Friday, December 25, 2015

"Fun-tastic dialogue and more. Review of The Dead Assassin on the British Fantasy Society Web page

Newly-posted review of The Dead Assassin on the prestigious web site of the British Fantasy Society's web site.

Another fun review from the BFS's Phil Lunt. Phil reviewed the first book in the series, The Revenant of Thraxton Hall, and is a fan of the repartee between Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde:



Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Read an excerpt from The Angel of Highate

Publication day! Yee-ha!

Click here to read an excerpt from the novel at Dread Central (love that name): The Angel of Highgate excerpt



First Reviews Are In: The Angel of Highgate

First review of The Angel of Highgate is fabulous. Found this on the web site of Melanie, an Aussie-Book Blogger who now lives in the gothic splendour of Edinburgh.

Click to go to: Angel of Highgate Review


Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Last year I received a stellar review of The Revenan of Thraxton Hall from the quicky and wonderful web site, Fiction Reboot.

So this year I was a little nervous as to how the second book in the Paranormal Casebooks would be received--especially as I knew that it was being reviewed by a different reviewer.

Luckly, I need not have worried, as it received an even better review than the first book, thanks to the perspicacious reviewer with a very cool name: Hanna Clutterbuck-Cook!  Thanks, Hanna!

Fiction Reboot Review: The Dead Assassin




Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Fantasy Book Review Rates The Dead Assassin by Vaughn Entwistle

Terrific review of The Dead Assassin on the prestigious Fantasy Book Review website. Review Sandra Banks gave the book 8.5 out of 10 and Tweeted me that she is looking forward to the next book in the series.

Read the full review here:

Fantasy Book Review


Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Just In: Gorgeous Front and Back Cover Art for The Angel of Highgate

You might have seen the cover, but now I have both the front, back and spine of my Victorian suspense novel, The Angel of Highgate. I have to give a big shout out to the designer Julia Lloyd for producing the best cover imaginable.

My editor,  Miranda Jewess, also said that Titan is planning to use "soft-touch matte lamination and spot UV, so it'll be a stroke-able book."

Hmmn, sounds like a full-on sensual experience. Not entirely sure what a "stroke-able" book is. Think I'll leave that last comment as is. Here then, are the covers in all their glory. Love the colour palette:


Thursday, August 27, 2015

Another great review. This time from the Manhattan Book Review, which somewhat confusingly, is based in California.

Manhattan Book Review


Tuesday, August 25, 2015

A Shout Out from "The Crow's Nest!"

I never know when my books will be reviewed. Few reviewers send me an email to let me know. I have to resort to 'Google Advanced Search' to find them.

I've been busy lately, so I haven't been checking. But then I finally did and I'm glad I did.

The first was this very nice review on a UK science fiction site called 'SF Crows Nest.'

Check it out at: /SF Crow's Nest Review of The Dead Assassin

You might notice that the reviewer spelled my first name wrong. It should be Vaughn not Vaughan, but that's okay, so long as you give me a good review you can spell it how you like!



Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Amazing Amazon Review from Mystery "Connoisseur" and critic, Laurence J. Coven

