Linger Awhile

A novel about bloodthirsty 1950s movie cowgirls with hallucinogenic toadsucking properties: this is seductive, fine fiction at the cutting edge of mayhem

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When Irving Goodman falls in love with Justine Trimble, he is close to the end of his life and she's been dead for forty-seven years. Irving doesn't know how he's going to attain his heart's desire but he knows a man who does. Justine was a star of 1950s black-and-white westerns, an expert horsewoman much admired for her seat, and when Istvan Fallok, a wizard of high technology, sees her in Irving's video of "Last Stage to El Paso", he hi-techs Justine out of the videotape and into present-day Soho - in black-and-white. It's amazing what you can do with magnetised particles in a suspension of disbelief. As any reader of Bram Stoker will know, blood is the (full-colour) life. Istvan is Justine's first donor but in order not to be walking around in black-and-white, she has to be topped up now and then by Irving and his friends and the odd passer-by. Not surprisingly, the curiosity of the police is soon aroused. Things become a little complicated when Grace Kowalski brings a Justine Two into the picture. Where will this all end? Linger awhile and find out.