NEVER CROSS A VAMPIRE

by Stuart M. Kaminsky ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 5, 1980

Another Toby Peters-in-Hollywood case--a rather less irritating one, because this time Kaminsky doesn't introduce a new celebrity every few pages. But Toby's two clients are celebrities indeed: declining star Bela Lugosi, who hires Toby to find out which of the Dark Knights of Transylvania (a vampire club) is sending Lugosi death threats; and William Faulkner, who's been framed for the murder of a Hollywood agent (the dead man's wife is a supposed eyewitness). So Toby sleuths both cases, getting beaten up by a ""caped figure in black"". . . who turns out (when his body is found, stake-through-the-heart) to be the actor-lover of the murdered agent's widow. Do the two cases connect? Well, sort of: the plotting is pretty rickety. And it all ends with sad, sweet Lugosi saving Toby's life with a Dracula appearance. Flimsy stuff--and the blithe use of Faulkner verges on the distasteful--but it's shorter, breezier, and easier-to-take than Kaminsky's previous 1940s-Hollywood fabrications.

Pub Date: Sept. 5, 1980

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1980

Categories: FICTION