Dracula's Heir: An Interactive Mystery

Dracula's Heir is an "Interactive Mystery", which means that every few pages there is a pull-out handwritten note or fold-out newspaper which the reader can examine for clues and/or hidden messages. Gimmicky? Sure, a damn fun gimmick.

As a kid I had a similar book-- that one based on A Study in Scarlet. I loved it then, and the appeal of physical interaction with clues is just as strong now. Though the book feels slight in the hand, the nature of the enclosed objects is such that readers will spend more time with it than the page count would indicate.

Dracula's Heir is geared for ages 10 ; that's my guess-- there's no age recommendation on the book, but there are a couple sections which might be frightening for younger readers, especially as things pick up towards the end.

The book's mystery is nicely structured, with clues hidden along the way. Even better, the answer is revealed slowly, allowing readers of different ages/aptitudes to solve more or less of the puzzle as their their skills of detection allow.



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This was a quick read! Loved the cover and the story was intrigueing. Also enjoyed the multi-genre aspect-pulling out the pictures, newspaper, journal, letters, etc was fun. ( )

When I was in college, books like this were a mini-fad. I loved them. Some were particularly well done and took my quite a while to figure out. Then there's Nick Bantock's "Egyption Jukebox," which was a devil to solve. "Dracula's Heir" was disappointing on an epic scale. The clues and ephemera provided were anything but subtle. By the time I'd gotten to the third 'exhibit' I was pretty sure I had it figured out. About half way through, a particularly transparent bit of dialogue confirmed it. Bleh.... ( )