Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Seance for a Vampire, The (Book)
Reviewed by Mr. Dark
Written by Fred Saberhagen
Published by Titan Books
If there are two literary creations of the late 19th century that stand out, they would be master detective Sherlock Holmes and vampire lord Dracula. Two great things that go great together? That was famed author Fred Saberhagen’s attitude, as demonstrated by his pairing of the two as part of his Prince Dracula series. As for me…I’m not so sure. There are a few things here that confuse me and detract from the overall experience, even though I’m not entirely sure they’re deal breakers.
The plot of this one, set in the early 20th century, is classic Holmes. A wealthy aristocrat invites Holmes to his country estate to work out a mysterious issue. His daughter recently drowned, and his wife, in her grief, has brought in a brother and sister team of mediums to attempt to contact her. The father is certain they are a sham, bilking the believing mother, but there’s a problem: Apparently they’ve been successful. The daughter appeared, physically, in the locked room of the séance. Holmes and Watson arrive to sort out how the mediums are faking the appearance, and all hell breaks loose.
By the title you can guess what game is afoot here. Yep, the bloodsucking undead are running about rural England and are up to no good. It’s not long before Sherlock’s long lost cousin, Dracula, is called in to help in their confrontation with the villains.
Wait, what? Cousin??? Okay, let’s get a little explanation out of the way.
Fred Saberhagen, the lauded fantasy and sci-fi author, dabbled in horror with a series of novels about Dracula before his passing in 2007. In them Prince Dracula is not really evil, and Stoker’s novel is described as a pack of lies and superstitions. At one point Sherlock Holmes is introduced in a book called The Holmes-Dracula File. In that book there’s a familial connection set up between the two, and they wind up working together to solve a case involving vampires.
This book, Seance for a Vampire, follows that book. Originally released in 1994, this is a reprint under the Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes banner. Because of this there are many references to an “affair in 1897” that don’t really make a lot of sense. Without having read The Holmes-Dracula File, the reader is a bit perplexed by descriptions of Dracula as a cousin of Holmes and further references to Sherlock and Mycroft’s mother becoming a vampire.
It’s this anachronism that plagues this book the most. It’s just not a stand-alone title. Industrious readers might be willing to hit Google, Amazon, and Wikipedia to fill in blanks, but you can’t count on that.
The other primary issue this book suffers is a lack of Holmes, which makes sense when you discover its pedigree. It was written as a Dracula novel so you wouldn’t expect it to feature Holmes as the primary character. As it stands, the two primary roles in the book are that of Watson (always the narrator/’author’ of Holmes novels) and Dracula. Holmes actually disappears for nearly all of the first half of the novel, and while he certainly plays a major role in the finale, I felt the lack of his usual sharp wit and detective skills. In a Dracula novel that’s all well and good. As part of a Sherlock Holmes series, well, that’s another story.
Assuming one understands that this is a Dracula novel primarily and that there are facts in this book that will require other reading to fully grasp them, this is definitely not a bad book. It’s a pleasant adventure, a fine ‘mash-up’ of two worlds that we haven’t seen together very often. The case at hand is puzzling, the action exciting, and the characters and narration very reminiscent of Conan-Doyle’s work. It’s no masterpiece but certainly serves as a fun little crossover between two great characters.
Still, one cannot ignore the issues created by the choice to re-publish this book and not The Holmes-Dracula File and to publish it under a Sherlock Holmes banner when he’s not the focus of the book. Buyer beware on those counts. If you’re well educated on those issues, however, you could do a lot worse this summer. Any fan of mysteries and the one and only lord of the vampires will have a very good time with this one.
3 out of 5
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