It is 1888 and Queen Victoria has remarried, taking as her new consort the Wallachian Prince infamously known as Count Dracula. His polluted bloodline spreads through London as its citizens increasingly choose to be vampires. In the grim backstreets of Whitechapel, a killer known as ‘Silver Knife’ is cutting down vampire girls. The eternally young Genevieve Dieudonne and Charles Beauregard of the Diogenes Club are drawn together as they both hunt the sadistic killer, bringing them ever closer to England’s most bloodthirsty ruler yet. Anno Dracula is a novel that has been on my ‘to read’ list for years. Mrs Cheesecake has mentioned it in passing many times. She read the short story version when it was first published as Red Reign, in the collection the Mammoth Book of Vampires in 1992.  Her enjoyment of this prompted her to seek out the novel when it was released later that year. Mrs Cheesecake suggested that I give this a whirl when the re-release appeared again recently. I read Bram Stoker’s Dracula many moons ago, what self respecting horror fan hasn’t?  Anno Dracula is pitched as a direct sequel based on the premise that Van Helsing and his group failed. Dracula has…

Please note if you haven’t read Feed, part one of the Newsflesh Trilogy, this review contains some spoilers. Also it’s brilliant and you totally should. Nothing stays buried for long… Shaun Mason is a man without a mission. Not even running the new organisation he built with his sister has the same urgency as it used to. Playing with dead things just doesn’t seem fun when you’ve lost as much as he has. But when a researcher from the Centre for Disease Control fakes her own death and appears on his doorstep with a ravenous pack of zombies in tow, Shaun’s relieved to find a new purpose in his life. Because she brings news: the monster who attacked them may be destroyed, but the conspiracy is far from dead. Now, Shaun hits the road to find what truth can be found at the end of a shotgun. Feed was hands down one of my favourite reads of 2010. It brought new life, if you’ll pardon the pun, to the zombie novel. Pitched somewhere between The West Wing and Day of the Dead it was a terrific read and I have been looking forward to the arrival of it’s sequel, Deadline,…

Northern Europe, 976 AD. Bjolf and the viking crew of the ship Hrafn flee up an unknown river after a bitter battle, only to find themselves in a bleak land of pestilence. The dead don’t lie down, but become draugr – the undead – returning to feed on the flesh of their kin. Terrible stories are told of a dark castle in a hidden fjord, and of black ships that come raiding with invincible draugr berserkers. And no sooner has Bjolf resolved to leave, than the black ships appear. Now stranded, his men cursed by the contagion of walking death, Bjolf has once choice: fight his way through a forest teeming with zombies, invade the castle and find the secret of the horrific condition – or submit to an eternity of shambling, soulless undeath! Mrs Cheesecake can confirm that I have a slight obsession with the idea of zombies, the concept freaks me out, yet I find myself regularly drawn to reading about them. Over the last couple of years, I have read a fair number of zombie related novels but somehow, and I’m not quite sure how, I managed to totally miss the Tomes of the Dead series by Abaddon…

People are predictable. That’s what makes them easy to kill. Detective Chief Inspector Prosper Snow is in charge of an investigation into a serial killer called The Oracle who turns his victims into macabre works of art. But Prosper harbours a dark secret of his own. He and his old school friends were members of a group called The Kult, who made a pact to dish out their own form of vengeance on bullies. Now a member of the group puts their friendship to the test when he makes a far darker request: that they murder someone that raped his wife. To get away with murder, the friends decide to blame it on The Oracle, but events take a chilling turn when the instigator turns up dead, his body fashioned into a disturbing work of art. Now, one by one, the members of The Kult are being hunted down. Just when Prosper thinks things can’t get any worse, his wife is kidnapped and he knows that if he goes to his colleagues for help, he risks his dark deeds being unearthed. If he doesn’t, he risks losing all that he holds dear. I’m a great believer that the best, most…

