The Great Right Hope

Mark Jackman

Average Rating 8/10 (1 Review)

"Even the best vampires need a good smack..."

In north-east England, a monster has arisen. A vampire beast is stalking the Yorkshire moors, mutilating and destroying everything in its path. The vampire elders realise that the Firmamentum has cast its shadow on the world once more - a phenomenon which happens every few millennia, where a human and a vampire are born ultimately powerful and destined to oppose each other...

Sid Tillsley is a forty-six year old benefit-fraudster from Middlesbrough. He's an overweight alcoholic, and also sexist, homophobic and a lazy git. But one thing sets him apart from his northern brethren; he can kill vampires with a single punch.

Now, as you can imagine, killing a vampire with a big haymaker is pretty amazing. After all, they are big hard bastards who can regenerate and stuff, and if anyone could kill them, Dracula would never have lived up to his tough-guy persona. So, when Sid inadvertently kills a vampire, whom he wrongly suspects as being a homosexual dogger trying it on with him, the whole vampire world is thrown into a state of shock. Suddenly, and very reluctantly, Sid finds himself the centre of human and vampire attention. Some want to kill him, but others believe him to be the Bellator; the one to fight the vampire beast.

That's all well and good, but Sid just wants to get pissed down the pub with his mates, and, maybe, just maybe, end his two year drought with the ladies. Besides, Sid has more important things to worry about. The benefit office are on to him, and, if they see him scrapping, they'll know that his bad back and dodgy heart are all a load of bollocks!

Forget Twilight, The Great Right Hope is the vampire release for 2009!

Review by Simon Berry (090111) Rating (8/10)

Review by Simon Berry
Rating 8/10
I was given this book to read by a friend; it was described as a comic horror about Dogging and Vampires and it sat on a shelf for a while until I was going on holiday when it made it into my flight bag. I must have read constantly from the moment we sat down in departures to the moment we landed, much to my wife’s annoyance.

Sid is just an average bloke, well average for the roughest estate in Middlesbrough. He's a sexist, benefit scrounging lazy slob. He likes the ladies but things have not been going well in that department so when his mates suggest a trip to a local Dogging site Sid thinks it must be worth a shot, after all, what's the worst that could happen.

Unfortunately for Sid he's not the only one looking for something that fateful night as we learn that not only do vampires exist but they keep the seedier side of society in check through there feeding habits.

As it turns out Sid is far from average, the average man wouldn't last 2 seconds in a fight with a Vampire let alone turn them into a pile of dust with his powerful right fist.

This book is not your average vampire book, in fact it's not average at all, it's a fun read with dark humour. It's like mixing Shaun of the Dead with Shameless and throwing in a few Vampires, well worth a read and soon (it's a trilogy and part 2 is just around the corner).

I have recommended this to friends and family from students to Grandparents and so far all of them have enjoyed this so if you fancy a laugh at the incompetence of a bigoted buffoon and his loyal friends then look no further.
Simon Berry (9th January 2011)