Book Review: "Sherlock Holmes vs Dracula" by L.D. Estleman
It recently dawned on me that I’ve become something of a Trash Mutant “go-to guy” for all those weird crossover books. Just look at my articles page! A lot of these books I get to review are enjoyable, pulpy fun. Some of them push things into unexpected directions and explore new grounds with the well established characters they use. Loren D. Estleman’s “The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula” left me a bit confused on how exactly I should review it. There are two ways of looking at it.
With a title like that, I don’t really think I need to tell you what the plot is. The book takes the part of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” that took place in England and injects Sherlock Holmes into it. It’s also something of an exercise in continuity, as it’s set to make the events from this book match the timeline of Stoker’s work.
Look at the title of this book again. Sherlock Holmes’ whole thing is that he’s a detective and he will figure everything out! Well, good luck to him, but the reader already knows who’s responsible for the evildoing before he/she even opens the book. So we’re mostly there to see him piece it together and he doesn’t really do it in a very imaginative way. SPOILER! He mostly just looks up vampire legends in a library.
I will spoil a part of the book now, to give you an example. There’s one scene, where after Holmes and Watson return from looking around Dracula’s “lair”, the vampire Count himself knocks on their door. They let him in. He tries to persuade them to lay off and they decline, so he leaves. Watson then asks Holmes why did Dracula visit them, what purpose did that serve. This is where I got a little bit excited, because I thought “Oh, cool! Apparently Holmes’ vampire research wasn’t as good as he thought, since everybody knows that old chestnut about not inviting vampires to your house, because until you do so, they can’t enter it on their own and do their thing! So now probably he will pay them a midnight visit, since they just shot themselves in the foot!” This wasn’t the case. Holmes, having all the answers, explains to Watson that he wanted to see what he was up against. Really? I mean, it’s usually a good thing when fiction surprises you and doesn’t go where you thought it would, but not when my idea was a hundred times more exciting than Estleman’s (Dracula doesn’t return to Holmes’ house). Wouldn’t it be nice if Dracula actually played Holmes like that, doing something the detective didn’t expect? Instead, the whole reason for his visit is “Oh hi, I just wanted to see who I’m up against, since we’re in this book together.”
Since this book has to connect with the events from Bram Stoker’s work, it means all of the characters have to be left in a specific place when the book finishes. We know Holmes won’t be killing Dracula, because that’s not how “Dracula” ended. Since that’s the idea the author ran with, it should mean the book crams as much action and excitement into the little window it has for the plot to play out. There were opportunities to add some new things here and make the addition of Sherlock Holmes into Dracula’s story a worthy one. It should make us think that he actually adds something interesting into the story. Unfortunately that’s not the case. The book is a short one, and it finishes before it manages to milk the premise to the fullest (...milk it in a good way). So after saying all this (and probably making sure I won’t be receiving any more of this author’s books, should he see this review...), you’re probably wondering what’s the other way of looking at this book. That is, if your memory is good enough to remember what I ended the opening paragraph on. The book, while not blowing anyone’s mind or doing anything really exciting, is a pleasant read. Yes, a pleasant read. The background characters are all enjoyable, Watson is actually more interesting than the two protagonists, and you can just read this book and appreciating it for what it is and you won’t be feeling like you just lost of a few hours of your precious life. It’s decent entertainment and fans (or completists) of both characters might consider it as a good addition to their collection. The other thing that might be appreciated is the research that went into connecting Holmes to Stoker’s story. I respect research and Estleman sure did his job on that, so if you’re a reader that just loves seeing a continuity established between two, unconnected works of fiction, this alone might be a good reason to check this book out. It’s also probably a book that’s more suited to a younger reader than me. It would be a good buy for a young fan of the two characters. The premise and the research alone didn’t win me over here, as after reading “Sherlock Holmes vs the Army of Dr. Moreau” (a book, which in my opinion did everything better as a crossover and managed to surprise and excite me a good few times) I was expecting something more. But my expectations are my problem, and if you come to the book with a very different outlook than mine, you might enjoy it. At least for the “light entertainment” or research value. "The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula" can be bought at the Titan Books website. 
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