Product Description

It is the autumn of 1888. Following the successful conclusion of the investigation into the affair of the Hound of the Baskervilles, Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson have returned from Dartmoor, little realising that fate will see them back in Devon before the year is out. Holmes receives a potentially lethal package, the first strand in the tangled skein, which he will need to unravel before this new adventure is resolved. A threat to Holmes' life, murders on Hampstead Heath, and a strange phantom lady lead Holmes and Watson into the most dangerous investigation they have ever undertaken - an encounter which brings them face to face with evil itself, embodied in Count Dracula, the Lord of the Undead.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #69238 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

Customer Reviews

A nice try, but very flawed
Noted Sherlock Holmes expert David Stuart Davies came up with this pastiche, in which Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Great Detective does battle with none other than Bram Stoker's Count Dracula. Mixing up the worlds of the arch-rationalist Holmes and the supernatural Dracula was always going to be a difficult trick, and Davies doesn't quite pull it off; overall the story comes off as a little bit half-baked. For a start, Davies goes to some lengths to tie the story in with The Hound of The Baskervilles, fashioning it as a `sequel' of sorts. The second half takes place in the same part of the country as Conan Doyle's classic, and even draws in the same villain, Jack Stapleton; this would be all well and good if Davies showed the same respect for Stoker's work, but aside from incorporating Count Dracula himself and vampire-hunter Dr Van Helsing, the author ignores Stoker's famous narrative entirely, as though it never happened. Davies' story isn't complicated enough to work as a Sherlock Holmes mystery, and certainly isn't scary enough to satisfy horror fans either. Here, Dracula is nothing like as imposing or powerful as in the original novel, and is instead fashioned as another in the long line of Conan Doyle Euro-trash bad guys like Baron Gruner from The Illustrious Client. Also, it obvious that Davies has seen a few too many Hammer movies; he shamelessly uses great chunks of dialogue from the studio's Dracula films, whilst the name `Meinster' and the plotline of the vampire terrorising a countryside finishing school are direct lifts from The Brides of Dracula (1960) as well. Of course, one can argue that this was the point, and that Davies fashioned this story with Hammer fans in mind (the foreword is even by Peter Cushing), but even so, this novella feels like Davies started with the best intentions, then quickly lost interest. As a marriage of styles, it is nothing like as successful as Cay Van Ash's Holmes vs. Fu Manchu page-turner Ten Years Beyond Baker Street.

Sherlock Holmes meets Dracula
Doctor Watson recounts the case in which he and Holmes had to deal with Count Dracula and his diabolical servants. Soon after their adventure with The Hound of the Baskervilles, the great detective and his faithful friend are again led to the moors and mires of Devonshire, on the track of the Transylvanian terror. A character from the previous case turns up in London to make trouble. Whilst engaged in tying up this loose end, Inspector Lestrade requests their help with a bizarre series of crimes taking place on Hampstead Heath. By coincidence, a young lady involved with the loose end from the old case is also found to have leaked into the new case. Abraham Van Helsing emerges into the moonlight on the Heath just in time to assist the dangerously compromised duo with a determined lady who is lusting after Sherlock's blood and secures their assistance in his own mission. The 'trail of blood' leads to the neighbourhood of Baskerville Hall.

The story is entertaining enough and the style is easy and undemanding though D S Davies doesn't quite manage to capture the characteristic Conan Doyle feel. It lacks a certain fussy precision. There's a bit too much dependence on highly unlikely coincidence. A loose end that didn't exist in the Hound of the Baskervilles was yanked into being (which seems like an unjust criticism of Conan Doyle's end-tying skills) in order to furnish this tale with a thread - to join a skein with unsightly holes and where several threads are left loose by the end. Perhaps I'm being over-critical because it's a Sherlock Holmes story. An industrial sized helping of suspension of disbelief is required for the irrational, illogical an inconsistent material you expect to find in a vampire story - but not a Sherlock Holmes story. Still, Mr Davies did well to get such a mismatched pair of characters to work together even moderately well.

A great book
I can confidently give this a 5 star recommendation.

The story is a narrative by Dr Watson in the style of Conan Doyle of a story which couldnt be included in his other cataloguing of cases because of the supernatural and macabre nature of the case.

Holmes and Watson begin the story investigating an assasination attempt by a character from Holmes past, the case develops and they encounter and are almost killed in a fantastically detailed and descriptive confrontation with a vampire who has been stalking children, they are rescued in this instance by Van Helsing who has been touring Britain on a speaking tour but is really tracking Dracula.

That is pretty much the extent of Van Helsing's involvement, he provides Holmes with a doctors bag and instructions on how to kill vampires and the rest of the story is a mystery and investigative drama as Holmes and Watson uncover a conspiracy to set up vampire "colonies" across Europe, some really nice descriptions of the vile and terrifying and evil character of the vampires but Dracula resembles Moriarty rather than Stokers creation and the ending, the very final moments, reminded me more of hammer horrors or hammer's interpretation of Conan Doyle than either of Stoker or Doyle's books.

This is no criticism however and I felt Holmes' rationalism contra supernatural explanations was played out greatly, anyone who was a fan of the sci fi explanation of vampirism in I Am Legend would love this account.