Necroscope 9: The Lost Years
Read Necroscope 9: The Lost Years Online
Authors: Brian Lumley
Tags: #Keogh; Harry (Fictitious Character), #England, #Vampires, #Mystery & Detective, #Horror, #Fiction - Horror, #General, #Harry (Fictitious character), #Keogh, #Horror - General, #Horror Fiction, #Fiction
| Necroscope 9: The Lost Years | |
| Necroscope [9] | |
| Brian Lumley | |
| Macmillan (1986) | |
| Rating: | ★★★★☆ |
| Tags: | Keogh; Harry (Fictitious Character), England, Vampires, Mystery & Detective, Horror, Fiction - Horror, General, Harry (Fictitious character), Keogh, Horror - General, Horror Fiction, Fiction |
After a three-book sojourn in the mythical "Vampire World" of The Last Aerie (1994), Lumley's epic Necroscope saga returns to contemporary Europe for this ripping yarn of espionage and occult intrigue set during the years separating the second (Vamphyri!) and third (The Source) novels of the projected nine-volume series. British intelligence agent Harry Keogh, who can converse telepathically with the dead, appears here, younger and less experienced than when last seen. He has just vanquished Soviet vampire nemesis Boris Dragosani and learned how to travel through space and time, but his problems are only beginning. His wife and infant son disappear. For different reasons, both his colleagues at British intelligence and new acquaintance Bonnie Jean ("B.J.") Mirlu have used posthypnotic suggestion to prevent him from fully exploiting his extrasensory powers. With his usual aplomb, Lumley whips potentially confusing story elements into a fleet supernatural thriller that successfully prepares the Necroscope saga for a shift from its outdated Cold War setting to the current European political climate. In a literary landscape overpopulated with sympathetic soul-searching members of the Undead, Lumley's Necroscope novels are refreshing reminders that sometimes a vampire is just a bloody entertaining monster.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
The sixth volume of Lumley's vampire series, Necroscope, harks back to an earlier period in the life of Harry Keogh, who is the Necroscope. In it, Keogh is inexperienced, still on Earth, seeking his lost family, and caught in the murderous rivalry between two potent vampires. This set of ingredients produces a story that certainly succeeds at keeping the reader turning pages. Lumley hasn't quite dispensed with his tendency toward purple prose, however, and also, the book has the usual problem of the prequel--suspense that is undermined by the knowledge that the protagonist will survive, for his further adventures already exist. Yet wherever the other Necroscope yarns have been popular, this one will be, too.
Roland Green
The Lost Years
| Series: | Necroscope: The Lost Years [9] |
| Published: | 1996 |
| Rating: | ★★★ |
| Tags: | Keogh; Harry (Fictitious character), England, Vampires, Mystery Detective, Horror, Fiction - Horror, General, Horror - General, Horror fiction, Fiction Keogh; Harry (Fictitious character)ttt Englandttt Vampiresttt Mystery Detectivettt Horrorttt Fiction - Horrorttt Generalttt Horror - Generalttt Horror fictionttt Fictionttt |
SUMMARY:
02 Vampires never rest, and neither does Harry Keogh, the world’s greatest vampire hunter, the Necroscope, the man who can talk to the dead. Right now, he’s desperately searching for his wife and son, who disappeared in the midst of Harry’s war against the undead monsters that plague mankind. Others will to carry on that fight until the Necroscope has been reunited with his beloved family.But it’s not that easy to leave the vampire war behind. The bloodsuckers know that the Necroscope is their deadliest enemy and will do anything to destroy him.Harry struggles to locate his missing family, not realizing that he has become a pawn in the battle between two powerful vampires. When one has slain the other, the Necroscope will be the next to die. Vampires never rest, and neither does Harry Keogh, the world’s greatest vampire hunter, the Necroscope, the man who can talk to the dead. Right now, he’s desperately searching for his wife and son, who disappeared in the midst of Harry’s war against the undead monsters that plague mankind. Others will to carry on that fight until the Necroscope has been reunited with his beloved family.But it’s not that easy to leave the vampire war behind. The bloodsuckers know that the Necroscope is their deadliest enemy and will do anything to destroy him.Harry struggles to locate his missing family, not realizing that he has become a pawn in the battle between two powerful vampires. When one has slain the other, the Necroscope will be the next to die.
IN THE ECHOING CAVERN OF THE PIT
“This one must not be wasted,’ Anthony Francezci cautioned his unseen father. ‘Her knowledge can’t be lost. We paid for her, dearly. We may never see another opportunity like this. And remember, Father: what threatens us threatens you …’
I understand, yesss. Send her down.
‘But you are hungry, we know, and occasionally … impatient? And if—’
—SEND HER DOWN … NOW!
There was nothing else for it. Franeesco Francezci operated the machinery, and together the brothers manoeuvred the platform and girl into position over the pit. Finally Anthony broke an ampoule under her nose, and she groaned a little. But before she could wake up more fully, they sent her on her way to hell.
Her weight was measured on a dial. She sank sixty, seventy, seventy-five feet… She must surely be awake by now …
And suddenly her weight became zero.
‘Get it up!’ Anthony croaked, as Franeesco reversed the gears. The platform came up empty. While from down below—
—A shriek to end all shrieks!
