Les Daniels - Yellow Fog

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Les Daniels - Yellow Fog (Tor, 1988)

Maren

There was an earlier version of Yellow Fog (Donald M. Grant, 1986) but we don't like to talk about it as it isn't a patch on Yellow Fog full-blown. For the curious, you can find the earlier version in its entirety in Stephen Jones' Mammoth Book Of Vampires.

Anyhow, it's been too long since I first read this so I thought I'd make a start as this is the pulpiest of the vampire's adventures, even if it is set during Victoria's reign:

Yellow Fog begins in 1835 with a spectacular nocturnal train crash. Horace Lamb has scrimped on the steel used for the tracks with the result that the locomotive derails and goes up in flames. Don Sebastian comes out of the night sky to feed off a bloodied survivor. Exploring the wreckage he finds little Felicia Lamb and carries her to safety, her penny-pinching father and mother having perished in the accident.

Cut to November 1847 and the Commerce Club, Pall Mall. Reginald Callender, rake, bully, gambler, total bastard and bad debt-payer is on the verge of being booted out over his financial affairs. Time to tap his rich uncle William for more cash, he thinks, but he has a pleasant surprise awaiting him - uncle William has succumbed to a stroke in the library! Big inheritance due at last!

To be continued ....

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Callender knows of his Uncle's arrangement with the buxom maid, Alice, and doesn't see why he shouldn't enjoy some slap and tickle with the floozie: "I shall expect you late this evening, Alice. Everything will be as it was before. Come at ten. And bring my Uncle's riding crop."

Before the will is read, he needs to get his hands on some ready cash and, fortunately, Mr. Entwistle the undertaker is happy to oblige. Mr. Callender is buried closed-casket which affords the ghoul an opportunity to remove his jewellery for the money-grabbing nephew. Young Sid, Entwistle's assistant, isn't to know this: as far as he's aware, the old buy was still wearing his riches when they interred him in his swanky new mausoleum, and together with fifteen year old Henry, breaks into Kensal Rise cemetery after dark for a quick grave-rob. As they examine the corpse, who should burst in but .....

Don Sebastian has set up shop next door to the cemetery as Sebastian Newcastle, Spirit Medium, and two of his regular clients are Felicia Lamb and her aunt, something that really gives Reginald Callender the hump. Felicia is his fiancee, you see, and he doesn't want her squandering her vast wealth on this "fraud" ... especially now he's discovered just how much his inheritance amounts to: nothing! It seems that his Uncle, realising he didn't have long to live, decided to treat himself and the servants rather than leave his fortune to Reginald. The young scoundrel, facing ruination, gets it into his head that 'Sebastian Newcastle' is after stealing Felicia away from him for her cash and hires Samuel Sayer, Limehouse-based detective and former Bow Street Runner, to dig the dirt on his rival.

Plenty of nice Victorian touches so far (p.166 of 294): This mysterious new novel, Wuthering Heights, is getting a rough ride at the hands of the critics. Reggie's mistress, Sally, is avidly devouring Varney, the Vampyre and Don Sebastian meets Madame Tussaud in the Chamber of Horrors (she remembers him from the days of the French Revolution and the previous novel in the series, Citizen Vampire).

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let's try and round this off as it's certainly easier to tackle than the convoluted (but likewise excellent) Gerald Suster black magicians versus the catholic church shocker 'The Elect'.

Poor old Reginald 'don't call me Reggie!' Callender. He's no more dastardly than your average bone-idle, servant-molesting rake and is genuinely saddened by his guardian's passing - at least until he learns that the selfish old so-and-so has squandered his fortune on having a good time rather than leave it to him to do likewise. Once he discovers the well-stocked wine-cellar, a bottle is never again away from Callender's mouth and his mindset takes a turn for the worst. obviously, he needs money fast and now his only hope of that is if he marries wealthy Felicia Lamb - and fast. Trouble is, she's disappeared with this 'fraudulent' psychic chappie, Sebastian Newcastle, who seems to have a hold over her. Perhaps Newcastle has designs on her fortune! actually, Felicia realises that Newcastle is the vampire who saved her when the train derailed and she wishes to become undead. He reluctantly complies, but she refuses to drink blood and a slow and painful second death will be her lot unless her maker performs van helsing duties .... or dupes the pesky Reginald into doing it for him.

Unusually for the series, the ending leaves us set up for the next installment, No Blood Spilled which might as well be Yellow Fog II as it takes up exactly where this one leaves off.

[daniel1976]

the don sebastian chronicles are definitely a series that should be given an omnibus edition. titan books should do an annotated one, after their wonderful reprints of the anno dracula series. however, someone please refresh my memory: does don sebastian have shape-shifting powers? in "the bloody red baron" he is mentioned as having none, and i somehow recall that he does in "the black castle".