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful


With the 2nd book in this Doyle (Holmes) series just coming out, (The Dead Assassin) I'm reminded of how much the first one surprised and delighted me. The Revenant of Thraxton Hall is to be the first book in a series called The Paranormal Casebooks of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and that is excellent news indeed. Entwistle has set the bar high with this auspicious series debut.
It is 1893 London, and Arthur Conan Doyle (no “Sir” as yet), in his early thirties, experiences two of his life’s most profound and shocking moments. The first is by his own hand. He has just killed off Sherlock Holmes, the most beloved character in all literature. The second comes completely unsolicited and unexpectedly. An anonymous note imploring “the author of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries” to come to her on a matter of utmost gravity and urgency” arrives on his desk. The address given is unknown to Doyle. The summoner is unnamed. Doyle is only too used to people equating him with his creation and supposing that he has the same deductive and investigative skills as Holmes. Doyle hates all that. But it is a lady, so he goes.
The following day he is driven by his cabbie and left in front of a stunning, Mayfair mansion. The cab leaves before Doyle can bid him to wait. He approaches the door and sees the huge knocker, ornately decorated with a brass phoenix. He employs it and is greeted by a footman—a red-turbaned Sikh. Inside the mansion, it is cold and gloomy, with the odd “lingering tang of fish heads”. Entwistle proves he is a master of description and evocative ambience with many such turns of phrase.
The Sikh conducts Doyle into another room where he is told to wait. Suddenly, with no explanation, the door is slammed shut and locked behind him, and he is left in pitch dark. He must draw on all his strength and courage not to panic, and finally the lady, preceded by a haunting, seductive scent enters.
She is a psychic, a medium, and has foreseen her own murder at a future séance where she will be shot to death. The only other person in the vision is Doyle. She wants Doyle to find out who the murderer will be and save her. Doyle has perceived that she is a beautiful, very young woman. She even has a logical reason for the darkness. She suffers from porphyria, a rare, genetic affliction that causes any light to feel as daggers in the eyes. And although, at this point in his life, he is skeptical, but open-minded about the paranormal, still he gives no credence to her story. He tells her murder is for the police, not he. She importunes him. He is resolute. She leaves him, literally in the dark.
In one early scene Entwistle sets his stage for a most curious, singular, funny, and frightening tale. It expands constantly, but never flags or ceases to intrigue.
Doyle’s life is already in turmoil. Touie, his beloved wife is bed-ridden and dying of consumption. When the story “The Final Problem” hits the streets he instantly becomes the most hated man in London for killing Holmes. Insults, garbage, and rocks are hurled at him. His friend Oscar Wilde meets him for dinner and commiserates with Doyle in his own flamboyant manner. Wilde himself is getting in more and more trouble for his libertine ways. And all this is historically true, including the unlikely friendship of Wilde and Doyle. Their personalities couldn’t be more different, but they were the greatest and most celebrated literary geniuses of their time in England, and they respect each other’s work and talent and were genuinely fond of each other.
Entwistle’s sharp sense of the comic is manifested when Doyle meets with his editor, H.G. Smith, at The Strand, which has become fabulously successful largely because of the Holmes stories. When Doyle opines that he has become the most reviled and hated man in London, Wells replies, “I think you underestimate public sentiment, Arthur. You would have been more popular if you had beaten the prime minister to death with a puppy…”
Doyle determines to return to the psychic’s home, and Wilde wheedles his way into an adventure which he finds delightfully bizarre.
But the house is empty. Apparently the lady and the Sikh have gone away. Perhaps, Wilde suggests, to some estate in the country, but when Doyle points out that the huge ornate door-knocker is gone, Wilde’s riposte is “That does seem like excessive over packing.” Entwistle continually supplies Wilde with raucously humorous bon-mots, and although he completely peppers Wilde’s dialogue with them, and some may be just sort of ok-mots, still they are very clever, and often wildly funny (OK—pun intended.) But Wilde is far from just a witticism on legs. Entwistle has given him character, heart and intelligence.
Doyle receives another somewhat mysterious note inviting him to the inaugural meeting of the Society for Psychical Research, which is being held at Thraxton Hall, whose mistress is Lady Hope Thraxton, the very lady who had enlisted Doyle’s help to prevent her future but foreseen murder.
Doyle’s unsure about going. Touie is very unwell, and he has just given her laudanum, and for once, taken some himself. In a state of muddled mind and deep sadness, a figure suddenly bursts out of a Paget illustration on the wall. That figure is, of course, Sherlock Holmes who takes a seat in a comfy armchair, lights his pipe and proceeds to tell his creator to drop his self-pity and that “the game’s afoot.”
But Doyle has just taken laudanum, so is Holmes really there or is he hallucinating. Entwistle keeps the reader off balance all the time. Are seemingly inexplicable things really explainable in a rational way?
At the psychic convention there are bizarre characters everywhere—I mean serious loons—but loons which may or may not have credibility. Levitators, palm-readers, teletransporters, and mesmerists litter the landscape. An inexplicable Count who always wears a mask, a dapper debonair, arrogant Lord who is not what he seems, if only we at least were sure what it was he seems to be, an ancient Russian crone, Madame Zhozhovsky, who has seen past the vale, travelled through the Himalayas, and apparently ran a biscuit shop somewhere in Manchester. She also always carries around with her a most unpleasant monkey. And then there’s the much, much older butler, Greaves, who is blind and has serves the Thraxtons for generations. He could be anywhere from exceedingly evil to the most generous and kind fellow at this gathering. At one point he pulls off an Irene Adler moment to perfection. Just trust me, he does it. And the cast list goes on from there.
But the most overpowering presence is Thraxton Hall itself. A crumbling monstrosity that has more curses than Hostess has cupcakes. It also appears to be a tesseract—larger on the inside than on the outside. It is more haunted than Manderley from Rebecca and twice as menacing as anything they every built in Amityville.
But then there’s Lady Hope, herself, a beautiful, young, sensitive woman who Doyle is there to save. Surely he can keep his eye on that prize. Except suddenly she becomes a siren, tempting Doyle into unfaithfulness, and leading him on tours of horror around the house—the crypt which houses all the coffins of all the generations of Thraxtons, some so old they have decayed and spilled their unholy detritus over the unwelcoming ground. And she takes him to the secret mirror room where uncounted numbers of them restlessly abide and reflect. But there are no mirrors anywhere else in the house. Don’t worry. No vampires. But we do learn that reflections live forever, especially if one has a “scrying” mirror, which Hope Thraxton’s ancestor, Mariah, holds in her hand in her huge dusty portrait in the hall. And Mariah is the spirit guide that possesses Hope during the séances. And these séances are very powerfully described. They are scary and wonderfully creepy. And she doesn’t even need to spin her head all the way around and spew out pea soup.
Through all these chilling and dizzying convolutions, Doyle and Wilde must somehow solve a murder before it happens. Wilde at one point reminds Doyle he is a man of the theater, and that’s what he sees here—incredible theater. But as things become more inexplicable and frightening they drive Wilde to his absinthe and Doyle back to his visions of Holmes.
But Wilde in one of his not uncommon perceptive moments, when Doyle is compiling a list of the most likely suspects, points out, that Arthur should put himself on the list. Doyle emphatically denies that possibility; he is here to save the lady. But Doyle is taken aback when Wilde cogently observes that one person they know for sure who carries a hidden gun is Arthur himself, for Conan Doyle has indeed brought his service revolver with him. (Good Old Watson!)
Well what to believe and what not to? Is it spooks or charlatans who rule the day, or some combination thereof? Holmes once said “The world is wide enough. No ghosts need apply”. But then Doyle is not Holmes, as he keeps trying to convince the world and himself.
And there is a murder to be solved here, and a culprit to be brought to justice, or so we are foretold. Doyle and Wilde must bring all their considerable intelligence, powers of observation, common sense, and courage to this pretty little problem. And they complement each other’s strengths perfectly, each filling in what the other lacks. They must prepare themselves for the worst, whatever it maybe.
Fortunately all the reader has to do is snuggle down in the comforter, turn on his reading light, and have one hell of a good time.

