Looking for someone to read? (Kim Newman)

(Today’s author: Kim Newman)

This one is pretty much all about the Anno Dracula series.

Don’t get me wrong: his Diogenes Club occult-detective stories (ranging from the Victorian era to the Mod, and found in The Secret Files of the Diogenes Club and The Man from the Diogenes Club) are lots and lots of fun, particularly if you know anything about the eras involved.  One of Newman’s cardinal virtues is that he clearly likes middle-class popular entertainment, even when he’s poking gentle British fun of it.

But the Anno Dracula series is something special.  Comprised of Anno Dracula, The Bloody Red Baron, and Dracula Cha Cha Cha, it explores a world where the events of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Enriched Classics Series) are real… up to the point where Dracula actually wins, and brings vampirism out of the shadows of Victorian society.  The result is three well-written books that demonstrate an encyclopedic knowledge of the classical horror genre, from the penny-dreadfuls of the 1820s to the moderns.  For that matter, there are plenty of elements brought in from non-horror genre, particularly detective fiction: this is the sort of world where Biggles flies nighttime sorties against the Red Baron while Dr Herbert West takes a frighteningly handy position as a battlefield surgeon.

If you understood the references in that last sentence, you probably want to check out this series.  It’s both full of allusions like that, and a good read.