Dracula Cha Cha Cha

Dracula Cha Cha Cha (US-title: Judgment of Tears)
Author Kim Newman
Country United States
Language English
Series Anno Dracula series
Genre Alternate history, Horror
Publisher Avon Books
Publication date
1998
Media type Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
Pages 291 (paperback)
ISBN 0-380-73229-7
OCLC 42805587
Preceded by The Bloody Red Baron
Followed by Johnny Alucard

Dracula Cha Cha Cha (re-titled Judgment of Tears in the US), is a 1998 novel by British writer Kim Newman. It is the third book in the Anno Dracula series.

Plot

In 1959, several of the world's notable vampires gather in Rome for the wedding of Count Dracula. Nefarious schemes are afoot and being investigated by British Intelligence, the Diogenes Club, and several others, including a British spy on the trail of a sinister madman with a white cat.

Setting

The book is an alternate history novel set in a world where Van Helsing never killed Dracula. The version of Rome shown in the book is heavily influenced by Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini. As always in the series, the novel contains a number of characters from other fictional works, though due to copyright restrictions some are not named or are given aliases.

Some of these identity shifts are quite clear (such as the character of Commander Hamish Bond, who has a fondness for martinis, drives an Aston Martin, carries a Walther PPK, has the Scots version of the name "James" for his name, and gets to say "the bitch is dead."), while some are more obscure (a Kansas football player named Kent, for example).

The novel's original title is inspired by Bruno Martino's song Dracula Cha Cha Cha, which appears on the album Italian Graffiti (1960/61?) and is performed onscreen in Vincente Minnelli's film Two Weeks in Another Town (1962).

Characters from other works of fiction

These characters come from a variety of different sources. Some, mostly those from public domain works, are listed by name. Some of the others are listed by mere descriptions.

Historical persons appearing in the novel

Notes

  1. The character drives an Aston Martin, drinks martinis, "Hamish" is the Scottish version of the name "James", he carries a Walther PPK and works for British Intelligence. It is also mentioned that he was turned into a vampire by Sgt. Dravot, who was also played by Sean Connery; and Bond's physical change at the end of the novel seems to imply that he begun the book resembling Sean Connery and ended looking like Roger Moore.
  2. His style of dress and his white cat are a reference to Ernst Stavro Blofeld, specifically from the movie version of You Only Live Twice
  3. His steel teeth refer to Jaws and his throwing-hat to Oddjob
  4. But not as we know him; he is identified as a football player from Kansas, and (although his appearance includes several Superman-related injokes) there is no indication that he is Superman (or indeed that Superman exists in the world of the novel). In a particularly subtle joke, several details from the character's backstory were borrowed from the life story of the actor Steve Reeves, who (unlike George Reeves and Christopher Reeve) never portrayed Superman on screen.
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