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Post by Michael Connolly on Nov 4, 2020 15:48:47 GMT
Michael, have you ever seen a rather silly 1967 horror film starring Peter Cushing and Wanda Ventham, The Blood Beast Terror aka Blood Beast from Hell aka Vampire Deathshead? It's routinely trashed by critics and horror fans (and I seem to recall that Peter Cushing once described it as the worst film he ever made--I personally think that is debatable). But I finally got to see it a couple of years ago and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. There are scenes in the later part of the film where Cushing is staying at a Victorian bed and breakfast with his daughter, and he often has to struggle not to let the wallpaper and Victoriana in the front parlor steal every scene. Sounds as if the author of this Holmes dish-up saw the film and decided to spin some fool's gold out of discarded hay. cheers, H. Also my first thought. The silly und thoroughly unconvincing killer moth from this movie. I've never seen the film and now don't need to now you've spoilt it. Anyhow, there's a real-life inhuman monstrosity on the television now - the Dread Orange Tweeter.
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Post by helrunar on Nov 5, 2020 2:20:08 GMT
My favorite part of Vampire Deathshead (there's still an element of the story that remains unspoilt) actually doesn't have to do with the main plot; it involves a school play seemingly intended as an adaptation of, or precursor to, Frankenstein. It was just such an unexpected thing to find in such a film. I wondered if it had been written as filler. But I liked it because it was so loopy.
H.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Nov 5, 2020 12:14:50 GMT
Spoiler alert for Mrs Barrymore, housekeeper of Baskerville Hall. When she wakes up she'll find out that Watson has amputated her arm. She might have slight bother with her dusting.
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Post by andydecker on Nov 5, 2020 12:39:39 GMT
Spoiler alert for Mrs Barrymore, housekeeper of Baskerville Hall. When she wakes up she'll find out that Watson has amputated her arm. She might have slight bother with her dusting. The poor lass is still working?
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Post by Michael Connolly on Nov 5, 2020 15:28:46 GMT
Spoiler alert for Mrs Barrymore, housekeeper of Baskerville Hall. When she wakes up she'll find out that Watson has amputated her arm. She might have slight bother with her dusting. The poor lass is still working? I don't know yet. I'm sure Watson will help after he gets over his post-Hound stress. He did manage to deck a bigot. It's all very post-modern.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Nov 14, 2020 11:40:53 GMT
A Study in Crimson: Sherlock Holmes: 1942 (Polygon, October 2020): www.amazon.co.uk/Study-Crimson-Sherlock-Holmes-1942/dp/1846975271/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=a+study+in+crimson&qid=1605353529&sr=8-1A killer going by the name of 'Crimson Jack' is stalking the wartime streets of London, murdering women on the exact dates of the infamous Jack the Ripper killings of 1888. Has the Ripper somehow returned from the grave? Is the self-styled Crimson Jack a descendant of the original Jack or merely a madman obsessed with those notorious killings?
In desperation Scotland Yard turn to Sherlock Holmes, the world's greatest detective. Surely he is the one man who can sift fact from legend and track down Crimson Jack before he completes his tally of death. As Holmes and the faithful Watson tread the blacked out streets of London, death waits just around the corner.
Inspired by the classic film series from Universal Pictures starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, which updated Sherlock Holmes to the 1940s, this is a brand new adventure from the acclaimed author of The Thirty-One Kings, Castle Macnab and the Artie Conan Doyle Mysteries.
I'm surprised that such a book has not been written so far. So far so grisly, and Holmes's deductions are sound.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Nov 14, 2020 11:47:39 GMT
The poor lass is still working? I don't know yet. I'm sure Watson will help after he gets over his post-Hound stress. He did manage to deck a bigot. It's all very post-modern. Sherlock Holmes and the Beast of the Stapletons got very tedious before the end. I guessed the culprit (and who he really is!) correctly. The book also gives the origin of the funniest joke ever that, as it features Holmes and Watson, is a bit too meta for me.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Nov 19, 2020 14:16:14 GMT
A Study in Crimson: Sherlock Holmes: 1942 (Polygon, October 2020): www.amazon.co.uk/Study-Crimson-Sherlock-Holmes-1942/dp/1846975271/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=a+study+in+crimson&qid=1605353529&sr=8-1A killer going by the name of 'Crimson Jack' is stalking the wartime streets of London, murdering women on the exact dates of the infamous Jack the Ripper killings of 1888. Has the Ripper somehow returned from the grave? Is the self-styled Crimson Jack a descendant of the original Jack or merely a madman obsessed with those notorious killings?
In desperation Scotland Yard turn to Sherlock Holmes, the world's greatest detective. Surely he is the one man who can sift fact from legend and track down Crimson Jack before he completes his tally of death. As Holmes and the faithful Watson tread the blacked out streets of London, death waits just around the corner.
Inspired by the classic film series from Universal Pictures starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, which updated Sherlock Holmes to the 1940s, this is a brand new adventure from the acclaimed author of The Thirty-One Kings, Castle Macnab and the Artie Conan Doyle Mysteries.
