Now another novel joins the list (of books with Bela Lugosi as a character), Lance Carney's OF VAMPS AND VAMPIROS: A FINNIAN O'DWYER UNIVERSAL CITY CRIME CAPER. It was published in 2019, but I just stumbled on it. Like most of the books, it is a mystery—or maybe a bit more than a mystery, for a lot is going on its 242 pages.
Finnian O’Dwyer is a young Irish immigrant who gets a job at Universal Studios in 1930 as a stagehand during the
filming of both the English language DRACULA, and the Spanish language version filmed on the same sets at night. Finnian is, literally, an innocent abroad. Most of America mystifies him, and at the start of the story he has never even been to a movie theatre (none in his small hometown in Ireland). But he shows a talent for handling armadillos (used in the Castle Dracula scene) and making the bat prop work.
Lugosi takes Finnian as his personal assistant. Odd things happen at the studio: bodies turn up in strange places,
and someone and something has followed Lugosi from Hungary.
A few other real-life figures—Carl Laemmle, Dwight Frye, Lupita Tovar, Charles Lindbergh—enter the story. Coming
off as particularly nice guys are directors Tod Browning and George Melford (who directed the Spanish-language DRACULA). And the author does well with Lugosi.
Regardless of your opinion of the movie DRACULA, it may change when you view it through the eyes of the innocent Finnian, who sees the movie when it is finished.
OF VAMPS AND VAMPIROS is a very enjoyable read.
