After months of unavoidable delays and disruption, it suddenly feels very real again.
I’ll fill you in on the latest situation a bit further
down in today’s post. Very relevantly to this, I’ll also be offering a detailed
discussion and review of Reggie Oliver’s amazing novel, THE DRACULA PAPERS – it’s
relevant because a new story by Reggie appears in the Cornwall book, but also
because it’s horror and horror is the theme of the day.
But as usual, you’ll be able to find that review at the
lower end of today’s post. If you’re happy to stick around here a little while
first, there are some other bits and bobs to talk about ...
First of all, I’ll be appearing at the Mill Forge Hotel, just outside Gretna Green, this coming Saturday (March 11) as part of the CRIME AND PUBLISHMENT weekend, to make a presentation and talk animatedly (at least, I hope I'll be animated) about HOW TO PUT HORROR INTO YOUR CRIME WRITING.
I won’t be the only attraction at the Mill Forge this weekend, of
course. LIN ANDERSON (left) will be there to talk about the use of forensics, and TOM
HARPER (right) to discuss suspense, among several other immeasurable talents.My own subject was chosen for me by GRAHAM SMITH, Mill gaffer and crime-writer extraordinaire, so I owe him a big debt of thanks for that. He was very keen to hear me impart any wisdom I may have gleaned during my gradual transformation over the years from horror writer to crime novelist.
I will admit, I was a bit nervous initially. My two-and-a-half
hour slot is considerably longer than any previous slot of this sort that I’ve
been allocated, but I think (hope, pray!) that I’ll have prepped my stuff sufficiently
to make this an interesting time for all those planning to attend.
If you are heading to the Mill this weekend, I look
forward to seeing you. And if you’re a regular on this blog, or on Facebook or Twitter, or whatever, please introduce yourself to me. It’s always great to
put names to faces.
Now … onto the subject of the TERROR TALES books.
It was a personal mission of mine for several years to
edit anthologies of original horror fiction, specifically in reference to
folklore, mythology and real-life paranormal or occult-related mysteries, of
which we have an absolute plethora here in the UK.
The result was the TTs, as I like to call them.
Originally published by the late lamented Gray Friar
Press, the series started out spiffingly with TERROR TALES OF THE LAKE DISTRICT and
then ran on through THE COTSWOLDS, EAST ANGLIA, LONDON, THE SEASIDE, WALES, YORKSHIRE,
THE SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS and THE OCEAN (yes, we’ve gone further and further
afield the deeper into it we delved – it quickly became apparent to me
that there were plenty other places in the world replete with eeriness and the
arcane, so it was never the plan to draw the line once we’d covered the UK …
not that we’re even close to that yet).
As such, taking a leaf out of R. Chetwynd-Hayes’s TALES OF TERROR series from the 1970s, as published by Fontana, I opted to intersperse the fictional stories with non-fictional anecdotes – true terror tales if you like, supernatural occurrences, bizarre mysteries, horrific events, unexplained but ghastly crimes.
So for example, while in TERROR TALES OF THE OCEAN, we
have Steve Duffy’s fictional account of a sea-rescue from Hell in ‘Lie Still, Sleep Becalmed’, we also examine the true life mystery of the Palmyra Atoll curse. Likewise, while in TERROR TALES OF THE SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS, we join Peter
Bell on an ill-fated climbing expedition to a mountain-top rock form called ‘The Executioner’, we also investigate the incredible true facts in the case of the killer and cannibal, Tristicloke
the Wolf.This format was replicated throughout the series, and went on to win quite a bit of praise from various corners.
Anyway, as many are now probably aware, early last year, when half way through production of the 10th book in the series, TERROR TALES OF CORNWALL, the publisher, Gray Friar, through no fault of their own, were forced to cease trading. It was a sad event in the independent press, not just because of the TTs, but because GF had been a hugely productive outfit and a very adventurous publisher of British weird fiction.
All good things come to an end, but I was determined that TERROR TALES was going to continue. I needed to look around for a new publisher of course, and this coincided with the ever more time consuming process of writing of my own crime novels, which seemed to reduce the hours available to the bare minimum.
But despite this, we’ve got there in the end.
