Barnabas, Quentin, and the Body Snatchers

Who's to say that Roger Collins hadn't caught on early in the game.....

I have some of the books and haven't re-read them yet.  I bought 10 via Amazon, and it cost me about 100.00 because of postage and the price of the books from DIFFERENT vendors.   I have the first 10 and HODS (which cost me 20.00.)  Would like to start reading them on Sunday while relaxing.  I would like to start with the one with Chris Jennings and sister (title escapes me now).  I believe it's set in 1909.

I know the one that you're referring to, Willie. It's called The Foe of Barnabas Collins. Amy doesn't appear in this one, although she does show up as a minor character in some of the later books. It does feature the only appearance of Angelique, who tortures Barnabas by looking exactly the same as she did in Martinique. With olive skin and jet black hair. Perfect if your concept of Angelique is Anna Magnani. Josette also appears as a soft blue light. This is apparently before she found steady work promoting specials at Kmart.

You know it's amazing that I'm a DS fan at all. My first exposure to DS was through the novels. The first one I ever read was "The Mystery of Collilnwood" and the second was the subject of this thread. I eventually found and read each and everyone.  I don't know what it was that hooked me. They are so poorly written!! I started watching the show in syndication less than a month later, but I doubt I would have if I'd not read the novels. It was on at 11:00 PM and I had to beg my mom to let me stay up on Fridays only.

To the person who pictured Mrs. Cunningham writing the novels..did you picture her taking up with a guy who looked like King Johnny as well??? My best friend also told me he thought that she'd written the books. He'd only looked very quickly at the Happy Days credits and was sure there was a Marilyn Ross on the show. I corrected him and told him to watch the credits the next day if he didn't believe me.

Did Dan/Marilyn Ross make it into the Guiness Book of World Records for the number of books he turned out?

Some years ago, Geoffrey Hamell wrote a short but quite clever takeoff on the Ross novels titled Barnabas, Quentin and the Zombies' Nose.

 

It appeared in TWODS years ago.

Unfortunately I missed it - but...

Carolyn informs our heroine that Quentin is a master of disguise and could among them right now. She adds that once he was married to Roger for six months before anyone caught on.

...it sounds like it must have been a hoot and a half to read!! 

Let me assure you that this Uncle Roger would have caught on long before that. But I probably would have gone along with it anyway because it would be like getting the milk for free.

So to speak. 

Almost as funny and probably more bizarre was something I remember from one of the early Newark festivals. A couple of fans took the stage and read excerpts from the Ross books like they were reading from great literature. As dopey as the books read, hearing them out loud remains one of my guiltiest pleasures.

Almost as funny and probably more bizarre was something I remember from one of the early Newark festivals. A couple of fans took the stage and read excerpts from the Ross books like they were reading from great literature.

I really wish I could have immersed in DS cons and fandom.  This sounds like a lot of fun.  Unfortunately by 2002 when I revived my DS interest by buying a sh-load of used VHS, I was getting gradually more and more housebound.   That year I also got on the Internet, thankfully...