The Dracula Dossier: A Novel of Suspense

Author of the New York Times bestseller The Book of Shadows, James Reese returns with a remarkable feat of literary invention. In The Dracula Dossier, Reese combines real historical figures and events—Bram Stoker, Walt Whitman, Jack the Ripper—with glorious speculation in a tour de force of suspense fiction that races non-stop through Victorian London. Bestselling author Michael Connelly raves about The Dracula Dossier, calling it, “a damn good thriller…that had me mesmerized from chapter one.”

From Publishers Weekly

In Reese's scrupulously imagined thriller, told largely through entries from a lost journal kept by the author of Dracula in 1888, Bram Stoker attends an indoctrination ceremony of the Order of the Golden Dawn, at the behest of Oscar Wilde's mum and a young William Butler Yeats. The ceremony goes horribly awry, resulting in one participant—Francis Tumblety, a patent medicine salesman newly arrived from America—becoming a vessel for the evil Egyptian god Set and applying his surgical skills to the slaughter of Whitechapel prostitutes in order to draw Stoker out for a supernatural showdown. Bestseller Reese (The Witchery) so perfectly pastiches the journal format that initially his story reads as dry and boringly as most private diaries. With Tumblety's malignant conversion, though, the novel turns into a rip-roaring penny dreadful that compels reading to the end. Dracula fans will appreciate the nods to well-known works that Stoker wrote supposedly following this confrontation. (Oct.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

A package arrives at the desk of a young editor at a New York publishing house, purporting to be a collection of letters and journal entries belonging to Bram Stoker. The anonymous sender refers to it as the "Dracula Dossier." The papers disclose a series of events in Stoker's life that occurred when he worked for Irish theater-actor Henry Irving in 1888 and before he wrote his famous novel. The prolog promises a riveting tale of suspense, even horror, and there are moments of tension and fear, but for the most part the novel is dull and tedious. Readers familiar with the Dracula story will realize that Stoker is meeting people and having experiences that directly influenced his best-known work (Jack the Ripper plays a part). An interesting plot lurks somewhere within this story. Too bad Reese (The Witchery; The Book of Spirits; The Book of Shadows) could not bring it to fruition. Not recommended. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/08.]—Patricia Altner, BiblioInfo.com, Columbia, MD Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Sometimes a great premise keeps you going, even when you realize that the author might have done more with it. Here’s an example. The story is classic thriller stuff: in 1888, nearly a decade before he writes the novel Dracula, Bram Stoker leaves the employ of his demanding boss, the famous actor Henry Irving, and comes home to London. Soon after, he becomes embroiled in the Whitechapel murders, and to keep himself from becoming the prime suspect, Stoker has to find out the real identity of Jack the Ripper. It’s the kind of story idea that gets your pulse racing—the creator of the world’s most famous vampire battling the world’s most famous serial killer—but Reese waters the tale down considerably by telling it (in the spirit of Dracula) through a series of journal entries and letters between Stoker and an old friend. Unfortunately, this removes any you-are-there immediacy and turns the reader from a participant in the events into an uninvolved spectator (after the fact). The novel features backs the great premise with some exciting moments, but overall, it’s a disappointment, though Ripper fans will still be curious. --David Pitt

Publishers Weekly

“[A] scrupulously imagined thriller...a rip-roaring penny dreadful that compels reading to the end.”

Booklist

“[I]nvolving, richly detailed... will surely delight fans…as well as convert new readers”

Publishers Weekly

“[C]ompelling sequel...the many varied settings and particulars of the time period are vividly portrayed.”

The Jackson Clarion-Ledger

“A sweeping narrative of period and peril [that] transports the reader into an undiscovered realm of erotica...”

Kelley Armstrong, author of Bitten

“A spellbinding tale with a truly enchanting heroine.”

Caleb Carr

“A novelist of immense talent and promise, and a story that seeps into the mind like a potion.”

New Orleans Times-Picayune

“[L]ush and engaging.”

Diana Gabaldon

“Expertly researched, lavishly detailed and lushly written...an atmosphere so vivid you can smell it, and remarkably striking characters.”

Publishers Weekly

“Distinguishes Reese as a star pupil in the Anne Rice school of dark sensuality.”

Washington Post Book World

“Delectable.”

Tampa Tribune

“Darkly erotic...lavishly told...Prepare to put your life on hold for 468 pages and immerse yourself.”

Eric Van Lustbader , New York Times bestselling author

“James Reese’s startling second novel is filled with magic and heartbreak…It is a sumptuous feast for the senses.”

Anne Rice

“It’s marvelous to have one so eloquent exploring and transcending the gothic genre.”

Washington Post Book World

“Vivid characters...painstaking research...delectable.”

Michael Connelly

“THE DRACULA DOSSIER is as powerful in its imagination as it is in its dedication to historical detail and social reflection. But what’s more is that it’s a damn good thriller...With Bram Stoker and Jack the Ripper along for the ride, you can’t go wrong with this book.”

Matthew Pearl, author of THE DANTE CLUB

“Not only does THE DRACULA DOSSIER grip us with its fast paced hunt for history’s most notorious killer, it also enchants us with sophisticated and lyrical recreations of its unique period and strong characters. A daring achievement.”

St. Petersburg Times

“The Dracula Dossier is ...an homage in style and structure to its namesake novel, an engrossing look into the lives of eminent Victorians, and a smashing, scary read.”

Pittsburgh Tribune

“Those who enjoy gothic novels set in Victorian times…will revel in James Reese’s story…Seamlessly blurring the line between fact and fiction, the book is both characters study and speculative fiction folded into a well-told tale.”

Miami Herald

“...a mesmerizing blend of fact and fiction, with plenty of Gothic chill.”

From the Back Cover

Stalled in his writing career and feeling overwhelmed by his charismatic, successful boss Sir Henry Irving, Bram Stoker returns to London in the summer of 1888 determined to turn his life around.Late one night Stoker decides to take a stroll through the streets of Whitechapel, an impoverished district of London known for its many prostitutes as well as the citizenry crowding its shadowy alleys. Amid the shadows, he spies a seemingly familiar figure, a man resembling a quack American "doctor" of his acquaintance. But before Stoker can be certain, the man disappears.Little does he know that just a few steps away, the crime spree of the century has begun: a vicious killer has claimed his first victim, a local prostitute. And Stoker somehow becomes the prime suspect. To clear his name, he enlists some of his illustrious friends, including Walt Whitman, Lady Jane Wilde (mother of Oscar), and the million-copy-selling Victorian novelist Sir Thomas Henry Hall Caine. When they discover that the murder weapon is a Gurkha knife owned by Stoker and recently stolen from his home, there can be no doubt that the elusive American doctor—Francis Tumblety—is the very same man terrorizing and taunting London as Jack the Ripper. Moving from Manhattan to London's West End and Whitechapel, from Dublin to a ritualistic denouement in Edinburgh, this sweeping, magnificent novel is a suspenseful trip into the heart of literature and history, as Stoker sets out on the "true" adventure that will later inspire him to write Dracula. James Reese has been praised for his "sweeping narrative" (Clarion-Ledger, Jackson, MS), "vivid characters" (Washington Post Book World), and "imaginative wizardry" (Orlando Sentinel), and The Dracula Dossier is perhaps his most stunning achievement to date.

About the Author

James Reese is the author of The Witchery, The Book of Spirits, and The Book of Shadows. He lives in South Florida and Paris, France.

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