One day, Igor, Victor Frankenstein's long-suffering lab assistant, finally has enough and leaves the castle. He arrives at the local tavern where he meets Esmeralda, the landlord's daughter and barmaid, with secrets of her own. Esme's dad is a sleep murderer and responsible for a spate of deaths in the village, currently being investigated by Helsing the witchfinder. Igor gets a job as the undertakers assistant, and then as the undertaker, allowing him to perform double burials to hide the bodies from Esme's dads murders. So ensues a farce to put the locals off the scent, ending with Esme and Igor finally packing her dad off to a sanitorium. This is a romp of a tale involving Jekyll and Hyde, hauntings, exorcisms, nuns, priests, monsters, the invisible man, vampires and zombies. It was a very enjoyable read, though sometimes it did feel as though the author was trying a bit too hard to be clever with the prose, and character names.
Igor and the Twisted Tales of Castlemaine Synopsis
Igor, Victor Frankenstein’s long suffering lickspittle lab assistant, finally has enough of all the beatings and abuse, and decides to strike out on his own. Leaving Castle Frankenstein behind, he finds his way to the accursed village of Castlemaine, where he meets Esmerelda, the beautiful but occasionally violent daughter of the local homicidal innkeeper. Together they embark upon a series of horrific misadventures, involving classic and original horror characters, demons, restless spirits, witches, mad scientists and, of course, a very disturbing nun. All the while, a dark force greater than all their most deranged nightmares is aligning her powers against them. Can Igor and Esme overcome the evil that pervades Castlemaine? Probably, yes, but you’ll have to read the book to find out for sure. Imagine Hammer House of Python meets Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Mortuary, with a smattering Spike Milligan. Igor and the Twisted Tales of Castlemaine walks the very fine line between the Exorcist and Carry On Screaming. Well, someone had to do it.
