James Nicoll Reviews

1978’s The Holmes-Dracula File is the second volume in Fred Saberhagen’s Dracula Chronicles.

The unluckiest Wallachian in Victorian England strolls down the wrong street at the wrong time. The two scoundrels who bludgeon him happen to do so with a material to which the Wallachian has a peculiar sensitivity. Thus, the miscreants knock the old fellow cold and abduct him.

They have no idea who they have abducted. More importantly, they have no idea what they have abducted. Thanks to trauma-induced amnesia, neither does their victim, who is none other than Count Dracula, 

VAMPIRE!

Dracula is not the first victim. The villains may lack ethics and morals, but they do not lack for workplace diligence. Their victims are securely restrained, so securely that even Dracula’s superhuman strength cannot free him. Therefore, Dracula gets a front-seat view of the inhumane experiments of which he is a subject.

Dracula is immune to the particular phenomena to which he is exposed. He is also undead, which leads his captors to conclude that the old fellow was terribly ill before they kidnapped him. Therefore, they smother Dracula, and prepare to dump his corpse into the Thames.

Because they have no need to breathe, vampires are notoriously hard to smother. The attempt to murder and dispose of him provides Dracula with the opportunity to brutally murder one of his captors and escape. Now all that remains is for the vengeful Count to track down and murder (almost) everyone else involved in his abduction.

Elsewhere, Doctor Watson recounts the events of the case he will title the Giant Rat of Sumatra before hiding his notes from the public.

Consulting detective Sherlock Holmes is consulted with respect to two cases. The first is at the behest of Miss Sarah Tarlton, whose fiancé Dr. John Scott suddenly stopped replying to Sarah’s mail. Sarah is concerned for Scott’s well-being and wishes Holmes to investigate.

The second case involves the late Frau Grafenstein, whose mutilated body has been found near the Thames. The obvious explanation is that her throat was torn out by some wild animal… but certain other evidence perplexes Lestrade of Scotland Yard. Perhaps Holmes can provide a reasonable explanation.

Holmes can provide an unreasonable explanation. It doesn’t take Holmes too long to work out that there is an honest to God vampire stalking the streets of London. However, important mysteries remain:

• What happened to Dr. John Scott?

• Who sent the government a blackmail letter demanding a million pounds, threatening to kill a million Londoners if not paid¹?
• Why do Dracula and Sherlock Holmes look so similar they could be brothers … or father and son?

~oOo~

Even old potboilers can surprise and this example is no exception. One of the fun aspects of reading old books is the ads. This volume offered three:

• An ad for Galaxy Magazine. This would have been a terrible deal if one were to subscribe, as the post-Jim Baen Galaxy was circling the drain by the time this novel saw print in November 1978². Galaxy, which had had seven issues in 1978, had three issues in 1979, and one final issue in 1980.
• An ad for an assortment of Isaac Asimov non-fiction books.

• An ad for Flying Buffalo’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, a magazine for fans of a roleplaying game (Tunnels and Trolls). Mentioned by name: roleplaying luminaries Ken St. Andre and Liz Danforth! Since I would not read John M. Ford’s ​“On Tabletop Universes” for another six months, I had no idea what a roleplaying game was, which is why I forgot the ad.

As to the novel itself… 

Dracula continues his hilarious (at least to me) stream of defensive complaints about how unjustly he is portrayed by those around him. To his credit, Dracula does not launch his campaign of brutal murder until he is provoked. As well, he does his best to protect one member of the gang because she only takes part in the scheme after being threatened and is therefore innocent.

The prose and characterization (Dracula aside) are serviceable. I found it helped to read all of Sherlock Holmes’ lines in Jeremy Brett’s voice, Brett being the canonical Holmes actor. The plot is somewhat constrained by the fact that a million Londoners did not die in 1897. Also, Dracula’s amnesia is both implausible and pointless.

Saberhagen does provide one amusing twist, which is to acknowledge and explain the curious resemblance between the Count (from the novel Dracula):

His face was a strong — a very strong — aquiline, with high bridge of the thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils; with lofty domed forehead, and hair growing scantily round the temples but profusely elsewhere. 

And Holmes (From ​“A Study in Scarlet”):

In height he was rather over six feet, and so excessively lean that he seemed to be considerably taller. His eyes were sharp and piercing, save during those intervals of torpor to which I have alluded; and his thin, hawk-like nose gave his whole expression an air of alertness and decision. 

I don’t know if Saberhagen was the first person to point out this curious coincidence, but he was certainly the first person I noted as doing so. In retrospect, the similarities are astonishing.

The Holmes-Dracula File is available here (Barnes & Noble), here (Bookshop US), here (Bookshop UK), here (Chapters-Indigo), here (Kobo), and here (Words Worth Books). The Holmes-Dracula File does not appear to be directly available from current publisher JSS Literary Productions. As well, both Bookshop, the Chapter-Indigo, and the Words Worth entries are for the 1989 Tor edition, which Macmillan assures me is out of print. I have no idea what will show up if you order via those channels.

1: Something over £100 million in 2025 currency. Still, £100 per not dead Londoner seems very affordably priced. 

2: It’s always sad when a once-great institution collapses. USA delenda est.