I'm surprised that such a book has not been written so far. So far so grisly, and Holmes's deductions are sound. Despite some of the dialogue being too modern (even for 1942), tonally the book is closer to Doyle's original version of Sherlock Holmes than Basil Rathbone's. Slightly annoying is a character's use of "Sherlock" to refer to Holmes, when only his brother Mycroft would have done that. This is the media-wide effect of the Benedict Cumberbatch tv series, with Sherlock Holmes now being referred nearly everywhere to as "Sherlock" instead of the usual "Sherlock Holmes", "Holmes" or "Mr. Holmes". Despite that, the book is an okay read and I only guessed the identity of the modern Ripper a page in advance, having missed quite a subtle clue that requires prior knowledge that most readers (including myself) will not have. From an Amazon review: "There is apparently a sequel forthcoming featuring Professor Moriarty and spontaneous combustion!"
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Post by ripper on Dec 1, 2020 14:04:41 GMT
My favorite part of Vampire Deathshead (there's still an element of the story that remains unspoilt) actually doesn't have to do with the main plot; it involves a school play seemingly intended as an adaptation of, or precursor to, Frankenstein. It was just such an unexpected thing to find in such a film. I wondered if it had been written as filler. But I liked it because it was so loopy. H. Yes, that scene just seemed to have wandered in from another film. If I remember correctly, the 'play' comes to an abrupt end when the villain's daughter is shown something or other by one of the students and she screams. It's been ages since I last saw Blood Beast Terror, so the exact details are a bit murky. As for it being a poor film, well, it won't ever win any awards, but I thought it was entertaining enough to pass 90 minutes pleasantly, and the monster was a welcome change from the usual fare.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Oct 4, 2021 10:37:57 GMT
Upcoming: Sherlock Holmes and Count Dracula by Christian Claver (Titan Books, Nov 16th). From Amazon: In this thrilling supernatural mystery, Sherlock Holmes and Count Dracula must join forces to banish a terrible enemy.... Sherlock Holmes is dead. His body lies in a solitary grave on the Sussex Downs, England. But Dr. Watson survives, and is now given permission to release tales in Sherlock's ‘classified dossier’, those cases that are, dear reader, unbelievable – for their subject matter is of the most outré and grotesque nature. In this thrilling first instalment of The Classified Dossier, a Transylvanian nobleman called Count Dracula arrives at Baker Street seeking the help of Sherlock Holmes, for his beloved wife Mina has been kidnapped.But Dracula is a client like no other and Sherlock and Watson must confront – despite the wild, unbelievable notion – the existence of vampires. And before long, Sherlock, Watson and their new vampire allies must work together to banish a powerful enemy growing in the shadows….
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Bram Stoker were friends and admired each other's work. I'm happy to think that both of them would have greatly enjoyed Christian Klaver's exuberant, reverent mashup of their two best-known characters.- James Lovegrove, author of The Cthulhu Casebooks.
A great start to a new series. Klaver knows his Holmes – and his Dracula – and tells a compelling tale that will delight all fans of Holmes and things horrific.- Eric Brown, author of The Martian Menace.
As James Lovegrove wrote the very silly Sherlock Holmes and the Beast of the Stapletons and Eric Brown's T he Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - The Martian Menace was so bad I stopped reading it after thirty pages, and Titan Books seem not to be edited at all, I doubt that Sherlock Holmes and Count Dracula will be worth two damns. But then, I have been wrong before.
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Post by andydecker on Oct 4, 2021 11:06:48 GMT
Upcoming: Sherlock Holmes and Count Dracula by Christian Claver (Titan Books, Nov 16th). [ I doubt that Sherlock Holmes and Count Dracula will be worth two damns. But then, I have been wrong before. Maybe you were. But this is another novel I really, really, really don't want to read. (Shudder).
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Post by Michael Connolly on Oct 4, 2021 11:19:41 GMT
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Post by helrunar on Oct 4, 2021 17:34:14 GMT
I may have screamed a little at this blurb for the Lustrous Pearl thing (which is out of print), found on a popular online retail site:
Thus they are drawn into the mystery of the Vampire lady Maggie Oakenshot, the Kansas gunfighter Randall Thorne, and the gigantic Vampire Apache Indian known as Akal Hua. There is also the puzzle of the Merry Widow, a ship that may be preparing to take the Vampire lady to America…
Horror indeed.
H.
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Post by andydecker on Oct 4, 2021 20:21:56 GMT
I have to admit that I kind of like the title Adventure of the Innsmouth Whaler. It is at least interesting.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Oct 6, 2021 11:32:54 GMT
This original cover for Sherlock Holmes and Dracula is interesting. This information from Locus is best dealt with as a spoiler. {Spoiler}{Spoiler}{Spoiler}{Spoiler} CHRISTIAN KLAVER sold three books, including The Classified Dossier, featuring Sherlock Holmes and vampire John Watson fighting “villains of Gothic literature, including Dracula, Jekyll and Hyde, Dorian Gray, and more,” to Sophie Robinson at Titan Books via Lucienne Diver at The Knight Agency.
I don't like the sound of it at all.
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