THE FANGS OF THE HOODED DEMON
By
A fairly tepid outing for Lincoln Blackthorne (The Patch of the Odin Soldier, etc.), the mild-mannered New Jersey tailor who somehow becomes embroiled in the most unlikely adventures. The McGuffin this time: a pair of carved ruby and ivory fangs, stolen from their repository in Rumania, once the property of Vlad Tepes (a.k.a. Dracula) and reputedly capable of conferring perpetual youth. The villains of the piece: a bunch of supposedly dead and buried movie actors, headed by the ominous Pars Jannor. The action moves briskly from shoot-outs amid the blizzards of Oklahoma to hair-raising escapes in the swamps of Tennessee, with a double-cross or three along the way. Amusing, sometimes; but the formula's worn decidedly shabby by now, and Blackthorne regulars will discover only a few delights.