The Beauty and the Blood

Soon the day would begin to fade into the vesperal suspense of twilight, where anyone - or anything - could be waiting to pounce on me, and reduce me to a bloodless corpse. No wonder American anthropologist Samantha Russell is nervous on her PhD research visit to London! She's flat-sharing with a glamorous lesbian vampire called Sterling, who's deeply involved in the London gangland culture of the anarchic 1980s. When Sterling finds herself in possession of a mysterious golden torc, she and Sam become the objects of unwanted attention - notably from the Establishment Mohocks and their hideous Neanderthal minder, Hjalmar. Can the girls get the torc back to where it belongs - in the underworld - via a cavern near Naples in the Campi Flegrei? Or will the Mohocks and the Camorra get them, and the magical torc, first? Remember, only silver bullets can despatch Sterling for good. Ian Bell's The Beauty and The Blood spins a powerful web of terror, politics and the paranormal, just as his London Underground did. Moments of real beauty make the story glow, while the sadness of a society at bay and the eclipse of old belief systems lend poignancy to a tale that thrills, repels and fascinates. Watch out for the appearance of the Hell Hound - and above all watch your neck!

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