Also by Brian Lumley in New English Library paperback
Dagon’s Bell and Other Discords The Second Wish and Other Exhalations
Necroscope: The Lost Years
Brian Lumley
About the author
Brian Lumley is the internationally bestselling author of the Necroscope and Vampire World series. A career British Army Military Policeman for over twenty years, he has been a full-time writer since leaving the army. He lives in Torquay, South Devon.
i
NEW ENGLISH LIBRARY Hodder and Stoughton
Copyright © 1995 by Brian Lumley
First published in 1995 by Hodder and Stoughton A division of Hodder Headline PLC
First published in paperback in 1996 by Hodder and Stoughton
A New English Library paperback
The right of Brian Lumley to be identified as the Author of
the Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means without the prior written
permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated
in any form of binding or cover other than that in which
it is published and without a similar condition being
imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
All characters in this publication are fictitious
and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead,
is purely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 0 340 64962 3
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Cox & Wyman Ltd, Reading, Berkshire
Hodder and Stoughton
A division of Hodder Headline PLC
338 Euston Road
London NW1 3BH
For Bonnie Jane Johnson, who took me to new heights, and Zahanine for her name’s sake (if not her namesake); but mostly for Silky — so necessary to my way of life …
CONTENTS
HARRY KEOGH: A Resume and Chronology
1
PART ONE: The Necroscope … Harry Keogh?
25
27
CHAPTER II: But where is Harry Keogh?
41
57
CHAPTER IV: Keenan Gormley, and Other Victims
72
CHAPTER V: R. L. Stevenson Jamieson,
and his Brother …
88
CHAPTER VI: … And One Other
103
PART TWO: Searching
CHAPTER I: For Brenda, and for Himself
119
CHAPTER II: B.J.’s 136
CHAPTER III: Home with Bonnie Jean 151
CHAPTER IV: .Harry: Weird Warnings.
Bonnie Jean: She Wonders and Worries.
166
‘,
CHAPTER V: Harry: Presentiments and Precautions.
Bonnie Jean: The Route to the Lair.
182
‘.
«
CHAPTER I: Shaitan: His Rise and Fal.
Canis Sapiens: The Werewolf Connection.
201
i
CHAPTER II: Changeling! 218
! CHAPTER III: Red Revenge! 232
247
264
HARRY KEOGH
281
298
314
331
346
CHAPTER IV: Baled - To Earth! CHAPTER V: Dreams in Resin
CHAPTER I: More of Radu’s Story.
Bonnie Jean: She Visits her Master
CHAPTER II: Bonnie Jean: Her Duties.
The Dog-Lord: His Solution
CHAPTER III: A Picture of the Mind,
A Photograph of the Future
CHAPTER IV: Darcy’s Target.
Bonnie Jean at Harry’s.
CHAPTER V: One of the other ways.
Truths, Half-truths and damned lies.
A R£SUM£ AND CHRONOLOGY
365
381
398
416
PART FIVE: Manse and Monastery: Aeries!
CHAPTER I: Bonnie Jean: Birthday Party. Harry: Geting in Shape, and Funding his Search.
Le Manse Madonie - Dead Silence
CHAPTER III: Humph, and others.
In the Vaults Beneath.
The Climb - The Example
437
454
PART SIX: Harry Keogh, Catalyst
CHAPTER I: The Calm Before the Storm CHAPTER II: ‘It Begins …’
473
C
hristened ‘Snaith’ in Edinburgh in 1957, the infant Harry was the son of a psychic sensitive mother, Mary Keogh (herself the daughter of a gifted expatriate Russian lady), and Gerald Snaith, a banker. Harry’s father died of a stroke a year later, and in the winter of 1960 his mother remarried, this time to a Russian dissident, Viktor Shukshin. In the winter of ‘63 Shukshin murdered Harry’s mother by drowning her under the ice of a frozen river; he escaped punishment by alleging that while skating she’d crashed through the thin crust and been washed away. Shukshin inherited her isolated Bonnyrig house and the not inconsiderable monies left to her by her first husband.
Within six months the young Harry ‘Keogh’ had gone to live with an uncle and his wife at Harden on the northeast coast of England, an arrangement that was more than satisfactory to Viktor Shukshin, who could never stand the child.
Harry commenced schooling with the roughneck kids of the colliery; but a dreamy and introspective sort of boy, he was a loner, developed few friendships - not with his fellow pupils, anyway - and thus fell easy prey to bullying. Later, as he grew towards his teens, Harry’s daydreaming spirit, psychic insights and instincts led him into further conflict with his teachers.
His problem was that he had inherited his maternal forebears’ mediumistic talents, which were developing in him to an extraordinary degree. He had no requirement for ‘real’ or physical companions as such, because the many friends he
already
had were more than sufficient and willing to supply his every need. As to who his friends were - they were the myriad dead in their graves!
Up against the school bully, Harry defeated him with the telepathi-caly communicated skils of an Kt-ex-Army physical training instructor, an expert in unarmed combat. Punished with maths homework, he received extra tuition from an ex-Headmaster of the school. But here
4
Brian Lumley
he required only a little help, for in fact he was something of a mathematician himself. Except Harry leaned more towards the metaphysical; his intuitive grasp of numbers was lateral to the point of sidereal; his numeracy was as alien to mundane science as his telepathic intercourse with the dead was to speech.
In 1969 Harry gained entry into a technical college, and until the end of his formal (and orthodox) education, did his best to tone down the use of his extraordinary talent-and be a ‘normal, average student.’ Aware that he must soon begin to support himself, he began writing, and by the time his schooling was at an end several short pieces of his fiction had seen print.
Three years later, he finished his first novel,
Diary of a 17th-Century Rake.
While the book fell short of the bestseller lists, still it did well. It wasn’t so much a sensation for its storyline as for its historical authenticity; hardly surprising considering the qualifications of Harry’s co-author and collaborator - namely a 17th-century rake, shot dead by an outraged husband in 1672!