conventional vampires

This well produced volume contains nine original vampire stories and some vampire verse by different authors.
'The Castle of Enchantment' is nice twist of a well-known fairytale, with a very disenchanted heroine. 'The Trophy' looks at how if you are going to get all the astrologers in the land to foretell something, you really might want to listen to what they have to say before going ahead and organising it anyway. 'Mara' is atmospheric and wonderfully evocative of Victorian London, as well as the manners of the time.
'The Legacy' describes Mina Harker as an elderly woman approaching her centennial from the eyes of her great granddaughter. 'The Lord of the Manor' is about an unusual inheritance and the problems with trying to be something you really aren't supposed to be. 'The Reluctant Vampire' is where a girl breaks out of her grave to discover that not only is she actually dead, but that someone decided to dress her in pink… 'Shadow Seek Shadow', where a multi storey car park becomes a place to be terrified of after dark. 'Queasy like Monday Morning' gives a wonderful insight into modern day teaching problems, as well as featuring a slightly inconvenient vampire called 'Bobbity'. 'Hanging with Vampires' is a good lesson about reading the fine print before accepting something for what it is. The vampire verse includes a vampire cat called 'Fluffy' and two other pieces.

Every single piece in this book is of a high standard and very well written, and the stories are original and interesting takes on those undead fiends we know and love so well. The variation in themes and settings makes this a very enjoyable read. A short biographical note on the individual author precedes each story, and as two of the stories are excerpts from ongoing novels, it very much leaves you wanting to read more. The cover by Ken Barr is brilliant, and reminiscent of 1950's pulp horror magazines. I would very much