Can you help me to find this novel from its plot description?

May 19, 2008 5:26 PM

In the early 80's, I read a library book that featured a heroine stumbling into a parallel world and encountering chicken-legged vampires (not Baba Yaga) and their master. I can't recall the title nor author of this novel and you will earn my eternal gratitude if you can identify this work for me so that I can locate and read it again.

As a young teenager many many moons ago, I read a library book that featured the below in roughly the following order (and to varying degrees of accuracy due to my poor memory):


- girl riding bike has accident
- ends up in parallel, but feudal-like earth
- kindly invited in by elderly couple, who proceed to board up the house ready for nighfall just like the other villagers
- at night, the vampires arrive and attempt to entice the inhabitants out and/or break-in
- can't recall exact means, but husband is bitten and killed?
- wife and girl put him in a sack and tie it tightly
- sack moves and husband jumps out as a chicken-legged vampire
- husband is either killed again or released to join other vampires
- next day girl vows to end the vampires' reign and, following wife's directions visits the castle source of the infestation where she promptly gets the reciprocated hots for the vampire leader and I can't, ferthelifeofme, recall whether she beds him or kills him or both.


If anyone can please tell me the title or author of this novel, you will earn my eternal gratitude. I have subscribed to goth and vampire-themed news groups solely in order to enquire about it. Unfortunately, since the only stand-out theme is "chicken-legged vampires" ("vampire romance" having been done to death) I tend to get laughed off the forums.

The novel was probably written in the 60s, 70s or early 80s and I can't recall whether the author was male or female. And before you ask, the library I borrowed it from has long since trashed its records and thrown out the book. And when I visited a large bookseller and described the storyline, the assistant gave me a fixed smile while she frantically groped under the counter for the panic button.

And it wasn't all a dream.

Thanks for your time.

posted by Carmody to media & arts (6 answers total)

Hi Carmody, can you answer a few questions? How old were you when you read the book? Do you recall anything at all about the cover? Does the girl die as a result of the accident? I really want to help you find this!
posted by iconomy at 6:21 AM on May 20, 2008

I was about 13 when read it. I'm not sure whether it was in the adult or young adult section of the library (I may have used my mother's ticket to book it out).

Sorry, but I can't recall the cover - although I remember that the novel was a hardback.

I don't think that the girl died as a result of the accident, but I also don't remember whether she returned to her own reality after her adventures.

I'm not helping much am I? But many thanks for responding. I've tried Googling and various book searches but simply end up with a load of weirdly named chicken leg recipes!
posted by Carmody at 7:12 AM on May 20, 2008

I wonder if maybe you are over-emphasizing the chicken-leggedness in your searching?
posted by ian1977 at 7:30 AM on May 20, 2008

Hi Ian, I am most definately over-emphasizing the chicken legs, but that is all I can come up with to significantly distinguish the work from the zillions of vampire romance/Anne Rice-esque novels.

I have also tried: parallel/alternative earth + vampire - without joy.
posted by Carmody at 1:29 PM on May 20, 2008

Its not Vampire's Moon is it?
posted by ian1977 at 2:12 PM on May 20, 2008

Thanks, but no it's not. It definately features just one heroine somehow falling into a parallel earth. There were no CIA agents and it wasn't set in traditional "Dracula Country".

After googling "Vampire's Moon" I know that a scene like the death of Gyorgy Dozsa would have really stuck in my mind as I'm quite squeamish - more into fantasy than horror.

Many thanks again for the suggestion.
posted by Carmody at 1:09 AM on May 22, 2008