Sunday 6 May 2012

Review: Kim Newman's 'Bloody Red Baron' is more than a rip-roaring story

There isn't much need to praise the pacing and storyline of 'The Bloody Red Baron', the second volume of the 'Anno Dracula' series. Anyone who has read Kim Newman's other stories will know what they can expect, and their confidence will be rewarded.

What is remarkable is Newman's ability to cram chapters with fictional and historical characters, without forcing the point. 'The Bloody Red Baron' is no exception. Mata Hari dies as a vampire before a firing squad. Kafka makes an appearance as a bat-eared clerk in a vampiric bureaucracy, pointing to 'Metamorphosis' and 'The Castle'. A 'starch-spined little corporal with a dash of a moustache and a stiff-armed salute' is eerily familiar. Bulldog Drummond shows up as a pompously naive captain, blustering on a train'. Aged Sherlock Holmes seeks validation for a theory at a funeral.

'Vampire Romance', a 'novel-length novella', appended to the new edition, features Genevieve Dieudonne and a new mystery for the Diogenes Club, and adds Shakespearian depth with touches of Agatha Christie and pulp schoolgirl romance.

Each chapter seems to yield some unexpected treat.

Read 'Anno Dracula: The Bloody Red Baron'...

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