The new book is coming out from TELOS PUBLISHING, a hugely well-regarded independent publisher here in the UK. And it’s with every likelihood, and a firm intention on both our parts, that more volumes will follow.
But don’t just take my word for it. As you saw above, the
final proof of TERROR TALES OF CORNWALL arrived at my office only yesterday.So yes, after a long hiatus, the series is finally up and running again.
We don’t have an actual publication date or pre-order page as yet, but if you keep your eyes glued to this blog, Facebook, Twitter etc, I shall endeavour to post that information as soon as I get it, along with the full jacket, including the back-cover blurb, and a detailed table of contents.
THRILLERS, CHILLERS, SHOCKERS AND KILLERS
An ongoing series of reviews of dark fiction (crime,
thriller and horror novels) – both old and new – that I have recently read and
enjoyed. I’ll endeavour to keep the SPOILERS to a minimum; there will certainly
be no given-away denouements or exposed twists-in-the-tail, but by the
definition of the word ‘review’, I’m going to be talking about these books in
more than just thumbnail detail, extolling the aspects that I particularly
enjoyed … so I guess if you’d rather not know anything at all about these
pieces of work in advance of reading them yourself, then these particular posts
will not be your thing.
Outline
In the mid-16th century, Prince Vladimir Dracul of
Transylvania, son of the vain and greedy king, Xantho, commences his rise to
prominence as ‘the Impaler’ and in due course as ‘Dracula the Vampire’, through
a series of violent, hair-raising adventures, an intense love affair and a
succession of bizarre supernatural events.
All of this is observed and, in fact, noted down and
related to us in diary form by the German scholar, Doctor Martin Bellorious,
who at the start of this book, along with his companions, sly alchemist-in-training
Matthew Verney and good-natured dwarf, Razendoringer, flees the University of
Wittenberg before a heresy charge can be levelled, and heads east through ever
more dangerous territories.
It is already difficult to say much more about this
astonishing narrative, because almost from the word-go, amazing, delightful and
crucially important plot-developments occur – and continue to occur at a rate
of at least one a chapter. Suffice to say that this is Europe of the 1570s, a vast,
desolate, largely lawless land, where bandits haunt the highways, wolves fill
the forests, armies wage endless internecine warfare, noblemen rule as crazy despots,
black magic is very, very real and, when night falls, all kinds of evil
supernatural beings walk abroad.
For example, despite a straightforward appointment to school rival princes Vlad (pictured above in his more famous later guise) and Mircea, Bellorious soon earns the enmity of the ambitious chamberlain, Alexander of Glem, who constantly puts dangers and difficulties in his path, he learns unsavoury things about Queen Eupraxia – things which could easily get him killed, he discovers that Xantho is more interested in acquiring wealth and in mocking his gibbering courtiers than he is in organising matters of state, and he struggles to educate Prince Mircea, whose main interests are guzzling wine and ravishing servant girls.
At the same time, there are countless weird and wonderful
things in Castle Dracula. From complete absurdities – like a mechanical eating
machine which Xantho forces upon one of his boyar flatterers; to the highly
distasteful – like the deranged courtier who lives on a diet of spiders,
cockroaches and other vermin; to the truly terrifying – like the vampiristic
ghost said to roam the Old Queen’s apartments and the tribe of madmen living in
the deepest, most forgotten parts of the castle dungeons.
Unfortunately for Bellorious, he doesn’t have much time
to explore properly in order to assess these curiosities. Because all the time
this is happening, the legions of Murad III (right), Sultan of the immense Ottoman
Empire, are massing on the border under the super-efficient leadership of the
ferocious Turkish warrior, Grand Vizier Sokolly. Despite the warnings of Ragul,
Xantho’s illegitimate son and commander-in-chief of his armed forces, Xantho is
strangely unconcerned about any this, so when the attack finally arrives it
does so with overwhelming force. By this time, Bellorious has enlightened
Prince Vlad sufficiently for him to realise that his homeland is in very
serious trouble, and the noble youth participates in the following campaign
with almost reckless courage. But both he and his teacher are aware from an
early stage that victory, ultimately, is going to elude them, even if it is
wrested away from them by skillful negotiation rather than bloody conflict.
