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Murder, mystery and comic mayhem in early Hollywood on the set of the original Dracula!
As the Roaring Twenties give way to a new decade, young Irish immigrant, Finnian O’Dwyer arrives at Ellis Island and finds he is in a strange land. It gets stranger as he travels cross country to Los Angeles where he stumbles into a job at Universal City (Capital of the Film World) and into a woman’s body at the bottom of the Main Hall staircase in Castle Dracula. She has two small, round red marks on her neck.
By day, Finnian becomes assistant to Count Dracula, the one and only Bela Lugosi; at night he works on the set of the Spanish version of the same film (“Vampiro,” they whisper). Trouble swirls around Finnian like a vampire’s cape when another body is found on the set. Is the search for a Hungarian treasure map connected?
Along the way, Finnian falls for Astrid, a headstrong young girl intent on making it in Hollywood on talent alone, and is joined by Astrid’s friends, performers from the Freak Show tent at Venice Pier; LeRunt (“The French Giant!”), Blatzie (“The World’s Most Beautiful Fat Woman”) and Thaddeus (“The World’s Puniest Man”). Are the deaths at the movie studio connected? Can Finnian, Bela Lugosi, Astrid and friends solve the mystery?
Seamlessly blending suspense, romance, humor and horror, Of Vamps and Vampiros: A Finnian O’Dwyer Universal City Crime Cape(r) weaves its way through the making of a classic film during the period of The Great Depression; Prohibition; a time when Charles Lindbergh is the most famous man in the world.
From the author of No Egrets, Mantis Preying and the 2017 McGrath House Indie Book Award Winner in the Humor Category Ripped Tide: A Daniel O’Dwyer Oak Island Adventure.
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