Peter has been married to Patricia for nearly thirty years. He’s a practical man, the owner of a thriving factory and the father of two fine lads. He also has a secret mistress. One day, his wife takes him along to an outdoor arts exhibition involving some of her paintings, staged in a dark, deep wood. But his are not the only secrets in this marriage, and as Peter strays off the only path through the woods, he soon realises that Patricia has more than a few of her own… Abolisher of Roses by Gary Fry is the second release from Spectral Press. This short story takes place over the course of a single, grey winter afternoon. At first glance Peter and Patricia would appear to have everything you could ask for. He is a self made man, wealthy and powerful. She is a kept woman and has the luxury to spend her time doing exactly what she wants. Shortly after arriving at the exhibition an argument ensues, and Peter storms off rather than admit he may be in some way responsible. He finds himself alone in the forest and forced to confront three increasingly challenging and gruesome pieces of…

It’s Saturday. Going shopping? For a meal? To the movies? Everything nice and normal, right? By Sunday, civilization is in ruins. Adults have become murderously insane – literally. They’re infected with a crazed uncontrollable urge to kill the young. Including their own children. THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS… Time again to raid my bookshelves and dig out another classic novel that I haven’t touched for many years. Blood Crazy by Simon Clark was originally published back in 1995 and as soon as I started reading it I knew it was something that was going to stay with me for a long time. Much like my fascination with zombies, I am both disturbed yet drawn to fiction that covers the end of the world. When we are first introduced to seventeen year old Nick Aten he is a bit of a slacker. He lives in a quiet suburb of Doncaster and having left school with no qualifications, he is really only interested in drinking beer, having a good time and getting into fights with his life-long nemesis, Tug Slater. With a flick of a mental switch, overnight everything changes. Every human over the age of 20 develops a psychopathic…

Meet Callaghan, a hard-drinking, drug-fuelled, womanising no-good son-of-a-bitch. He’s the amoral hardcore photographer for Black & White, the tabloid rag that tells it as it is. Or at least, how it should be. Callaghan’s in way too deep with Mia, his Mexican stripper girlfriend… and even deeper with Sophie, estranged wife to Vladimir “Vodka” Katchevsy, infamous Romanian gun-runner and self-eulogising expert at human problem solving. People start to die. And Callaghan’s caught in the middle. A situation even his Porsche GT3, Canary Wharf Penthouse suite and corrupt politician contacts can’t solve. At the nadir of his downward spiral, Callaghan is approached by a man: a serial killer who brings him a very unique and dangerous proposition… Serial Killers Incorporated by Andy Remic is the first release from the new e-publisher Anarchy Books. Callaghan initially comes across as a self absorbed hedonist. He is all about number one. He is only really interested in something if he can ride it, drink it, screw it or stick it up his nose. When we first meet him he is the classic anti-hero. The rest of the world can go to hell as long as his appetites are sated. As the plot develops however, it…

From the undead vampire in the Romanian mausoleum, Boris Dragosani tries to draw an evil force so powerful he will gain supremacy in the ultra-secret paranormal agency he works for in Russia. His official job is as a necroscope – his speciality is tearing secrets from the souls of newly-dead traitors. And England too has her necroscope – her communicator with the dead. When Harry Keogh is recruited by the British Secret Service to take on the paranormal menace from behind the Iron curtain, the stage is set for the most horrifying, violent supernatural confrontation ever…. I first read Necroscope by Brian Lumley way back in the early nineties after stumbling across and then swiftly devouring Lumley’s other series, the Psychomech trilogy. I was keen to read more of his work and Necroscope was already on book three or four when I started so I knew there would be plenty to continue reading if I enjoyed the first book. The novel begins with a brief prologue outlining the business of E-Branch, the United Kingdom’s most secretive agency. Set during the Cold War era seventies and eighties, E-Branch recruits those people with ‘special gifts’. Using these abilities, like telepathy or far-seeing,…

