John Llewellyn Probert – Against the Darkness

John Llewellyn Probert – Against the Darkness (Screaming Dreams, 2009)

Stephen Upham

blurb:
Not Your Run-Of-The-Mill Mysteries…..

A gymnasium that can suck the life from you
A grand piano with a deadly secret
Zombie Vikings buried on a Somerset beach
A wedding reception where the guests get eaten – by the bride
A cathedral harbouring an unspeakable evil to be unleashed live on ‘Songs of Praise’
A haunted comprehensive school with a history of appalling violence

Not Your Run-Of-The-Mill Investigators….

Mr Massene Henderson lives in a huge mansion in the Welsh mountains, has a wardrobe filled with far too many velvet smoking jackets, and thinks nothing of despatching the denizens of hell he encounters with incantations, spells, or if necessary a very big gun.

Miss Samantha Jephcott wears a lot of black, works in middle management, doesn’t know she’s psychic, doesn’t believe in the paranormal, and doesn’t have any idea that she’s about to have the most exciting year of her life.

Not Your Run-Of-The-Mill Short Story Collection…

John Llewellyn Probert’s ‘Against the Darkness’ brings together the first eleven cases of this unlikely couple. Join them as their adventures take them from North Wales to New York, Ross-on-Wye to Reykjavik, Portishead to Paris, and on a very brief trip at over a hundred miles an hour through Weston super-Mare. The volume also contains an introduction by the author and extensive notes on the writing of the tales themselves. All this and instructions on how to play the theme from a famous Italian horror film on the piano. What more could you want?

Trisha Telep – Love Bites: Vampire Romance 2

Trisha Telep (ed.) – Love Bites: The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance 2 (Robinson, 2009)

Cover design: JoeRoberts.co.uk

Jordan Summers – Paris After Dark
Deborah Cooke – Coven Of Mercy
Karen MacInerney – Cirque De La Nuit
Caitlin Kittredge – Perdition
Dina James – Deliver Us From Evil
Camille Bacon-Smith – Blood And Thyme
Rosemary Laurey – Into The Mists Forever
Patti O’Shea – Blood Feud
Angie Fox – Love Bites
Caitlin Kiernan – Flotsam
Jamie Leigh Hansen – The Murder King’s Woman
Carole Nelson Douglas Butterfly Kisses
Diane Whiteside – Crimson Kisses
Jaye Wells – Vampsploitation
Stacia Kane – Trust Me
Jennifer Ashley – The Scotsman And The Vamp
Justine Musk – I Need More You
Jennifer St. Giles – Point Of No Return
Dawn Cook [Kim Harrison] – With Friends Like These
Nancy Holder – Blood Gothic
Larissa Ione – Eternity Embraced
Jeanne Stein – The Ghost Of Leadville
Tiffany Trent – The Vampire, The Witch, And The Yenko
Ann Aguirre – Circle Unbroken
Devon Monk – Skein Of Sunlight

Blurb:
A wonderful variety of compellingly original vampire stories, many of them wholly unexpected, from award-winning, New York Times bestselling authors. There are typical vampires who would be right at home in a horror story or a gothic romance; historical vampires; contemporary, gritty, urban vampires; fang-in-cheek comedy; boy-meets-girl sweetheart stories (if a little bloodier!); and erotic tales of inhuman passions and midnight pleasures. Look out, too, for stand-alone stories relating to existing series and characters of contributing authors, or stories which develop more fully characters who have only walk-on parts in those authors’ longer fiction. Includes writing by big-name authors such as Jennifer Ashley, Kim Harrison writing as Dawn Cook, Caitlin Kittredge, Diane Whiteside and Eileen Wilks.

Much better cover! i’m almost certain it’s a Joe Roberts job – Mammoth Book Of Vampire Romance certainly was and he’s been responsible for many of the best Robinsons in recent years. Nancy Holder’s Blood Gothic first appeared in Stephen Jones’ Mammoth Book Of Vampires (Robinson, 1992) via Charles L. Grant’s Shadows 8.