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

The Dead Assassin refuses to lie down and die. Reviews on GoodReads vary enormously. A few haters hate it. Most readers like or at least love it and many fans think it's better than the first novel.

Most professional reviewers give it consistently high marks. Here is the latest good review from TheBookbag.co.uk. Again, a reviewer who really "gets it."

The Book Bag Review




Thursday, June 11, 2015

THE REVENANT OF THRAXTON HALL is a Nancy Pearl Award Finalist!

I have been a proud member of the Pacific Northwest Writer's Association for years now, so it gives me great pride to announce that THE REVENANT OF THRAXTON HALL is a finalist in the PNWA's yearly Nancy Pearl Award. Yippee!

Named for Seattle's beloved librarian and literary critic, the award recognises novels published by PNWA members. The winners will be announced at the PNWA's annual conference in July. But, sad to say, unless someone mails me a plane ticket, I won't be attending.

However, if you are lucky enough to attend this most excellent annual writer's conference, you will be able to purchase copies of my novels in the book store.

Monday, June 8, 2015

DEAD ASSASSIN an open and shut case for Criminal Element.com

The prestigious mystery web site, Criminal Element.com, just released a glowing review of THE DEAD ASSASSIN.

Even though she hasn't read the first novel in the Paranormal Casebooks series, reviewer Katherine Tomlinson was very impressed with how quickly the narrative catcher the reader up with the mystery and the milieu in "just a few elegant paragraphs."


You can read the full review at the Criminal Element website:


Thursday, June 4, 2015

Another 5 Star Review of the DEAD ASSASSIN!

Now that early review ARCs are hitting Netgalley and getting into the hands of book bloggers, THE DEAD ASSASSIN is starting to rack up four and five star reviews.

Here is one of the latest, from a book blog called Bookishsmaug. (Smaug is the name of the Dragon from the Hobbit movies. Gettit?)


You can read the full review here:  Bookishsmaug Review

Monday, June 1, 2015

THE DEAD ASSASSIN Slays His First Victim!

The second book in the Paranormal Casebooks series, THE DEAD ASSASSIN has yet to hit the bookstores but it is already grabbing some great reviews.

The first book in the series, THE REVENANT OF THRAXTON HALL, received a rapturous review from an Aussie-Lady-Turned-Edinburgh-Book-Blogger by the name of Mel.

So when I received my ARCs of THE DEAD ASSASSIN, it seemed a good idea to forward one to Mel. I did and here's she tweeted upon reading it:


To read Mel's very enthusiastic review, check out the article on her website here:

http://www.everythingiwishedfor.co.uk


Tuesday, May 26, 2015

British Fantasy Society Finds THE REVENANT A "Spiffing Tale"

Even though THE REVENANT OF THRAXTON HALL has been out for more than a year, people are still discovering it for the first time and it's still generating rave reviews.


Here is the latest killer review, written by Alex Bardy, it appears on the very prestigious web site of The British Fantasy Society. You can read the full review here:

British Fantasy Society Review




Sunday, March 1, 2015

My First Book Signing Is Out of this World and Off the Planet

Saturday, February 28, I hopped a train to London to attend a special book signing organised by my publisher, Titan Books. The venue was Forbidden Planet books, one of the funkiest and coolest bookstores you can imagine. FP has two floors devoted to Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror, and Mystery titles, as well as many tie-ins with Star Trek/Star Wars/Dr. Who and comic book/graphic novel related titles.

