A Beastly Business

Bill Easter is a petty criminal with a little problem of a £2000 overdraft that he has no means of covering. Fortunately, the bank manager has a problem of his own and needs Bill’s help: the corpse of Henry Oliver, a very hairy 350 lb. mass murderer known as the “Mad Vicar,” is decomposing in his basement and he wants it removed.

Among Oliver’s papers, Bill finds a tantalizing reference to treasure that leads him to the Scottish isle of Rhona, where he meets the intrepid General Charles Kirk of British Foreign Intelligence and the arrogant adventurer J. Moldon Mott.

Kirk has uncovered a bizarre plot involving the KGB, ex-Nazi mad scientists, and the “mad monk” Rasputin, while Mott is hot on the trail of a stolen gold treasure. And when they discover the island is being overrun by werewolves, their trip to the remote island will become a very beastly business indeed!

A Beastly Business (1982) features the trademark blend of mystery, adventure, and horror that made John Blackburn (1923-1993) one of the most acclaimed British thriller writers of his generation. One of the scarcest of Blackburn’s books and long unobtainable, A Beastly Business is reprinted here for the first time ever in a handsome hardcover edition.

Edition Specifications

• Limited to 200 copies, signed by Bob Eggleton.
• Family-approved facsimile by John F. Blackburn.
• Patterned endpapers.
• Full Dutch cloth binding.
• Ribbon marker, head and tail bands.
• Published October 2020.
• Book sizes 5½ × 8½ inches; 176 and 208 pages.