Dracula Cha Cha Cha by
Kim Newman
hbk out May 00
Published by Simon Schuster
at £16.99
Subtitled "Anno Dracula 1959," Dracula Cha Cha Cha is the latest instalment in Kim Newman's dazzling and immensely entertaining alternate history positing a world of modernity in which Dracula and vampires really existed. The first volume, Anno Dracula, was the best vampire novel of recent years and Newman has sustained the tone and quality through a sequel, The Bloody Red Baron, and an award-winning novella, "Coppola's Dracula." The setting this time 'round is an atmospheric, Fellini-esque Rome where vampires, celebrities and celebrity vampires have all gathered to attend the impending wedding of the ancient Count to a Moldavian princess. Also making return appearances are Kate Reed and Genevieve Dieudonne, Newman's good-gal vampires, and old Charles Beauregard, British civil servant/spymaster supreme, at death's door but still refusing the Dark Kiss that would grant him eternal life. And then there's The Crimson Executioner: an ethereal serial killer of vampire elders roaming the city under the influence of the mysterious Mother of Tears.
Though the essential tone of the book is more comic/clever than scary/suspenseful, Newman generates good tension as various mysteries are unfolded and unravelled, and Judgment Of Tears is never less than entirely absorbing. Kate and Genevieve are as appealing as ever, as are all of Newman's characters. Even though part of the fun of Newman's work is playing "spot the cameo" - he incorporates scores of popular and obscure figures from film, television, literature and history - his real skill is in fleshing out every character with depth and humanity, so that there so much more to the novel than mere pop culture game-playing. The plot offers genuine surprises, including a few shocking casualties. And the autopsy scene presided over by genre favourites Herbert West and Dr. Pretorious is truly priceless. Dracula Cha Cha Cha was originally published as Judgment Of Tears in the US (1999). Dracula Cha Cha Cha is Newman's original (and vastly superior) title. Whatever the book is called, don't miss it.
(
Jay Russell
- one of the greatest talents the horror industry has produced for some time… (Black Tears))
Dracula Cha Cha Cha by
Kim Newman