It's my turn on the Blogtour Land of the Dead by Steven Hopstaken and Melissa Prusi, the third book in the Stoker's Wilde series.
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About the Author/s
Steven Hopstaken was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he spent his formative years watching and reading science fiction and horror. He has a degree in journalism from Northern Michigan University and spends his free time traveling; writing screenplays, short stories and novels;and practicing photography.
Melissa Prusi was born and raised in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. She’s been a video editor, a semi-professional film reviewer, a three-time champion on the quiz show Jeopardy!, and a Guinness world record holder (1990 edition, for directing the longest live television show).
They met in a college screenwriting class and married three years later. They spent a brief time in Los Angeles, where they both worked for Warner Bros. television, and sold two screenplays. They eventually ended up in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where they love the arts scene but dread the winters.
They’ve indulged their fascination with Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde through trips to Dublin and London to research their lives and visit sites mentioned in Stoker’s Wilde.
They live in St. Louis Park, Minnesota with their two cats. If they’re not writing, you can usually find them at a movie, local theater production, improv show or pub quiz. Follow @StokersWilde on Twitter
About the book
Science and the supernatural collide in this terrifying tale of witches, reanimated corpses and spirits invading our world from beyond the grave.
Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde have returned to their lives in London after their adventures in the American West. Bram is managing a theatre and Oscar is rising to fame and planning his upcoming wedding when they are once again called upon to battle supernatural evil.
Grief-crazed scientist Victor Mueller needs Bram’s unusual blood for his mad quest to bring his dead wife back to life, and he’ll resort to kidnapping to get it. Meanwhile, a young medium named Lorna Bow runs fake séances in London under the thumb of an abusive uncle. When her mother Endora returns, Lorna learns the truth: they come from a long line of witches, and soon Endora has awakened Lorna’s dormant powers.
When the scientist and the witches combine forces, all Hell breaks loose. Long-dead souls find themselves back in the land of the living, and some of them have scores to settle with our heroes. But as Mueller’s ambition and her mother’s desire for vengeance against the men who imprisoned her become clear, Lorna soon finds herself questioning the morality of their work. Bram and Oscar must team up with American secret agent Cora Chase to protect all they hold dear. Only a mission into the Land of the Dead can stop Mueller and Endora from bringing back more souls.
Bram’s wife Florence must call on the monster-fighting skills she honed in America, and even Oscar’s bride Constance has to face new challenges as she learns how the supernatural has shaped her own history.
Review
This is the third book in the Stoker's Wilde series, featuring Oscar Wilde and Bram Stoker as they battle the supernatural and those who wish to use it for evil.
We have a bit of a longing to understand the secret of vampirism and in doing so to gain power, kind of crazy going on in this story. Unfortunately Stoker becomes the target of a scientist, who is willing to do anything to find out the secrets he carries. The beginning, a break in the sphere of the norm, an opening to evil.
It's an interesting journey that takes the reader through known connections to historical events, literature and figures, who are reinvented through the eyes of the supernatural aspects of this series. Perception is everything - imagine if what you know to be true of the past was only a quarter of the truth. What if the world of secret unimaginable threats has been hidden away in an attempt to keep the world safe, and perhaps even sane.
It certainly makes you ponder certain things and people, whilst enjoying the adventures of this merry band of warriors against evil, and the power in the darkness. The power we like to deny, to ignore and to explain away.
The writing and dialogue could be a bit tighter, but overall it's a series with a lot of potential. Very Poe meets demon hunters. I enjoyed the way the book ended, the way each entry leads into the concept of the diary and simultaneously gives an inkling of where the characters are and could potentially be going.
Buy Land of the Dead at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher : Flame Tree Press pub date 26 April 2022. Buy at Amazon com. Buy at Flame Tree Press.
