Mansfield Park and Mummies: Monster Mayhem, Matrimony, Ancient Curses, True Love And Other Dire Delights by Vera Nazarian (book review).

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the classics, along comes another monster mash-up which will make Janites run screaming for the hills. There’s no time for tea when there is a monster on the loose.

Fanny Price is a modest young lady and the heroine of the piece, as in the original Jane Austen slim volume. Here, though, she encounters the seductive charms of Henry Crawford who is a distraction from her true love, Edmund. She also constantly trips over the Egyptian artefacts brought to the house by her beloved Aunt, Lady Bartram, who is building an amazing collection and fascinated by an amulet she refuses to remove at all. Fanny’s Aunt Norris is otherwise engaged with the battle against an overwhelming amount of facial hair at certain times of the month and the lovely Mary Crawford is playing Fangs for the memory with Edmund.

Mayhem does indeed ensue when Fanny is distracted by a certain dark gentleman who no one else seems to notice and a plague of mummies hits the estate.

Will the path of true love be strewn with bandages? Will Fanny become Mrs. Mummy? Will this ever stop?

‘Mansfield Park And Mummies: Monster Mayhem, Matrimony, Ancient Curses, True Love And Other Dire Delights’ proves to be great fun whilst using every cliché in the book and movie world. Definitely inspired by Hammer, Universal and probably ‘Carry On’ films, this is a really enjoyable volume and I look forward to the next outing for the slasher classics.

Sue Davies

(pub: Norilana Books. 568 page enlarged paperback. Price: £12.50 (UK), $16.95 (US). ISBN: 978-1-60762-047-1)

check out website: www.norilana.com