Only God knows – or maybe the Devil – what will happen to
them after that …
Review
It’s often said of Reggie Oliver that he is genre
fiction’s best-kept secret. I have two immediate thoughts on that. First of
all, it’s probably true. Secondly, if it is true it’s an absolute crime.
Oliver, who already had a successful career as an actor,
theatre director, playwright and biographer before his writing took a
distinctly darker turn in the early 2000s, is by far one of the most talented practitioners
of spookiness currently working in the English language. It’s probably true to
say that he first came to the literary horror world’s attention with a series
of searingly frightening and at the same time very eloquent short stories
– ghost stories on the surface, though often much deeper and more complex than
that, strongly reminiscent of both M.R. James and Robert Aickman (if you can
imagine such a thing!), and yet embracing every kind of nightmare in the weird
fiction spectrum: from the restless dead to the demonic, from the spirits of
myth to the often even worse aberrations of the human psyche, and invariably
wrapping it all up in succinct, readable, and yet delightfully poetic prose.
Of course, not every expert in the short form is able to
expand his skill into the much broader realm of the novel; the two disciplines
don’t necessarily overlap. However, it was a joy (and somehow no surprise at
all) to discover that this does not apply to Reggie Oliver, whose first novel, The
Dracula Papers, is just as elegantly written, just as thought-provoking, just
as shudder-inducing and just as much a pleasure and an entertainment as any of
his short stories.
The first volume in a proposed trilogy studying the
origins of Count Dracula the vampire, this is already a phenomenal feat of
strange literature and though only one of three, a completely satisfying novel
in its own right, which should appeal to a wide readership.
To begin with, The Dracula Papers isn’t specifically a
horror novel, though there is much horror on show here: spine-chilling horror
of the traditional ghost story variety on one hand, and sensual, shocking
horror on the other – nothing explicit, though of such a lurid and Gothic tone
that some of it wouldn’t be out of place in the old Dracula movies of the
Hammer era. But in addition to all that, the book is written with such an air
of authority, delving so deeply and fascinatingly into the culture of the time
and place, touching on the many beliefs and philosophies prevalent in that age
– everything from long-held superstitions, to late-medieval romances, to the intellectual chaos wrought by changing religion and advancing science – that
it reeks of scholarship in its own right.
On top of that, it’s an historical saga on a grand but brutal
scale. We see brandings, beheadings and impalements galore, a truly memorable
scene wherein an avalanche of severed heads is launched over the walls of
Castle Dracula by the besieging Turkish army, and one enormous battle which
becomes a literal slaughterhouse.
Again, none of this is graphic or titillating, but it’s
all there on the page – which only adds to the vivid portrayal of a terrible
world now thankfully lost in time. And yet this itself is a kind of irony,
because Oliver, rather bravely, makes no real effort to depict true historical
events.
The Dracula Papers owes as much to folklore as it does to
genuine history, and not a little amount to fiction. For example, the real Vlad
Tepes and his brother, Mircea, lived in the 15th century not the 16th, there
was no actual kingdom of Transylvania in this era, rather it was a principality
of the kingdom of Hungary, while the lofty position the real Vlad aspired to
was not as a king but as Prince of Wallachia, and Elizabeth Bathory (later
known as ‘Countess Dracula’) who appears here renamed Nyela and as a deceased
but murderess noblewoman of earlier decades, was not even born in 1477, when
the real Vlad the Impaler died.
But none of this matters. In fact, it adds to the joy.
Because what we’ve got here, rather than a textbook, is a richly-woven fabric
of adult-themed fairy tales. For example, not even the well-educated and
clear-minded Martin Bellorious thinks it odd that a local village is terrorised
by a ‘murony’; in fact it is he who takes it on himself to dispose of the evil
sprite. Rumours of the terrifying Black Cathedral – a secret university
dedicated to the dark arts – are believed with absolute certainty. When Bellorious
encounters Issachar, a vagrant claiming to be the Wandering Jew of apocryphal
legend, he is honoured rather than doubtful. Likewise, when the Turkish
sorcerer, Zushad, displays necromantic powers, Bellorious is only one of many
fascinated witnesses to the dramatic and nightmarish outcome.
But this is not just a story about myths coming true.
