THE LAST TEMPTATION OF DR VALENTINE BY JOHN LLEWELLYN PROBERT

​Most people, well those of us with the even a modicum of sanity, would be honoured to have not just a book written about your greatest achievements but also a film of your endeavours.  We all crave validation and desire to be at least famous if not infamous.  Thankfully this isn't the case with Dr Valentine, the antihero of John Llewellyn Probert's third and possibly final volume (hey like so many horror films there is always the chance of another sequel) of the crazy adventures of the world's most flamboyant serial killer.  

The Last Temptation of Dr Valentine is the most outlandish and fun-filled outing of this most excellent series of novellas and novels.  When an American film crew decides to come to Bristol to make a film of the book which chronicled the murders he committed against those who he felt were responsible for the deaths of wife, Dr Valentine takes this as a slight upon himself forcing him out of retirement to deliver his own unique brand of revenge and restitution to the utter delight to the reader.  

Probert has an encyclopedic knowledge of UK horror films and he uses this gift perfectly throughout this novel, drawing on some of the most iconic, and few lesser known but equally  outstanding death scenes as the mode of revenge from Dr Valentine to create  a novel so gloriously over the top that it should contain a Government health warning from fear of getting lockjaw from all the gleeful grinning you will be doing while immersed in the  pages of this love letter to the genre.  

The pace never lets up, The Last Temptation of Dr Valentine steams through its narrative with the unrelenting power of some Horror Expres. Each chapter is essentially a set up for the punch line, where the punchline is a clever and witty take on an amazing death scene.  Some you will recognise instantly, and some of them might have you wondering where they came from, all I'll say is that this is the best use of a penguin in a horror novel that I can think of.  While each chapter s essentially a meet and say goodbye to one of the characters, it never gets old, Probert's writing is captivating, he captures the essence of what made these horror films so uniquely British, managing to take sly digs at the media, and the conveyor belt mentality of American horror cinema, without ever losing sight of the main objective of this novel which I think is to bring the sense of un back to horror. 

The character of Dr Valentine, if you have read the previous two books in the trilogy will always be associated with Vincent Price, one of horror's greatest actors, and the notion of casting Nicholas Cage in the role of the good Dr is a stroke of genius, I'll assume this is a not so subtle dig at Cage's woeful turn in the sacrilegious remake of the Wicker Man.  Valentine is such a marvellous creation, intelligent, resourceful, erudite. and aloof, he could easily have been an altogether unlikeable antihero, however,  his fragile sense of ego turns him into one of the greatest horror villains of all time.  Pitting him once more against the down to earth, curmudgeonly and world-weary former Inspector Longdon only serves to highlight the twisted sense of self-importance that Dr Valentine feels about himself.  Not quite a battle of wits, as no one would ever dare to claim to be comparable to the Dr, this is more like a game of cat and mouse where the mouse is far more dangerous than the cat.  

The Last Temptation of Dr Valentine combines a thrilling narrative, with a warm and witty look at the history of British horror, to deliver an exuberant and triumphant story that will put a smile on the face of even the most indifferent of horror fans.  

I have a theory that no horror franchise needs or should continue after its third outing, but reading this book Probert has hit that theory into submission, I  long for at least one more outing for our good if slightly nasty doctor.  

PICK UP A COPY FROM BLACK SHUCK BOOKS BY CLICKING HERE