This is an attempt to produce a novel about the real Dracula, Vlad Tepes, in the structure of Bram Stoker's novel which means a lot of it is told through letters and postcards. Unlike Stoker's novel however which was up to the minute in terms of technology - accounts produced on typewriter, early recording machine or in shorthand - this is set in various time periods starting around 1930 with the researches into the whereabouts of Dracula's tomb by a historian Professor Rossi and goes up to an undisclosed period sometime after the 1970s when the story opens. The seventeen year old daughter of Rossi's student finds a strange book and some letters in her father's study and he gradually discloses to her the truth behind her mother's disappearance, which he does over a series of visits to historical sites around Europe.

The book started off intriguingly but for me the early promise was not realised. It is a long novel which is not only disjointed with the frequent switching back and forward between time periods and narratives, but all the voices in those narratives are indistinguishable. There were some good minor characters but a lot of things - one character's amnesia for example - are obvious plot contrivances. The climax is muddled - I couldn't work out why a certain minor character suddenly turns up to distract Dracula - and the postscript is just odd. So I would only award this 2 stars. ( )

This was a hard one to rate. The first time I tried reading it, I was too scared to finish it. This time I got all the way through unscathed, and I really liked it a lot, but it was LONG. I usually love a long book, but by the end of this one I was sort of begging for it to end. Again, not because I didn't like it, but because I was tired and ready for something new. Strangely enough, the ending seemed pretty rushed to me. It's more of a 3 1/2 really. ( )

Late one night, exploring her father’s library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters addressed ominously to ‘My dear and unfortunate successor’. Her discovery plunges her into a world she never dreamed of – a labyrinth where the secrets of her father’s past and her mother’s mysterious fate connect to an evil hidden in the depths of history

Well I enjoyed this. Bit of a love story, lots of history (if that's not real historical stuff it's very well made up!), not TOO heavy on the vampire stuff, though of course Dracula does make an appearance several times.

Whilst the daughter is prevalent at the start of the book, she does get "lost" in the middle, and makes a smallish appearance at the end of the book, which was a bit of a disappointment, as she was the one who initiated the story at the beginning ( )

I'm not sure if I liked this book or not. It certainly was well done and the details are beautiful. I'm just not sure I really cared by the middle of the book what happened. I think it will make a much better movie than a book and perhaps it was done with that in mind. To be fair though I acknowledge that I truly dislike mysteries in almost every form. ( )

Heavy, much historical information. Ruins the story a bit. ( )