Whitby Vampyrrhic

In wartime Britain, vampires and an ancient curse rule the night . . . - Winter, 1942. Beth, Sally and Alec are the only guests in an eerie seaport hotel in Whitby with a peculiar subterranean tunnel linking it to the ocean. It is a hotel haunted by questions. What does Eleanor Charwood, the landlady, hide in her basement, and what caused the bite-marks on her reclusive brother, Theo? Can the trio survive a Viking curse and save their very souls?From Publishers WeeklyReaders looking for the imaginative plotting and exploration of character that Clark displayed in The Night of the Triffids, his clever sequel to John Wyndham's classic The Day of the Triffids, will be disappointed by this cookie-cutter story of an English town infested by the undead, set during WWII. Two friends, Beth Layne and Sally Wainwright, come to Whitby, which figures prominently in Bram Stoker's Dracula, to act in a film whose purpose, according to its director, Alec Reed, is to explain what it is like to live in the Britain of 1942. Instead, the two actresses and Reed wind up engaging in heroic efforts to slay all the vampires who are plaguing the area. Clark fails to generate many chills, nor does he make the most of his idea that these English bloodsuckers are somehow connected to the Norse gods. (May) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistIn 1942, Beth and Sally are actresses in a new film being shot in the seaside town of Whitby (which, if you’ve read the author’s Vampyrrhic, 1999, or Vampyrrhic Rites, 2008, you know has seen some rather frightening goings-on). Alec is the film’s writer and director, and along with Beth and Sally, they encounter horrors the likes of which they have never imagined, including, as the title suggests, the walking undead. Clark continues his winning streak, turning in another deft performance. The story is meaty and suspenseful, and the trio of protagonists—outspoken Beth, reserved Sally, ambitious Alec—are likable and engaging. Clark begins slowly, establishing the characters and the setting; but as the story progresses, the pace picks up until, by the end, we’re flipping the pages as fast as we can. Highly recommended for horror fans. --David Pitt