Friday, October 16, 2009

Barnabas, Quentin and the Mummy's Curse - Book 16

Barnabas, Quentin and the Mummy's Curse by Marilyn (Dan) Ross
published by Paperback Library
Copyright 1970


When Professor Anthony Collins decides
to catalog his Egyptian relics at Collinwood,
he brings with him the mummy of King Re-
hotip, who "died" over 2000 years ago.
Only the professor knows (and everyone who
just
saw the quotes around the word dead)
that Rehotip is really in a state of suspended
animation. One night, the professor brings the
mummy to life. (of course he does) Suddenly a
young girl is killed. The police suspect Quentin
Collins. Maggie Evans, certain the killer is the
mummy wants to warn the police. Professor Collins
threatens to accuse Barnabas if she does.
Frightened into silence, Maggie lives in ter-
ror, wondering if she will be the next victim.

Okay, this is the Collins family. They live in Collinwood. They live in a town called Collinsport. Can't they just hush this stuff up like a Kennedy would? Surely there is benefit to being super rich, living in a house everyone in town is too spooked to go near and, most importantly of all, being the biggest employer around. I mean, what's a little bit of "the walking dead" to sixty thousand a year at the Collins family shipyard.

9 comments:

  1. You know, a Mummy may be the only thing the TV show was missing.

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    1. The TV show also never went as far as "Barnabas Meets Abbott and Costello," or "The 3 Stooges Meet Quentin." But then, Dark Shadows was not a comedy. Not intentionally, anyway.

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  2. OK, are the police in this town equipped with wooden stakes, holy water, garlic and other such anti-supernatural accoutrements? If not, they really should be. I mean, what with all the weird shit going down at the old Collins place on a weekly ... hell, DAILY basis, how are they supposed to keep the peace?

    Sounds like this must have been a pre-Sunnydale Hell-Mouth, except with no Slayer to keep the oogly boogly under control.

    Hmm ... I imagine someone somewhere has already penned a Buffy/Barnabas crossover fanfic. However, thanks to Rule 34, I'm far too frightened to search for it.

    ~Cheers!

    7

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    Replies
    1. If Barnabas met Buffy, he would probably fall in love with her at first sight. (He might even convince himself that she was the reincarnation of Josette.) The fun would start when each learned the truth about the other.

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    2. Collinsport had Professor Stokes, a Van Helsing-type expert on the supernatural. They called him whenever they needed an exorcism. Then Dr. Julia Hoffman cured Barnabas of his vampirism and he became the show's hero. Those three characters were the show's Slayers or Ghostbusters.

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  3. Well, in the movie "House of Dark Shadows," Carolyn got turned into a vampire, and when the Collinsport police cornered her, they were all carrying crosses and wooden stakes. They probably loaded their service revolvers with silver bullets. When choosing equipment, you have to take into account the local conditions.

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    Replies
    1. LOL! The Collinsport police are really to be admired. My office once had a break-in and our cops wouldn't even take fingerprints.

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  4. AFAIR, the TV show never had invaders from outer space, but one of the books (Barnabas, Quentin, and the Body Snatchers) did.

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  5. Well, in fairness to your local cops, fingerprints are only useful as clues in mystery stories. IRL, they are worthless 99% of the time. You need a complete set of all ten prints to make a positive ID, they fade away in less than 24 hours even under the best conditions, and you can only get lifts off a perfectly smooth, flat surface. In fairness to you, the cops should have explained all of that to you instead of blowing you off.

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