Anthony Masters (1940–2003)

A survey of the history of the vampire, both as a mythological legendary creature and as a literary figure. The first part of the book deals with the various human psychological developments in ages past that led to various beliefs about blood which the author feels contributed to the rising of superstitions about such beings. These include cannibalism and ancestor worship. There is then a survey of the different countries or areas of the world and the vampire like creature there and the protections believed to work against them. This also touches on werewolf, witch and ghoul beliefs where those overlap.

Later sections dealt with the vampire as a literary character and its use in productions brought to the stage or screen. Because this is an old book, it doesn't cover, for example, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, because the Hammer films starring Christopher Lee were the most influential at the time this was written. Despite that, I found these sections more interesting than the earlier ones which were more of a dry catalogue interspersed with extracts from old travellers tales or Victorian and Edwardian studies of the subject. For this reason therefore I am awarding this only an OK 2 star rating.… (mere)

Enjoyable "novelisation" of 3 unnconnected episodes from the series, plus a shorter tale that looks like it might have been from an unfilmed script and is all a bit perfunctory. Fun to spot the differences between the book and TV versions e.g. Sorry Pal Wrong number doesn't feature DS Chisholm's amusing "goodbye Sprotty" dismissal of a corrupt colleague, and Sprott himself is a much more peripheral figure than he was on TV. I'd guess this was down to Masters being given draft scripts which changed prior to shooting. I'd happily read some more in this series. I think there's at least two, not including series creator Leon Griffiths' own novel which is a much harder edged affair than Masters' adaptations.… (mere)

The Hands of Mr Ottermole by Thomas Burke: While rather different in plot, the atmosphere of the story suggests Hitchcock's silent film, "The Lodger", and Lang's "M". A city in the grip of terror during the deadly reign of The London Strangler! Hitchcock did adapt it for his TV show, and in 1949, the tale was voted the best crime story ever!
Burke was already famous for his Limehouse stories of London's Chinese immigrants, banned in some quarters for shocking bourgeoisie sensibilities by referring to intimate relations between Chinese men and white British women 😱
Interesting that in "Ottermole", the panicked Londoners cannot believe an Englishman could commit such heinous and baffling crimes, and therefore suspicion descends on Eastern European and Middle Eastern immigrant scapegoats: plus ça change...
A wonderfully executed non-supernatural chiller. 4/5🌟
The Open Window by Saki:A slight, somewhat amusing tale. Teenagers! 🙄 3/5🌟… (mere)