1971. A middle-aged man, wracked with grief, walks along the beach at Whitstable in Kent. A boy walks approaches him and, taking him for the famous vampire-hunter Doctor Van Helsing from the Hammer movies, asks for his help. Because he believes his stepfather really is a vampire… I like the premise of Whitstable, it’s most definitely intriguing. Taking a celebrity like Peter Cushing and crafting a horrific tale around events of his life seems like an ideal fit. The first element of the plot follows a man dealing with the loss of his wife. Volk’s writing effortlessly captures the grief in Cushing’s character. Society has a tendency to put those in the limelight on a pedestal. I think it’s easy to forget that at the end of the day they are people just like the rest of us. Traumatised by his spouse’s sudden departure, he longs for peace, actively isolating himself from the rest of the world whenever he can. In those rare occasions when he does set foot outside, he falls back on the only thing he knows, acting. He goes about his business behaving the way he supposes people would expect him to; inside however he is numb....