Latest Finds!

[kooshmeister]

Recently got The Fall of Berlin 1945 by Antony Beevor (who seems to be kinda the new Cornelius Ryan) and Infantry Aces: The German Soldier in Combat in World War II by Franz Kurowski. But more relevant to the Vault's interests, I nabbed a copy of The Devil's Kiss by John Hyde off of Amazon.

[jamesdoig]

Just in Perth, Western Australia, for 3 weeks helping mum out, who's not too well, and seeing friends, and went to a few bookshops today. The pick was undoubtedly Rite Price Books & Bits in Bayswater - books, mostly paperbacks, everywhere, on shelves and in milk crates piled up, and could have spent hours there. Here's a pic, with the owner semi-hidden on the right - as it turned out he's a horror fan who visits Vault of Evil once or twice a month, and has a podcast, Distant Grey Gaming, which is worth a listen. He told a nice story of a bloke who came into the shop a few months ago who was trying to collect everything in Paperbacks From Hell, and parted with a few hundred dollars.



And picked up a good haul at decent prices:



In contrast I went to a 2nd hand bookshop in Guildford, which had a few vintage horrors, shown below, but wanted prices between $16-30 for each! They even had a small pile of Pan Horrors behind the counter under a sign saying "collectables" - I didn't dare ask how much they were.



On the way home, picked up these Chris Foss covers for $2 each at a charity shop:

[Swampirella]

Cool store; I'd love to spend an hour or so inside. Great finds; hope your mom feels better soon.

[andydecker]

Apr 10, 2021 8:30:05 GMT jamesdoig said:

He told a nice story of a bloke who came into the shop a few months ago who was trying to collect everything in Paperbacks From Hell, and parted with a few hundred dollars.


In contrast I went to a 2nd hand bookshop in Guildford, which had a few vintage horrors, shown below, but wanted prices between $16-30 for each! They even had a small pile of Pan Horrors behind the counter under a sign saying "collectables" - I didn't dare ask how much they were.



On the way home, picked up these Chris Foss covers for $2 each at a charity shop:

Now that is a nice story. I hope he got a lot of those novels.

While I always marveled at the work of Foss - I think I even have one of those Foss collections somewhere - he left me rather cold. I could never put my finger on it - maybe too clinical, too calculated?

For a book that is supposed to be pulped there sure are a lot of copies of More Devil's Kisses avaiable

I hope your mom is getting well soon!

[dem]

Apr 10, 2021 8:30:05 GMT jamesdoig said:

Just in Perth, Western Australia, for 3 weeks helping mum out, who's not too well, and seeing friends, and went to a few bookshops today. The pick was undoubtedly Rite Price Books & Bits in Bayswater - books, mostly paperbacks, everywhere, on shelves and in milk crates piled up, and could have spent hours there. Here's a pic, with the owner semi-hidden on the right - as it turned out he's a horror fan who visits Vault of Evil once or twice a month, and has a podcast, Distant Grey Gaming, which is worth a listen. He told a nice story of a bloke who came into the shop a few months ago who was trying to collect everything in Paperbacks From Hell, and parted with a few hundred dollars.



And picked up a good haul at decent prices:

Rite Price Books & Bits looks like paperback heaven, maybe a Perth equivalent of Gerry's Comics, Posters, Books in Westbourne with better weather. Over here, bookshops and markets are allowed to reopen from Monday - gonna be a nervy time as we're almost certain to have lost a few old favourites, while more libraries are under threat.

My best wishes to your mum.

[jamesdoig]

Apr 10, 2021 12:27:18 GMT andydecker said:

While I always marveled at the work of Foss - I think I even have one of those Foss collections somewhere - he left me rather cold. I could never put my finger on it - maybe too clinical, too calculated?

It's a good point Andy - he specialised in incredibly detailed spaceships, machines and the like, which has that type of clinical effect I guess. I can't remember seeing too many people in his work. For me, along with Pennington, he brings back 1970s British paperbacks.

And thanks everyone for the good wishes for mum - she's cheered up already!

[dem]

Market reopened this morning - am just relieved that the store holders I'm particularly friendly with all seem to have made it through to the other side of the final lockdown until the next. Found a few ace local morbid history items for the bride, Michael Green's Art of Coarse Rugby/'Even Coarser Rugby in a snazzy box, and these.

Ian Dear - Village of Blood (NEL, 1975)

Bruce Pennington

Blurb:
The Scene - England, an isolated country village.
The Action - A body is mysteriously ripped from its coffin.
CUT.
For this is only the first scene of a new horror movie being shot on location - or is it? Because a recent victim of a car accident has indeed vanished. Suddenly the terrors of the film script are enacted in frightful reality. Just what IS the connection between Anvil Productions and the disappearance of more people from the village?
Ann Green, a young and attractive journalist, makes it her business to find out and becomes enmeshed in a dangerous web of horror. Deliberately pursuing her solitary investigation, she feels herself exposed to evil, but she cannot back out now.
Only she can stop this uncanny progression of events, or fall victim to them.

Really need to re-read it if/ when I can get my novel head to work again: Village of Blood

Isabel Moore - Chateau Sinister (Lancer, 1971)

Blurb:
Journey into Jeopardy
Nurse Abigail Simpson hadn’t heard from her sister in months when she received the letter from Le Compte Robert de Grenier, her sister's husband. At his request, she travels three thousand miles to the Chateau La Rondelay to be with Claudia during the birth of her first child. But she had hardly arrived before she was aware that Robert had changed.Virtually blind how, and harshly autocratic, he harbored insane dreams and was willing to go to any lengths to make them come true. Claudia, too, had changed. She'd become spiteful and selfish and seemed to believe that Robert's long-dead first wife had returned to murder her. The truth of the matter? Abigail could learn only by finding her way through a maze of death and destruction ...

Helen Reilly - Death Demands An Audience (MacFadden-Bartell, 1967)

Blurb:
THE MURDERER WASN'T SHY
One victim was killed in a department store window.
Another died before the startled eyes of a policeman on guard duty.
The third breathed his last in a crowd of people coming out of a theater. -
Then the murderer tried the boldest move of all — with Inspector McKee as the intended victim.

[helrunar]

That's great news about the market and your old acquaintances there, Dem. Long may they prosper!

Village of Blood sounds like a cracking good time. Anvil Productions, indeed! Offices in Wardour Street no doubt? Fun.

The serial killer mystery sounds promising, too. 

cheers, Hel

[dem]

Found these in Oxfam at Dalston yesterday. Shudder Again is a welcome replacement for a copy that looks like it reached here via a sewer. In Celebrity Secrets; Government Files on the Rich and Famous (Pocket, Feb. 2007), Nick Redfern, sometime Paperback Fanatic contributor, dishes the dirt on US and UK Govt surveillance of the Abbot & Costello, Andy Warhol and the cast of Lonesome Cowboys, the Sex Pistols, UB40, the Kingsmen (an entire department set to transcribing the allegedly "obscene" lyrics of Louie, Louie following a tip off from a concerned member of the public ), the MC5, him out of Sonny & Cher, etc, some of possibly greater threat to civilisation than we might otherwise have considered. Have sampled seven entries - been very amusing, thus far. Might yet give Celebrity Secrets a thread to itself when less pushed.

[Dr Strange]

Apr 21, 2021 12:23:45 GMT dem said:

...the Kingsmen (an entire department set to transcribing the allegedly "obscene" lyrics of Louie, Louie following a tip off from a concerned member of the public )

Mike Mitchell, guitarist with The Kingsmen, died a couple of days ago.

Here's Todd Snider's Ballad of The Kingsmen -



And here is this -