The  event was attended by four Titan authors who write Sherlock-related books. The signing panel consisted of Vaughn Entwistle (The Revenant of Thraxton Hall), Adam Christopher (Elementary, Ghost Line), James Lovegrove (Sherlock Holmes, Gods of War), and George Mann (Sherlock Holmes, The Spirit Box).

It was a real thrill to be at my first book signing and it was especially gratifying to meet and shake hands with fans who had traveled to the event specifically to meet me. Several even brought both versions of my book, hardcover and paperback, for me to sign, and several wanted their photo taken with me. My first fifteen minutes of fame actually lasted an hour!

It was also wonderful to meet Miranda Jewess, my very astute editor at Titan Books and Ella Bowman, one of Titan's PR wizards. After the event we retired to the Cross Keys pub for a G&T and a good old chin wag before I caught the train at Paddington Station for home.

I'm still floating on a cloud of endorphins!

Here is a photo of me looking only a little like Snidely Whiplash in my Victorian Topper and frock coat, apparently rubbing my hands with glee as my fiendish plot comes to fruition.

Saturday, February 14, 2015

My Gothic Novel, The Angel of Highgate, gets new cover art and a publication date

I just received the cover art for my Victorian suspense novel, The Angel of Highgate. 
I am really bowled over the artwork created by designer, Julia Lloyd, which perfectly captures the brooding gothic feel of the novel.
Julia read the book for inspiration and came up with this moody and evocative design that features a moonlight scene at Highgate Cemetery with two of the book's main characters. 
Brilliant stuff! The Angel of Highgate will be published on November 3rd, 2015 by Titan Books.

The novel has already garnered terrific reviews from Kirkus and from the Historical Novel Society. 


Thursday, February 12, 2015

Meet Me at The Forbidden Planet Bookshop, London

Sherlockians rejoice! My UK publisher, Titan Books, is putting on a special event for its Sherlockian authors at The Forbidden Planet Bookstore in London.

In all, four of us Titan authors will be in attendance:

Adam Christopher - Elementary The Ghost Line

Vaughn Entwistle - The Revenant of Thraxton Hall

James Lovegrove - Sherlock Holmes, Gods of War

George Mann - Sherlock Holmes, The Spirit Box

The event takes place on Saturday, Februrary 28th at the Forbidden Planet Megastore on Shaftesbury Avenue. 13:00 - 14:00

Get there early to beat the huuuuuge crowds. (I'm kidding . . . I'm kidding . . .)

Forbidden Planet Event

Thursday, February 5, 2015

So Red it Bleeds!

My publisher, Titan Books, recently sent me the cover art for the paperback version of The Dead Assassin, Book 2 of The Paranormal Casebooks of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

The design closely follows the cover art Titan created for The Revenant of Thraxton Hall, no doubt to establish a "Brand" identity.

This time around the background is blood red and once again features the real-life silhouettes of Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde front and centre. Much of the action of The Dead Assassin is set in a fog-bound London as the cover design reflects.

Can't wait for the book to hit the bookshops--scheduled for publication in June, 2015.

Pre-order your copy today!


Monday, January 19, 2015

Gutenburg Gets his Groove On; Five Star Review of The Revenant of Thraxton Hall

In 1439, Johannes Gutenburg invited the movable type printing press which revolutionized printing books and made them affordable for the masses. This was handy, since the e-reader would not be invented until 1998.

Recently, I came across a Book Blog with the groovy name of Gutenburg's Son, who just review The Revenant of Thraxton Hall.

The review goes into great detail. Although the fantasy aspects of the novel were not entirely to the reviewer's tastes, and he had quibbles with certain aspects of the plot, he ended up giving the book five stars and plans to read the next book in the Paranormal Casebooks series, The Dead Assassin.

You can find the blog and the review here: Gutenburg's Son



Monday, January 5, 2015

The BookTherapy Podcasts Names The Revenant of Thraxton Hall as one of its Top 10 of 2014!

BookTherapy is a brilliant podcast run by Rob Cohen, a lawyer in the US. In each edition Rob and his brother discuss and review the latest books they have read. The podcasts, I must point out, are tremendous fun and a complete hoot to listen to. 
As you can imagine, BookTherapy gets through a lot of books in the course of a year. As it was the end of the year, Rob released his Top 10 Books of 2014 and The Revenant of Thraxton Hall made the list! It was very flattering to see my book listed alongside some big, big names such as Stephen King, Ken Follett, Peter James, Alex Grecian, etc. 
Thanks again
to Rob Cohen. I am counting his shoutout as the best present I got this Christmas.