Pages

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Adrienne Barbeau: VAMPYRES OF HOLLYWOOD


Series: VAMPYRES OF HOLLYWOOD (UF)
Ratings: V5, S4, H3
Publisher and Titles: St. Martin's: Vampyres of Hollywood (2009, co-writer, Michael Scott), Love Bites (2010)

     In this world, many film stars are vampyres, and many undead film stars belong to the Vampyres of Hollywood, a clan headed by Ovsanna Moore, a 450-year-old vampyre.

     As the first vamp to settle in Hollywood, Ovsanna is the legal owner, or Chatelaine, of the city, and all vamps who live there must pay fealty to her. Ovsanna is also known as the "Scream Queen," a title earned through her many performances in low-budget horror movies. She is now the head of Anticipation Studios.

     Throughout the books, Ovsanna drops the names of many famous people who are either her creations, her former lovers, or her friends: movie stars (Valentino, Pickford, Powers); arts legends (da Vinci, van Gogh); and notorious literary greats (Rimbaud, Byron).

     Much of the humor, particularly in Love Bites, comes from the members of the Hollywood Vampyres as they try to cope with modern Hollywood culture while still "living" in the past.

     Vampyres of Hollywood follows Ovsanna and mortal Detective Peter King as they work together to find the Cinema Slayer, a serial killer who is mutilating and murdering film-industry people who have ties to Ovsanna. Love Bites begins just days after book 1 ends. Peter and Ovsanna are absolutely sure that they have done away with the Cinema Slayer, but now the killings are starting all over again—this time with Ovsanna and Peter as targets. The couple must solve the murders once and for all, but they must also come to terms with their own mutual attraction.

     Barbeau is a film, television, and Broadway star. You might remember her as the grown-up daughter in Maude of TV fame back in the 1980s, or from her movies, like these: Creepshow, The Fog, War Wolves, or (my favorite movie title) Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death.

No comments:

Post a Comment