A Book of the Dead (1984)
John Blackburn
With a new introduction by Greg Gbur
Book Description
When a veteran book dealer pays an exorbitant sum at auction for a copy of Men of Courage, a worthless book about famous heroic deeds, his colleagues believe he has lost his mind. But when he is found dead and the book goes missing, it appears something more sinister may be going on. In fact, someone has been buying, stealing, or destroying every known copy of the book. Bookseller Tom Mayne, with the help of the lovely heiress Janet Vale and the egotistical adventurer J. Moldon-Mott, is determined to find out why – and to stop a madman before he kills again!
John Blackburn (1923-1993) was regarded as one of the great British mystery and thriller writers of his time. This first-ever reprint of A Book of the Dead (1984), his penultimate and rarest novel, includes a new introduction by Greg Gbur. Fifteen other thrillers, mysteries, and horror novels by Blackburn are also available from Valancourt.
John Blackburn
With a new introduction by Greg Gbur
Book Description
When a veteran book dealer pays an exorbitant sum at auction for a copy of Men of Courage, a worthless book about famous heroic deeds, his colleagues believe he has lost his mind. But when he is found dead and the book goes missing, it appears something more sinister may be going on. In fact, someone has been buying, stealing, or destroying every known copy of the book. Bookseller Tom Mayne, with the help of the lovely heiress Janet Vale and the egotistical adventurer J. Moldon-Mott, is determined to find out why – and to stop a madman before he kills again!
John Blackburn (1923-1993) was regarded as one of the great British mystery and thriller writers of his time. This first-ever reprint of A Book of the Dead (1984), his penultimate and rarest novel, includes a new introduction by Greg Gbur. Fifteen other thrillers, mysteries, and horror novels by Blackburn are also available from Valancourt.
reviews
‘He can be depended upon to sustain swift, sure, exciting, and absorbing stories ... undoubtedly one of England’s best practicing novelists in the tradition of the thriller novel.’ - St. James Guide to Crime & Mystery Writers
‘He is certainly the best British novelist in his field and deserves the widest recognition.’ - Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural
‘He is certainly the best British novelist in his field and deserves the widest recognition.’ - Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural
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BOOK DETAILS
ISBN: 194391074X ISBN-13: 978-1943910748 $16.99 US, 150 pp. Trade paper Published 2017 |
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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
John Blackburn was born in 1923 in the village of Corbridge, England, the second son of a clergyman. He started attending Haileybury College near London in 1937, but his education was interrupted by the onset of World War II; the shadow of the war, and that of Nazi Germany, would later play a role in many of his works. He served as a radio officer during the war in the Mercantile Marine from 1942 to 1945, and resumed his education afterwards at Durham University, earning his bachelor’s degree in 1949. Blackburn taught for several years after that, first in London and then in Berlin, and married Joan Mary Clift in 1950. Returning to London in 1952, he took over the management of Red Lion Books.
It was there that Blackburn began writing, and the immediate success in 1958 of his first novel, A Scent of New-Mown Hay, led him to take up a career as a writer full-time. He and his wife also maintained an antiquarian bookstore, a secondary career that would inform some of Blackburn’s later work. A prolific author, Blackburn would write nearly 30 novels between 1958 and 1985; most of these were horror and thrillers, but also included one historical novel set in Roman times, The Flame and the Wind (1967). He died in 1993.
It was there that Blackburn began writing, and the immediate success in 1958 of his first novel, A Scent of New-Mown Hay, led him to take up a career as a writer full-time. He and his wife also maintained an antiquarian bookstore, a secondary career that would inform some of Blackburn’s later work. A prolific author, Blackburn would write nearly 30 novels between 1958 and 1985; most of these were horror and thrillers, but also included one historical novel set in Roman times, The Flame and the Wind (1967). He died in 1993.