Charles R. Rutledge

An enjoyable slice of pulp horror which pays homage to the original literary Dracula, in a very fast paced, action packed thriller. Plenty of references to vampiric lore in the original book and nods to the films as well. There are also a few other literary creations who pop up along the way in what proves to be a fun series of mash ups that never desecrate the roots they spawned from.

Decamp and Jennifer Grail make for a decent pairing, although Decamp always has the solution a little too show more conveniently at hand. It's kind of forgivable though in these two novellas since the action is at a genuinely non-stop pace and he is a fun nod to those modern day Van Helsing tropes where the hero has all the secret knowledge alongisde a vast array of fighting techniques.

For pure entertainment and written with the safe hands of someone with abundant and enthusiastic knowledge of eponymoous Count, this is a couple of nights of genuine fun. I don't think we always get enough of that in today's literature. show less