Review: Mr Stoker and the Vampires of the Lyceum, by Matthew Gibson

Blurb

London, September 1888. Jack the Ripper roams the streets. A scream rings out from beneath the stage of the Lyceum Theatre…

A young ‘actress’ has been attacked, suffering peculiar bite wounds to her neck; an event that announces a series of strange, vampiric happenings, and thrusts an unwitting Bram Stoker – acting manager of the Lyceum and aspiring author – into the limelight, and the action.

Increasingly perplexed by the unsettling behaviour of his ‘Guv’nor’, the brilliant but mercurial actor, Henry Irving, and Irving’s acclaimed leading lady, Ellen Terry, Stoker soon starts suspecting the worst. And then, another attack reveals a vicious Prussian baron, returned to London as a vampire seeking revenge…

Alive with Gothic intrigue, reversal and surprise, Mr Stoker will keep the reader enthralled and confounded until its final, shocking scene – indeed, until its very last word.

‘This is a fully realised Gothic world, a stimulating mix of homely familiarity and lurking menace which will engage readers of all ages.’ David Punter, author of The Literature of Terror

My Review

Thanks to Bee at Kaleidoscopic Tours for organising this blog tour, and to the publisher for sending me a copy of this book.

Bram Stoker is working as acting manager at the Lyceum Theatre in 1890. The Whitechapel Murders are terrifying the people of London. During a rehearsal, screams are heard from the cellars of the theatre. Bram finds a young woman in there, injured and bleeding from a bite wound to her neck. This starts a chain of events that eventually sends Bram Stoker, his brother George, the renowned actor and theatre owner Henry Irving, and scene painter Joseph Harker, to Prussia to kill a vampire.

The author has written extensively on the real life of Bram Stoker, acting manager, barrister, and successful author. This novelisation of some of his life ‘suggests’ that ‘real’ events inspired Dracula. Of course, this is entirely fictional. The author draws heavily on his knowledge of Stoker, his life and times to bring this novel to life, mentioning various contemporary authors and theatre people, as well as events in London and the world. Sometimes this intrudes on the storytelling.

This book is very reminiscent of the novels of the time it is set in, in terms of atmosphere and writing style, so it’s a bit of a different experience from reading a book in the modern style, such as Voices of the Dead by Ambrose Parry (reviewed 21st June 2023). If you enjoyed reading Dracula, you will probably enjoy this book. On the other hand, you might find it clunky and over-written if you prefer the more modern writing style of historical novels.

It’s a good book, but perhaps not to my taste.