#BlogTour ‘Land Of The Dead’ by Steven Hopstaken and Melissa Prusi

About the book…

Book 3 in the Stoker’s Wilde series!

Booklist on the first book in this series, ‘Stoker’s Wilde’: “Pass this volume on to readers who are hungry for more historical stories with a supernatural frame.”

Science and the supernatural collide in this terrifying tale of witches, reanimated corpses and spirits invading our world from beyond the grave.

Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde have returned to their lives in London after their adventures in the American West. Bram is managing a theatre and Oscar is rising to fame and planning his upcoming wedding when they are once again called upon to battle supernatural evil.

Grief-crazed scientist Victor Mueller needs Bram’s unusual blood for his mad quest to bring his dead wife back to life, and he’ll resort to kidnapping to get it. Meanwhile, a young medium named Lorna Bow runs fake séances in London under the thumb of an abusive uncle. When her mother Endora returns, Lorna learns the truth: they come from a long line of witches, and soon Endora has awakened Lorna’s dormant powers.

When the scientist and the witches combine forces, all Hell breaks loose. Long-dead souls find themselves back in the land of the living, and some of them have scores to settle with our heroes. But as Mueller’s ambition and her mother’s desire for vengeance against the men who imprisoned her become clear, Lorna soon finds herself questioning the morality of their work.

Bram and Oscar must team up with American secret agent Cora Chase to protect all they hold dear. Only a mission into the Land of the Dead can stop Mueller and Endora from bringing back more souls.

Bram’s wife Florence must call on the monster-fighting skills she honed in America, and even Oscar’s bride Constance has to face new challenges as she learns how the supernatural has shaped her own history.

In an adventure that spans continents – and even other worlds – they confront old enemies and unknown dangers. Teaming up with old friends Teddy Roosevelt and Richard Burton and new allies like Arthur Conan Doyle and Nicola Tesla, they too must harness both science and magic to protect our world from intruders from the Land of the Dead.

I am eternally grateful to Anne Cater and Random Things for inviting me on the blogtours for Flame Tree Press Books which ahs allowed me to read all three in the series so far, which brings me to ‘Land Of The Dead’ which is out from April 26!

As a quick recap of what has happened previously, Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde are best friends, in the theatrical world and also in the arena of supernatural shenanigans.

Allied with but not allied to the White Worms, ostensibly a ‘book lovers group’, but more like what Torchwood and UNIT are to Dr Who,they have been tangled with vampires a werewolves yet have still to face their wildest foes.

Which are basically their old ones, brought back from the dead.

Whilst Bram is focusing on his, and vampire sire Henry Irving’s production of the Scottish play,and reconciliation between his ex lover Ellen and wife Florence, Wilde is preparing for marriage.

Bram has vampire blood in him courtesy of Irving, and hopes he can use it to find a cure for vampirism whilst Wilde is turning to science and folklore to cure his brother, Willie, who is a werewolf.

Whilst they deal with their personal issues , the maniacal Dr Muelleris planning on using the Stoker serum (Bram’s blood) as a means to bring people back from the dead.

Having not read Frankenstein and seen how horribly wrong resurrecting the dead could go, he has kept his dead wife on literal ice whilst trying to perfect his resurrection technique.

This whole situation collides when Mueller kidnaps Stoker for a full time blood bank, and subsequently becomes aware of a potential alliance with 2 mediums.

Mother and daughter, Endora and Lorna Bow have been working the seance gig until Endora realises she could use this so much profitably by joining with Mueller. Their skills could break into the other world, the Realm, to pull back particular souls for a new life ,in an improved body.

What could possibly go wrong?

With a spy following Mueller and the Bows,the White Worms on high alert and personal clashing with the professional in our group of heroes, the stakes-no pun intended-have never been higher for humanity!

Combining the epistolary nature of Dracula with the high spirits of adventure, the wit of Wilde and the sensory visuals of Stoker, you have a satisfying climax to a journey begun in Book 1.

The notion of ‘just because you can do something, doesn’t mean that you should’ has been put to the test on every page.

Sometimes higher powers exist for a reason and with the banks of the Realm threatening to burst, a small band of people rammed with courage, is all that stands between us and becoming a land of the living dead.

About the authors…

Steven Hopstaken was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he spent his formative years watching and reading science fiction and horror. He has a degree in journalism from Northern Michigan Universityand spends his free time
traveling; writing screenplays, short stories and novels;and practicing photography.

Melissa Prusi was born and raised in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan
(often mistaken for Canada),and studied video and film production at
Northern Michigan Universityand the University of Michigan. She’s been a video editor,asemi-professional film reviewer,athree-time champion on the quiz show Jeopardy!,and a Guinness world record holder (1990 edition,for directing the longest live television show).

They met in acollege screenwriting class and married three years later. They spent a brief time in Los Angeles, where they both worked for Warner Bros.television. They eventually ended up in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where they love the arts scene but dread the winters. While they both currently make a living as website content managers, they have sold two screenplays, which have been lost to development hell (let’s hope they can be resurrected!)
They’ve indulged their fascination with Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde through trips to Dublin and London to research their lives and visit sites mentioned in Stoker’s Wilde.
They live in St.Louis Park, Minnesota with their two cats. If they’re not writing,you can usually find them at a movie, local theater production, improv show or pub quiz.

Links-https://www.flametreepress.com/

Twitter @RandomTTours

@flametreepress

@StokersWild