Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Barnabas, Quentin And the Crystal Coffin


Barnabas, Quentin and the Crystal Coffin
by Marilyn Ross (Dan Ross)
published by Paperback Library
Copyright 1970




HOW LONG WILL
COLLINSWOOD'S
EVIL FORCES ALLOW
BETTY WARD TO SEARCH
FOR HER SISTER'S KILLER?

Heiress Betty Ward is worried about her twin sister, who has eloped with Jeremy Frene. She follows them from Paris to the Frene estate at Collinwood - but arrives too late!

Her twin is dead, victim of a mysterious illness. Her body has been sealed in a crystal coffin and kept in a darkened room. Jeremy swears that because her ghost returns to the castle each night, he refuses to bury the coffin.

Betty is convinced her sister's death was not a natural one. Jeremys aunt opposed the marriage. Her ally against the couple seems to have been Quentin Collins, a suspected werewolf.

Betty turns to Barnabas Collins for help, despite the rumors that he is a vampire. But she does not realized that by doing so, she has placed herself in mortal danger....


For a complete listing of other books in this series please turn to page two.

With such a long wait  between posts, the passing of Jonathan Frid and the release of the new movie, I though it only appropriate to post a book from everyone's favorite 60's supernatural soap opera.

Several months back I was able to add this title, along with book 26, to my series collection. 

Once again we have a woman throwing herself into the waiting arms of Barnabas Collins.  Despite rumors that he is a vampire!  Now, admittedly, woman can be rather forgiving if they find someone hot, so I find it hard to believe that she doesn't just skip the middle man and throw herself into the arms of Quentin Collins. Firstly ladies, look at that hair! (meow!) If it was me, I would just assume that if Quentin has against my sister's marriage he had his reasons and get on with the romance! Life is too short. Especially in Collinport.

But again, that's me.

14 comments:

  1. Wow, that's a lot of suspicion going around ... suspected werewolves and rumors of vampires. Who's doing all this suspecting and rumormongering, anyway? Whoever they are, they must not be very good at it, because it never seems to stop the next vict- err... guest from showing up on the doorstep at Collinwood!

    (Or does it? I dunno. I'm only marginally familiar with the series.)

    Anyway ... Welcome Back!

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    1. I assure you, with so many good looking and available men running round Collinwood, rumormongering isn't going to keep the ladies away.

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    2. The Collins men were sexy, good-looking, and (maybe most important) filthy rich. So what if some of them were supernatural monsters. Nobody's perfect.

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  2. I've read this one and it's even more ridiculous than it sounds. The summary on the back cover fails to mention the dwarfish wax figure sculptor who tries to sell Betty to one of his customers. There's a lot of twisted fairy tale stuff going on in this novel and it ALMOST works. If Ross hadn't cranked this book out over a weekend and spent more time on the narrative ...

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    1. LOL You know, I long ago stop even attempting to read the WRFH books I picked up, but your description temps me oh-so-much!

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    2. If you read any of them, check out Barnabas, Quentin and the Body Snatchers. It's got aliens!

      http://www.collinsporthistoricalsociety.com/2012/02/in-which-dark-shadows-becomes-full.html

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    3. I have read probably about 7 or 8 of them but that was probably 13 years back. The only thing that I still remember is that in one of them Barnabas and Caroline were riding in what was referred to as a sports car and later referred to, I believe, as a station wagon. (But perhaps in 1970 they were one in the same. I was not quite born yet so it just hit me as funny!) And it kept going on about Barnabas' bangs loosely spilling over his forehead. I think they might have time traveled in that one!

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    4. Cousin Barnabas! What a fantastic site! I am all over it! And of course I am adding it to my blog roll!

      I actually have that book but never read it but perhaps I will!

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  3. Barnabas, Quentin, and the Nightmare Assassin was the one where Carolyn wrecks her station-wagon-slash-sports-car and wakes up in 1870. Barnabas, Quentin, and the Body Snatchers mixed equal parts Dark Shadows, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, I Married a Monster from Outer Space, and The Human Duplicators. I wonder what Ross would have said if someone had asked that question that people often ask writers: "Where do you get your ideas?"

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    1. Thank you! I could not remember which book that was. I know I had even covered it on this blog at some point but hadn't made the time to track it down.

      I have a feeling that both Dan Ross and Dan Curtis would have very similar answers to such a question! um ... from everyone else?

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    2. In answer to the "where do you get your ideas" question, I think the only honest answer would have to have been "Acid trips and drug-fueled orgies. Where else?"

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  4. Harlan Ellison and Isaac Asimov would both answer, "Schenectady." If pressed, they would then explain that there was an idea factory in NY that would send story ideas to writers for a monthly fee. Ellison said the interviewer would almost always ask for the address. As for Ross and Curtis, maybe the answer was, "Acid trips and drug-fueled orgies while watching horror movies on the late late late show."

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  5. You know, for some reason I read that first as, "Hairless Betty Ward..." I don't know why. So still no alopecians in Collinsport, huh?

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