull ring, worn by the man who kills O-rens father.

"Death rides a Horse" is a 1970 reggae single from the Hippy Boys. It appears on the B-side of Max Romeos single "melting pot" on the Pama Unity label."

[franklinmarsh]

Pah! Brilliant find Rog that inspired me to pop into Morrison's with a fiver. No such luck. A bit of of bonus as I desperately dug through the War/Western section and plucked out Walter Hill's The Long Riders, a film I haven't seen for too long. Hill was a Peckinpah fan who appeared to be remaking his favourite controversial film classics in his own way, as Robert Altman redefined film genres earlier with M*A*S*H (war). McCabe & Mrs Miller (Western), The Long Goodbye (detective/noir), Nashville (musical) etc.
The case that Hill's The Warriors is A Clockwork Orange is a tad limp I'll admit (bizarrely dressed youth cults, stylised violence), but Southern Comfort is not a million miles from Deliverance and The Long Riders reminded me greatly of The Wild Bunch (until he was more blatant with Extreme Prejudice). The use of the brothers Keach, Carradine, Quaid and Guest as the James brothers, the Youngers, whoever the Quaids are/were and the Fords is a quaint touch that works.

[bradstevens]

Jul 2, 2008 10:30:12 GMT franklinmarsh said:

Hill was a Peckinpah fan who appeared to be remaking his favourite controversial film classics in his own way.

Indeed. Hill's THE DRIVER is an almost scene for scene remake of Jean-Pierre Melville's LE SAMOURAI, with the hitman changed to a getaway driver, and a happy ending substituted for Melville's more downbeat climax.

[nightreader]

Some more to add to the 'to read' mountain...

'Killer Crabs' - GNS (NEL 1978)

'Frankenstein No. 3 - Bones of Frankenstein' - Donald F. Glut (NEL 1977) Excellent cover

'Night Whispers' - Charles Veley (Granada 1981)

'The Touch of Hell' - Michael R. Linaker (NEL 1981)

'Ladygrove' - John Burke (Coronet 1981) I see he's got his own section now...

'Subterranean' - James Buxton (Futura 1989) The wild card, no idea what this will be like...

[allthingshorror]

Latest carboot booty -

Betty M Owen - The Ghostmasters - Weird Stories by Famous Writers: (Scholastic 1976)

Guy N Smith - The Undead and The Slime Pit

Tabitha (wife of Stephen) King - Pearl

Hugh Lamb - Gaslit Nightmares 2

David Cronenberg - The Brood and Rabid

Arthur Herzog - The Swarm