Dacre Stoker is the great grand nephew of Bram and, before you ask, no he doesn't need the money. For the Stoker family, Dracula was a bit of a pain to grow up with - can you imagine the jokes he must have had to put up with a Halloween? But with vampires becoming about as frightening as an emo with overbite these days, it was time to restore a bit of uncle Bram's terror to the cannon.
Dracula: The Un-dead was actually the original working title for Bram Stoker's book and this sequel has been pulled together from the prodigious notes he left behind. These included abandoned plot lines and detailed back stories for all the characters, with a number who didn't make the final cut. Dacre Stoker and co-author, Dracula historian Ian Hunt, have been able to create from this rich source material a chilling horror story that honours the style and imagination of Bram Stoker while being immediately accessible to the modern reader.
25 years after Dracula crumbled to dust, Quincey Harker, the grown son of Jonathan and Mina, leaves law school in London to become an actor. He stumbles across a struggling production of Dracula, a theatrical recreation of his own family's horrific experiences in Transylvania (in a sentimental twist, the show is directed and produced by Bram Stoker himself). Becoming involved, Quincey is plunged into a terrible world his parents had kept secret from him. But before he can confront them his father and other members of the band that defeated the vampire begin to turn up brutally murdered. Someone, or something, is hunting down everyone involved in Dracula's destruction.
Reviewed by Richard Bilkey, Booktopia Buzz Editor
The official sequel to Bram Stoker's classic novel
Dracula, written by his direct descendent and endorsed by the Stoker family.
The story begins in 1912, twenty-five years after the events described in the original novel. Dr. Jack Seward, now a disgraced morphine addict, hunts vampires across Europe with the help of a mysterious benefactor. Meanwhile, Quincey Harker, the grown son of Jonathan and Mina, leaves law school to pursue a career in stage at London's famous Lyceum Theatre.
The production of Dracula at the Lyceum, directed and produced by Bram Stoker, has recently lost its star. Luckily, Quincey knows how to contact the famed Hungarian actor Basarab, who agrees to take the lead role. Quincey soon discovers that the play features his parents and their former friends as characters, and seems to reveal much about the terrible secrets he's always suspected them of harbouring.
But, before he can confront them, Jonathan Harker is found murdered. The writers were able to access Bram Stoker's hand-written notes and have included in their story characters and plot threads that had been excised by the publisher from the original printing over a century ago. Dracula is one of the most recognized fictional characters in the world, having spawned dozens of multi-media spin-offs. The Un-Dead is the first Dracula story to enjoy the full support of the Stoker estate since the original 1931 movie starring Bela Lugosi.
Author Biography: Dacre Stoker is the great grand nephew of Dracula author, Bram Stoker. He lives with his wife, Jenne, in South Carolina. The Un-dead is his first novel. Ian Holt studied at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts before becoming a renowned screen writer.