They thought space was the final frontier – they were wrong. Recently I spent a bit of time examining the phenomenon that is the mash-up novel. I reviewed the zombie/Jane Austen trilogy that begins with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Overall, the experience was a lot of fun and it was nice to read various authors attempts to bring two dramatically different genres together in such a full on way. For my next foray into the world of mash-up novels I decided to stick with zombies but bring things bang up to date with something that is set this century rather than at the turn of the nineteenth. Night of the Living Trekkies by Kevin D Anderson and Sam Stall brings finds the hordes of undead taking on their most awesome foe yet, Star Trek geeks. I should point out, in the spirit of full disclosure, I would probably fall into this category. Jim Pike works at a large hotel in downtown Houston. As an ex-serviceman, after two tours of Afghanistan, he wants nothing more than to quietly go about his life acquiring as little responsibility as possible. His sister is coming into town to attend Gulf Con Star Trek…

For those that have not read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies as well as Dawn of the Dreadfuls please note that this review contains some minor spoilers. The final novel in the Pride and Prejudice and Zombie trilogy is published today. Dreadfully Ever After by Steve Hockensmith picks up the story four years later. Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy are now happily married and living at Mr Darcy’s country estate, Pemberly. Elizabeth has hung up her flintlock and katana, as it is improper for a married woman to be involved in dealing with ‘the stricken‘. Everything should be perfect, she has the man of her dreams and leads the life she has always wanted but instead she feels unease with her life. She is unsure if she wants to start a family and misses her warrior lifestyle. During a long country walk Darcy is attacked and bitten by a zombie and the death of Elizabeth’s husband seems all but inevitable until Darcy’s aunt, the formidable Lady Catherine De Bourgh arrives. She has heard rumours of a possible cure but before Elizabeth can investigate further Lady Catherine demands Darcy is placed in her care. It falls to The Bennet clan to try…

Journey back to Regency England – Land of the Undead Dawn of the Dreadfuls by Steve Hockensmith is a prequel to the hugely successful zombie/Jane Austen mash-up novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Set five years before the first novel, it follows the five Bennet sisters as they are trained in the deadly arts of the warrior, in order to combat the undead menace that plagues England. The reader learns of Oscar Bennet’s part in ‘The Troubles’ and how, as a younger man, he made a promise to raise all his children as warriors, irrespective of their gender. It is a definite plus point that the reader gets to learn more about the character of Mr Bennet. In Pride and Prejudice and Zombies he is very much a secondary character but in the prequel his story is brought to the fore. He is head of the family and still, just about, in control of his wayward daughters. Once again Elizabeth is the main female protagonist but in this case she is only eighteen and much less sure of herself. Mr Darcy is not yet on the scene so she finds herself torn between the enigmatic Master Hawksworth, and a man of…

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.” Recently I wrote the following statement while reviewing a book – I have often suspected any novel can only be enhanced by the addition of rampaging hordes of undead. The publisher Quirk Books, originators of the mash-up novel, were obviously listening and sent me some books that would allow me to test that theory. Over the next few days I’ll be posting reviews of a few of them. The first novel I read is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith. Before I begin, I have an admission to make, I have to be honest and admit that I have never read any of Jane Austen’s work. After discussing the book at length with my wife, who has read Austen, I am assured that the majority of the plot remains the same as the original text. The five Bennet sisters are all of marriageable age and their mother is keen to ensure that they all marry well into wealthy, well to-do families. The second eldest daughter, Elizabeth, is headstrong and independent. She refuses to bow to convention and…

Department 6 is the Army. Department 13 is MI5. Department 19 is the reason you’re alive. When I initially launched The Eloquent Page I didn’t even consider reading, never mind reviewing, any young adult fiction. Towards the end of last year I changed my mind and decided to take the plunge. I read The Enemy by Charlie Higson and All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka and I have to admit I was just blown away by both. They were great examples of their respective genres and it was clear to me that young adult fiction had come a long way since my teenage years. With those experiences still fresh in my mind, I was keen to try another novel aimed at the teen market. There has been a lot of buzz around the Internet in the last couple of months regarding Department 19 by Will Hill so when I got the opportunity to read an advance copy I jumped at the chance. Seen through the eyes of sixteen year old Jamie Carpenter, the reader is introduced to the United Kingdom’s most secret government agency – Department 19. Jamie and his widowed mother are attacked by a strange creature one night in…