The Crypt of Dracula

Gilmour warns at the outset to the book that he is a big fan of the 70s and earlier incarnations of Count Dracula, and he sticks to that warning throughout the book while doing a superb job of showing what vampires are SUPPOSED to be like.

From the opening scene of the book where a pile of ash gets bloody and a creature arises, to the first time we see our hero and see the reaction of the villagers when they are told where he is going to be working, to the first time we see Castle Dracula, and at every point in this book... you get the dark, mysterious, awe inspiring power of evil that is Vampire.

None of that sparkly, angsty, weak crap here. The only romance you'll see is just a touch of it between our hero and his wife - who are both subsequently put in mortal danger along with a couple of their friends.

Instead, you get intriguing mystery - what happened at this castle? Why is it in such disrepair? Who is the mysterious Count? Why are his servants never seen? - and fast paced action.

With a particularly good ending.

If you want to see what Vempires - and particularly the infamous Count Dracula - are REALLY supposed to be, do yourself a favor and pick up this book!

Every once in a while I come across a book that is pure genre fun. Being a big fan of classic monster movies, I've been disappointed at the way vampire fiction has devolved in recent years. The target audience appears to have shifted and with it the content and quality of the fiction has degraded. Whatever happened to classic vampire fiction? I want the really old school stuff like Bram Stoker's original novel, Dracula— or the low budget Hammer Horror films. The current trend in vampire fiction is enough to turn me off the topic altogether.

If you've been feeling like I have, there's great news! Kane Gilmour's, The Crypt of Dracula, is a novela that is just what we've been waiting for. It's the tried and true vampire story that gets your heart pounding and once again brings life to the things that go bump in the night. This is the kind of story Bram Stoker would write if he were still alive and kicking. Very much in the same vein (sorry, it had to be done) as Stoker's original Dracula tale, this is a period story which takes place in Transylvania. A grieving stone mason is hired by a mysterious Count to repair his damaged and neglected castle located outside a remote village populated by troubled, xenophobic farmers who have come to fear the night.

I think you can see where this is headed. The story is true to vampire lore in the classic sense. It goes back to a time when vampires were evil and horrifying; when the concept of a vampire wasn't commonly understood by all who farmed the land. A time when people were superstitious and fearful, suspicious and vengeful.

In short, this is a classic vampire story that does the lore justice just as it does Bram's Stoker's original vision proud. Can Kane Gilmour fix everything that's wrong with vampire fiction in its current form? Sadly, no. But with more books like this, old school vampire fans like myself might yet live to see another sunrise.