Kim Newman

In this third outing in his Anno Dracula sequence, Kim Newman takes us to Rome in 1959. Count Dracula, now retired from British politics since the end of World War I, has been living at the castle of Otranto, just outside Rome, in effective retirement since helping the Allies defeat Hitler in World War 2. Now, it has been announced that he is to re-marry - again - and everyone who is anyone, living or undead, is turning up for the party.

But the Eternal City holds dangers for the undead; a masked assassin, the Crimson Executioner, is killing elder vampires and no-one can say who they are or what their motive is.

We see a number of characters carried forward from previous novels in the sequence. And Newman's compendious knowledge of popular culture is given full rein with a menagerie of walk-ons that many will recognise (though many won't; I'm sure there were plenty of names dropped that I didn't appreciate because of not having researched Italian giallo cinema, for one). There are comic vignettes and a red herring or two. And a number of famous faces have sprouted fangs.

Kim Newman is exactly two years younger than me, so we shared the same media experiences growing up. For that reason, I have always found his books entertaining and on my wavelength, even though I wouldn't normally read horror. But this book defies genre labelling anyway. It is almost a disappointment when the name-dropping has to stop so the plot can be drawn to a conclusion, but all the strings are drawn together without too many obvious loose ends. And there are enough characters left over for future stories.....… (more)

'Professor Moriarty: The Hound of the D'Urbervilles' is an undemanding and fun read, therefore eminently suitable pandemic reading by my standards. In his usual fashion, Newman stuffs the narrative with references to 19th century crime, adventure, and supernatural fiction. Some are explained in endnotes, as the book purports to be the recently rediscovered memoirs of Colonel Sebastian 'Basher' Moran, annotated by an acerbic academic. I gather it doesn't take place in the [b:Anno Dracula|8970727|Anno Dracula (Anno Dracula, #1)|Kim Newman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1434496594l/8970727._SY75_.jpg|1731834] universe, though. On the one hand, the machinations of Moriarty are enormous fun, the pastiche and subversion of Victorian stories is cunningly done, and spotting characters from elsewhere is satisfying. My favourite inclusion was Bianca Castafiore from the Tintin series. On the other hand, Moran is an insufferable narrator and the titular episode dragged on a bit. Nonetheless, I was much amused by the riff on War of the Worlds, Moriarty's two brothers who are also named James, and the most madcap section: 'The Adventure of the Six Maledictions'. Newman has an eye for entertaining details, like Moriarty keeping wasps. It was a wise choice to only let Sherlock Holmes enter the story at the very end; Moran refers to him scornfully as 'The Thin Man'. I found the ending a pleasing twist.

Unfortunately, Moran is so tiresome. His narrative voice is of an amoral adrenaline addict with all the racism, xenophobia, and misogyny of a Victorian stereotype. The framing device makes it clear his accounts of events, and John Watson's for that matter, cannot be trusted. Nonetheless, 467 pages is too long to put up with the man. I'd have preferred a third person narration of the same agreeable hijinks in fictional mashup Victorian London.… (more)