Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Barnabas Collins and Quentin's Demon - Book 14

Barnabas Collins and Quentin's Demon by Marilyn (Dan) Ross
published by Paperback Library
Copyright 1970

IS THERE
A WEREWOLF
LOOSE AT COLLINWOOD?
WILL LARA BALFOUR
HAVE TO DIE TO FIND OUT?


When Quentin Collins invited Lara Balfour to
Collinwood, they knew each other only from the
correspondence that had grown out of Quentin's
admiration for the haunting waltz her father had
composed.

Soon Quentin professed to love Lara - but is his
love really a threat? His first wife's throat was torn
out by a wolflike creature who escaped capture.
Since then, other young women had died in the
same grisly fashion ... in the full of the moon, when
Quentin's mysterious "attacks" occur.

Lara faces the terrifying possibility that her
brooding, sensitive host is a werewolf. She won't
leave Collinwood, for that would mean leaving
Barnabas, who she has come to love. But will Bar-
nabas be able to save her, if she strays?

In 1968, when the the Dark Shadows producers began to feel that their immortal vampire wasn't as young as he used to be, the show decided they needed some fresh "eye candy". Well, since nothing gets ladies a-swooning like tall, snide and paste-on mutton chops, (Actually, replace snide with smart-ass and you have my now husband when I first met him. I made him get rid of the mutton chops though.) Quentin Collins was born. Leaving Barnabas to battle him for the ladies attention and forcing him to share the spotlight in all but two of the books that followed Quentin's introduction. Poor, poor Barnabas.

2 comments:

  1. Quentin first appeared on the show in the present time as a ghost. Then a story arc set in 1897 revealed his back story. Then they made his character immortal (via a Dorian Grey-type portrait) so he could still be on the show after it returned to the 1960's. Oddly, though, they didn't seem to do much with the character after that, even though he was as popular as Barnabas.

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  2. The real reason Quentin appears on the show was to give Jonathan Frid some time off as he had been on almost every episode non stop since April 1967. It gave Frid a bit of relief and the audience something new to chew on story wise.

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