Kingsley Amis - The Green Man

Kingsley Amis - The Green Man (Penguin, 1988: originally Jonathan Cape, 1969)

The Green Man’s Maurice Allington is a worldly publican, but haunted. His pub is inhabited by the spirit of Dr. Thomas Underhill, the seventeenth century scholar rumoured to have killed his wife. The local sexton had refused to dig Underhill’s grave. And the rector had declined to officiate at his funeral.

And there are skeletons in the cupboard of Allington’s own domestic affairs - just rattling to get out.

Vic Crume - The Partridge Family #5: Terror By Night

Vic Crume - The Partridge Family #5: Terror By Night (Curtis, 1971)

“The Partridge Family is all set for a great vacation.

But fun soon turns to fear when night comes to their lonely beach house on the New England coast.

Somebody or some thing is out to get them … and when Keith tries to find out why, the rock star’s vacation becomes a nightmare …”

Despite the undeniable promise of what’s on offer here, the blurb is as far as I’ve ever got with it, I’m sorry to say. I keep meaning to read it, then I see the cover and kind of … lose the will to live.

But just to own a book by somebody called Vic Crume is a joy to me, I don’t mind telling you that.

Damn. I’m gonna give him his own tag.

Roald Dahl - Tales Of The Unexpected

Roald Dahl - Tales Of The Unexpected (Penguin, 1979, 1984)

Taste
Lamb To The Slaughter
Man From The South
My Lady Love, My Dove
Dip In The Pool
Galloping Foxley
Skin
Neck
Nunc Diminittis
The Landlady
William And Mary
The Way Up To Heaven
Parson’s Pleasure
Mrs. Bixby And The Colonel’s Coat
Royal Jelly
Edward The Conquerer

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. #6: The Vampire Affair

David McDaniel - The Man From U.N.C.L.E. #6: The Vampire Affair (Ace, 1966)

In a remote area of the transylvanian Alps, an U.N.C.L.E. agent had been killed in mysterious circumstances. The man’s footprints in the snow led up to the base of the tree where he had been killed, but there were no pursuing tracks, no clue at all as to what doom had overtaken him.

There were only the two small holes in the neck, and a complete absence of blood.

Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin didn’t believe in vampires - but as they investigated their fellow-agent’s death they were forced again and again to wonder if perhaps the old terrors of the region had more reality than the world would like to think …