#Titanuary ‘The Classified Dossier Volume 1-Sherlock Holmes and Dracula’ by Christian Klaver

About the book…

The first in a stylish new series, in which the worlds of Sherlock and the uncanny collide.

*Book 2 is out in September! To say I am jumping for glee is an understatement!*

Sherlock Holmes is dead. His body lies in a solitary grave on the Sussex Downs. But Dr. Watson survives, and is now given permission to release tales in Sherlock’s ‘black box’, those cases that are, dear reader, unbelievable – for their subject matter is of the most outré and grotesque nature.

Beginning with ‘The Adventure of the Lady’s Finger’, Holmes and Watson discover a dark, uncanny world beyond their imagining. It starts with a victim whose flesh reacts adversely to silver and sunlight, whose blood does not thicken when exposed to oxygen. And then a Transylvanian nobleman arrives at Baker Street demanding Holmes’s assistance in the kidnapping of his beloved wife, Mina.

‘The Classified Dossier Volume 1 -Sherlock Holmes and Dracula’ by Christian Klaver was published in glorious hardcover in October 2021 and is available wherever good books are sold!

To be honest, you would need nerves of steel , or possibly impervious from pain to re-write not one, but two , classic tales of gothic literature. To take Dracula, subvert all we know about the central characters whilst staying true to their essential characteristics and then mix in Holmes and Watson? Nerves of STEEL!!!

Oh and did I mention that he kills off Holmes at the very start?

This is not a spoiler, it is in the description and to be fair, Holmes has not only died multiple tie=mes, he has been ressurccted even more frequently.

This latest incarnation has so many traits you know and love about the elemental detective, and Watson’s voice rings through loud and clear.

There is even mention of certain murders in Paris which might suggest the direction of future volumes in this series.

However, in this series opener, Holmes and Watson are disturbed by a most peculiar case-a severed woman’s finger. That in itself is quite bizarre, the experiments which they carry out to deduce where this finger has come from, and why , are odder still.

Why should a finger react so bizarrely to silver, and not feel like rigor mortis has set in?

And then, there is a sudden appearance of a most unlikely figure, someone who is need of Sherlock’s help…

There is ingenuity threaded through each and every page. As much as I was outraged at what happens to certain beloved characters, it all made so much sense. This book could not have been written by anyone who did not grasp the fundamental conceipt at the heart of Holmes versus Dracula.

Holmes is a man of science and the deductive method facing an impossible creature whose longevity means he is the oldest living vampire in the world. Also there is the fact he has killed any older than him but let’s not dwell on that.

Holmes and Watson are not the types to jump at shadows, in fact they run to the screams heard in the street, the growl of a monstrous dog, the dismembered corpse, the unruly and disfigured brute each and every time they are called upon.

They fight villainy, trickery and subterfuge on a daily basis, but in the face of this supernatural monster?

Well, he is a man with a missing wife, one whom he loves deeply and he wants her to be found before she endures and abominable fate at the hands of someone bitter, evil and consumed with anger.

The game is afoot, as Sherlock never said, and this meta-fictional duo step into the streets of Victorian London to vanquish a true evil, one which wants to turn as many humans to vampires as they possibly can. An allegory of a blood born disease which passes under the guise of love? A metaphor for the sublimation of those seen as ‘others’, the suspicious foreigner with their strange ways? A blood soaked, horror drenched original tale featuring a smitten vampire and a scientifically minded detective who does not believe in the improbable?

This novel is all of these and through Watson’s incomparable narration we, the readers are taken on a journey with oh, such wonderful and horrifying sights to see.

I cannot wait for volume 2 of these classified, never before seen tales of Holmes, Watson and….????

About the author…

Christian Klaver is author of ‘Shadows Over London’ and the Nightwalker Series, and has also written over a dozen novels in both fantasy and sci-fi, as well as for magazines such as Escape Pod and Dark Wisdom.

He’s worked as book-seller, bartender and a martial-arts instructor before settling into a career in internet security.

Twitter @TitanBooks @mrchrstn 

Links-http://christianklaver.blogspot.com/