Oliver also presents us with the real, functioning and yet terribly unjust
world of the Reformation, where the peasantry struggles annually for survival,
monarchs seek only to enrich themselves, and seats of intellectualism like colleges
and guilds are too busy arguing about heresy to care about everyday affairs. He
also concerns himself with military matters. Eastern Europe is now under threat
from the Ottomans, the gunpowder-capable armies of the Early Modern Age
constantly redrawing the map as they manoeuvre around each other, feinting and
sallying, and occasionally clashing full-on to spectacularly bloody effect. At
the same time, courtly intrigue is everywhere, both in the magnificent Ottoman
capital of Istanbul – ‘Stamboul’, as it is referred to here – but also in the
Spartan confines of Castle Dracula, where such is the underhand scheming that
no-one, not even Xantho’s unfaithful wife, Queen Eupraxia, feels totally safe.
This brings me onto the characters, which – even those who
only make a fleeting appearance – are constructed by Oliver swiftly and yet in
full, complex fashion.
Even though we’re immersed in the world of angels and
demons, there are few individuals here who are all good and all bad. Bellorious
himself makes a fine lead, though he’s very human. Despite his status, he is
only in his late 20s, and yet throughout the narrative displays wisdom, probity
and empathy – he only takes lives when he has to, and though he’s a scholar and
in many ways, an ascetic, his lustful yearning for the beautiful slave-girl,
Inanna, is almost painful.
Dracula himself – Vlad in this preliminary volume –
though he starts off a wide-eyed youth and an eager student, soon gives hints
that he has a darker side: he is petty, he sulks and he will kill in battle with
what can only be described as gusto. In addition, he is instantly recognisable
as the scion of a noble house, for though he is brave, handsome and dashing, he
is also self-centred to an alarming degree.
Other characters are equally colourful, if more briefly
handled. Matthew Verney is untrustworthy from the outset, but Oliver paints him
slowly and with immense skill, transforming him from ambiguity to villainy with
a pace so subtle that it consciously takes up the length of the novel. Others
meanwhile are more bound by their stations in life: rival sovereigns, Murad and
Xantho, and the latter’s son and heir, Mircea, are distinctly unimpressive men,
undeserving of the life-and-death control they exert, and yet so bored by it
all that they often neglect their responsibilities, allowing ambitious underlings
like Sokolly and Alexander of Glem to grow in power. Meanwhile, below them, better
people are eternally doomed by their subservient status: Commander Ragul takes
his job seriously, but knows that ultimately he will fail because he lacks the
support of his king, and he is very aware that he himself will pay for this failure; star-crossed
lovers Razendoringer and dwarf lady-in-waiting Dolabella, though spirited
individuals of many talents, will always be servants and/or buffoons because
they are dwarfs; while Inanna, the saddest character of all, has accepted her
life as a sex-slave to the point where she will trade the abuse of her body to
get better deals for her friends.
Despite these melancholic moments, The Dracula Papers, what we have so far seen of it, is a richly textured, meticulously-researched piece
of fiction, but also a rolling, comedic, action-packed yarn, filled with magic,
mystery and mayhem, romantic and sexual love, wild violence and chilling
horror, and dosed throughout with the author’s trademark scholarly asides and
scathing humour.
A bona fide treat of a novel that will leave no-one
disappointed.
As usual, I’m now going to be bold enough to suggest a
cast I personally would select should The Dracula Papers #1: The Scholar’s Tale
ever make it to the screen (and how I would love to see that happen). It would
be an expensive production for sure, but then so was Game of Thrones, and I’m
always hearing how the networks are looking for a like-for-like follow-up to
that hugely successful show. Well, guys … here you go.
Martin Bellorious – Darren Boyd (older than written, but it’d work)
Prince Vladimir – Will Poulter
Razendoringer – Warwick Davis
Matthew Verney – Iwan Rheon
Prince Mircea – Aaron Taylor-Johnson
Ragul – Alexander Dreymon
Alexander of Glem – Daniel Webb
King Xantho – Vincent Regan
Queen Eupraxia – Patricia Velasquez
Issachar – Rutger Hauer
Grand Vizier Sokolly – Burak Özçivit
Inanna – Hend Sabry
Zushad – Art Malik
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