Morton Cooper – The Munsters (Avon, 1964)

A Monster-ously Funny Original Novel Based On The Sensationally Successful Spook-tacular TV Series.

Blurb:
The Munsters live in a great big haunted house – in fact they haunt it. They are like any family you might know, except that Pop is Frankenstein’s Monster in a kindly mood; Grandpa, the Count, is a semi-retired vampire; Mama is ghoulishly gorgeous and Eddie-boy likes to to perch in a corner of the ceiling with his pet-vulture. And then there is niece Marilyn. She’s – ugh – ­beautiful! Ugh – normal!

Read the book and rock with laughter. Watch THE MUNSTERS every Thursday night on CBS Television.

Joseph Howard – Damien: Omen II (Futura, 1978-1987)

From the Screenplay by Stanley Mann & Michael Hodges

Blurb

Robert Thorn saw Satan in his child. And Thorn died violently. Seven years later, Damien has been adopted by his uncle. Richard Thorn commands an international industrial empire.
A position of awesome potential power.
A position for which Damien is the heir apparent.
And as he grows in knowledge, he grows in evil …

Gordon McGill – Amityville 3-D (Futura, 1984)

Blurb:

EVIL NEVER DIES…

When John Baxter falls in love with the house at 112 Ocean Street, Amityville, he is not impressed by the tales of horror that come with it.

That is his first mistake.

His second mistake is to ignore the warnings: the bizarre ‘accidents’ to those around him, the sudden plunging into darkness, the freezing wind, the
mysterious photographs. Nothing can convince him.

Until the hand of death reaches out to touch his loved one. And suddenly he is caught up in the terror and anguish that every occupant of that
house has known – cursed forever, never to be free.

Edgar Rice Burroughs – At The Earth’s Core (Tandem, 1975)

Blurb

Forseeing only a dreadful death when their scientific experiment went wrong, David Innes and his company hurtled through endless subterranean miles until they broke through into a strange inner world at the earth’s core.

Pellucidar! A land of no horizon and eternal day. A world of weird beauty and terrifying peril, where ferocious monsters unknown to man, and beasts from a prehistoric age long forgotten on earth, roam the forests and swamps, and where the hideous and savage Mahars keep a race of primitive men and women in abject slavery.

MAX J. ROSENBERG and MILTON SUBOTSKY present AN AMICUS PRODUCTION starring DOUG MCCLURE & PETER CUSHING in EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS’ AT THE EARTH’S CORE
with CAROLINE MUNRO, CY GRANT and GODFREY JAMES, SEAN LYNCH
producer JOHN DARK
director KEVIN CONNOR
screenplay by MILTON SUBOTSKY
A film from British Lion

Kingsley Amis – The Green Man (Penguin, 1990: originally Jonathan Cape, 1969)

Photo: Barry Boxall

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.

For review and alternate covers see Vault Of Evil forum

William Drummond – Night Must Fall (Fontana, 1964)

A novel by William Drummond from Emlyn Williams’ spine-chilling play

Danny was gay, bawdy, irresistible …. and a vicious psychopath.

DANNY had loved a lot of women in his time. Loved them and left them. What, then, tied him to “Forest View” — a strange house­hold of three women… ?
MRS. BRAMSON: a rich and petulant old woman, now tied to a wheel chair, she domineered and bullied her way through life… until she met Danny.
DORA: warm-hearted, scatter-brained, she was an easy prey to Danny’s unscrup­ulous charm …
and OLIVIA: a girl whose desperate search for love led her down dangerous byways … to Danny!

Night Must Fall also stars Mona Washbourne, Susan Hampshire, Sheila Hancock, Michael Medwin. Directed by KAREL REISZ

See Vault of Evil forum for review

Christine Sparks – The Elephant Man (Futura, 1980)

Blurb:

A CENTURY AGO, HE FASCINATED, HORRIFIED AND MOVED A GENERATION. NOW, HIS STORY WILL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN. THE ELEPHANT MAN

His name was John Merrick. A hideous freak, born with terrible deformities, he suffered as a prisoner in a Victorian circus sideshow. Even when the surgeon, Frederick Treves, rescued him from his torment, mankind continued to treat The Elephant Man like a monster.
Until Treves’ love and compassion breathed new life into Merrick’s soul — and those around could see the poetry in his dreams of freedom.

A Brooksfilms Production for EMI Films ….. Based on the life of John Merrick, the Elephant Man, and not upon the Broadway play or any other fictional account.

Kevin Lyons – Van Helsing (HarperCollins, 2004)

Blurb:

Deep in the mountains of nineteenth-century Carpathia lies the mysterious and mythic land of Transylvania, a world where evil is ever-present, where danger rises as the sun sets, and where monsters such as Count Dracula, the Wolf Man and Frankenstein’s Monster take form and inhabit man’s deepest nightmares — terrifying legends who outlive generations, defying repeated attacks from the doomed brave souls that challenge them in their never-ending war upon the human race.

Engaged by a secret society, only a lone force of good stands against them —the legendary monster hunter Van Helsing, a man revered by some and feared by many. In his ongoing battle to rid the earth of these fiendish beings, Van Helsing must now travel to Transylvania to bring down the lethally seductive, enigmatically powerful Count Dracula, where he joins forces with the fearless Anna Valerious, a woman out to rid her family of a generations-old curse by defeating the vampire. But unknown to all, the immortal Dracula will stop at nothing to unleash his master plan of subverting human civilization and ruling over a world of havoc, fear and darkness….

Martin Noble – Bloodbath At The House Of Death (Star, 1984)

There is a curse on Headstone Manor – and a team of top scientists have arrived to investigate the phenomenon. But they will shortly be engulfed in a deluge of terror. For tonight is the Night of Blood – ringed in rhesus negative on the calendar of fear. The night when the Sinister Man will lead the locals in a ceremony to herald the return of THE MASTER. Can you take the Bloodbath? Or will you too die laughing?

Thanks to Franklin Marsh of Vault of Evil for the cover scan!

The Gordons – Experiment In Terror (Corgi, 1962)

As she got into the car, a strong, gloved hand slipped about her neck. A man’s voice said: “I’m not going to harm you. I just want to talk. Just sit where you are, but don’t try anything. I’ve got a gun on you – and they say I’ve got a trigger temper when I’m crossed.”

Experiment In Terror is now filmed, starring Glenn Ford and Lee Remick. A Geoffrey-Kate production for Columbia Pictures. Produced and directed by Blake Edwards.  

The work of Mildred Gordon and the splendidly named Gordon Gorden. Originally published by MacDonald as Operation Terror the previous year.