Inspired by the famous 1940 film, Devil Bat Diary tells the “true” story of what really happened to the unhappy citizens of Heathville, Illinois, during that terrible prewar summer, as recorded in the long-suppressed journals of Chicago City Register’s principal newspaper correspondent, Jonathan “Johnny” Layton.

The Devil Bats were furiously furry fiends created by a scientific genius who believed himself wrongfully relegated to concocting perfumes and colognes which he despised for wages not worth mentioning. So, as a means to an embittered end, he manufactured an evil ointment with a scent that so infuriated his giant bats to such an extent they felt compelled to tear the throats out of their unsuspecting victims.

Devil Bat Diary tells for the first time the full inside story of what took place in ways not possible to show to Production Code audiences back then. Did you know for example that Chief Wilkins loved Layton, or that one of the Mortons was a transvestite, or that Mary was a religious lunatic, or that Layton and his trusted partner “One-Shot” McGuire couldn’t stand the sight of each other?

Written to coincide with the 70th Anniversary of the film’s release and dedicated to the eternal memory of the great Bela Lugosi, Devil Bat Diary is an entertaining venture into a world filled with chirping Chiropterans, malicious murders, sacred sex and revolting revelations.

Three-time Rondo Award nominee Peter H. Brothers is also the author of Mushroom Clouds and Mushroom Men – The Fantastic Cinema of Ishiro Honda. Devil Bat Diary is his first novel, a tribute to his idol and inspiration, Bela Lugosi, and he is currently working on its sequel, Terror In Tinseltown.

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