Laurence James – The Road

Laurence James – The Road   (NEL, 1983)

Blurb:
The girl, half-naked, eyes demurely downcast, barely flinched as the knife blade pressed caressingly into the soft skin of her right breast.

Around her the chanting had died away and the ritual, rhythmic circling was stilled. A bead of blood … and another, another, sudden and bright in the candlelight, trembled, then trickled down the smooth flesh, splashing silently into the copper bowl.

Then came the incantations. Then the caged wren, bird of prophecy, was released to fly into the early sun.

Later, alone at the wheel of his car, a man cried out in panic as the windscreen exploded back into his face. Behind him, fluttering and broken by the impact, a bird lay on the road.

This was the first death.

Justin Marriott – A Visual Guide To New English Library

Justin Marriott (ed.) – A Visual Guide To New English Library: Volume One (Nov. 2010)

Blurb:
British Publisher New English Library are a legend amongst vintage paperback fans and collectors throughout the world.

Their cult output is celebrated in the first of an ongoing series of visual guides from the producers of The Paperback Fanatic magazine.

Volume one is crammed with full colour reproductions of rare covers. The glorious visuals are accompanied by insightful commentary and full bibliographical detail, including previously unrecorded information on pseudonyms.

more details on Vault Of Evil Forum:

Paperback Fanatic 11

Justin Marriott (ed.) – Paperback Fanatic #11 (August, 2009)

Contents

Editorial:
Fanatical Mail – Paperback fanatics from around the world have their say!
AGRO! – The Fanatic continues its look at Hell’s Angels pulps
Thirty Years Behind The Typewriter – Classic Steve Holland interview with versatile author Peter Leslie
I’ve Been Up So Long – Fanatic interviews publishing maverick Mark Howell. The NEL editor’s reminiscences of life with Laurence James, Jim Moffatt, Peter Haining, Bob Tanner & Co.
The Lives And Loves Of James Moffatt – Fanatic investigates the many pen-names of Richard ‘Skinhead’ Allen
Take A Journey to Dimension X – The Fanatic studies the ‘Jeffrey Lord’ sword and sorcery series Blade
A Green Dog Trumpeting – The Fanatic interviews Ian Miller one of the most idiosyncratic and distinctive of all paperback artists whose work includes The Sucking Pit, Errol LeCale’s Zombie, and the striking covers for the Panther reprints of Lovecraft’s At The Mountains Of Madness and The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward.

Edited by Justin Marriott : justinATjustincuitprint.free-online.co.uk
Designed by Glenn B Fleming : gbf15AThotmail.co.uk
Published August 2009: contact www.thepaperbackfanatic.com

Laurence James – Paradise Lost

Laurence James – Paradise Lost (NEL 1984)

Review by Nightreader

Paradise is the name of a very secluded, very exclusive and expensive Caribbean resort village for the pampered rich. The inhabitants of the luxury cabins on this remote island are real horrors in themselves: a surgery enhanced old lady with her stud toy boy, an aging gangster with his underage hooker playmate, a honeymooning gossip columnist with a cocaine habit and a very rich wife…

There’s also a brutal psychotic killer on the island, waiting to pick them off one by one.

The island staff are routinely swapped on Mondays, just when a huge storm hits the island, ensuring that the relief staff from the mainland are unable to land. The guests on the island are trapped. Someone has sent a message to the mainland saying the jetty is damaged and can’t receive the new staff…then the radio is smashed to bits. And the killings start.

This was a great fun read. Basically it’s Agatha Christie’s  Ten Little Niggers but with lots of sex and gory murders. And in the best tradition of whodunnits the killer isn’t revealed till the very end. There are lots of music references – one couple meet a very sticky end while Rod Stewart is playing on the stereo!

Nothing complicated here, the characters are interesting and superficially pretty awful people (just how we imagine celebs to be). Strangely you find yourself rooting for them by the end.

Good stuff. Recommended.

Review by Nightreader