| The Black Crusade | |
| Author: | Richard Harland |
| Cover Artist: | Kerri Valkova |
| Country: | Australia |
| Language: | English |
| Genre: | Horror |
| Publisher: | Chimaera Publications |
| Pub Date: | January 2004 |
| Media Type: | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages: | 217 pp (first edition) |
| Isbn: | 0-9752143-0-6 |
| Preceded By: | The Vicar of Morbing Vyle |
The Black Crusade is a 2004 horror novel by Richard Harland. It is a prequel to Harland's earlier novel The Vicar of Morbing Vyle. It describes the journey of the hapless Basil Smorta, a multilingual bank clerk, who is forced into the company of a group of "fundamental Darwinists" by their imprisonment of the object of his undying love, Australian singer, Volusia, in a mobile iron box. The group travel across Eastern Europe during 1894, and encounter ghosts, blood donating vampires and other comic horror curiosities.[1]
The Black Crusade was first published in Australia in January 2004 by Chimaera Publications in trade paperback format.[2] [3] It won the 2004 Aurealis Award for best horror novel and the 2004 Golden Aurealis for best novel.[4]