Mitzi at Midnight
Lyndon W Joslin
- 30 december 2025
- 9798318803710
Samenvatting:
A radio traffic reporter in Houston faces a deadly supernatural creature causing spontaneous human combustion and a vampire plague, while navigating personal conflicts and professional ambitions, leading to a thrilling and dangerous confrontation.
Now it can be told: the adventures of Mitzi Murray, an ambitious young radio traffic reporter on the dangerous freeways of Houston in 1987. As she provides updated details on heavy traffic and often deadly accidents, Mitzi keeps one eye on her plan to become a midday studio anchor as the next step in her career. But her aspirations are threatened by Rick, a client (and creepy ex) who holds a grudge. Mitzi finds herself drawn to Buddy, a freelance photographer who tells her people seem to be bursting into impossible flames at the scenes of fiery accidents and burning homes around town.
Enter Dr. Harcourt, an enigmatic Englishman with a peculiar mission and a strange hat. He reveals to Mitzi and Buddy the presence of something on Houston's freeways that's even more frightening than rush hour. An ancient creature has come to town, and is responsible for random cases of spontaneous human combustion. What's worse, the creature's presence triggers a terrifying outbreak of vampires. These swarms of living dead are more of a nuisance than a menace, but as nuisances go, they're hard to top. Harcourt seeks help from Mitzi and Buddy in confronting this double malevolent force, but when Rick mixes in, things go south in a hurry.
As a longtime Houstonian, forty-year veteran of local radio, and author of the acclaimed nonfiction work Count Dracula Goes to the Movies, Lyndon W. Joslin tells this story as only he can. Set against the backdrop of a dampened Houston during the oil bust of the '80s, with the Talking Heads and Motörhead on the radio, Mitzi at Midnight started its life as a screenplay. The story retains the fast pace, vivid imagery, and jolting action of an urban supernatural horror movie laced with dark humor. Read the book and watch the movie unfold in your head. (Of course, if somebody doesn't make an actual movie out of it, the author is going to be miffed.)