This was between two and three and I went low because of my disappointment with the 'sequel' to the original Dracula.

Dracula the Un-Dead, picks up 25 years after the original (not exactly, the authors changed dates to make them work for their sequel). The band of heroes who defeated Dracula are a broken bunch. Quincy Harker, son of Jonathan and Mina, is rebellious and sent to the Sorbonne in Paris to study law, but loves the theatre.

In Paris, Quincy is taken by Basarab, a Romanian actor taking Europe by storm. Watching Basarab, Quincy decides the theatre is where his place will be and through his efforts, Quincy convinces Basarab to come to London to star in a production of Bram Stoker's Dracula at the Lyceum Theatre.

Dr. Seward is killed in a coach 'accident' in Paris following Basarab's performance in Paris, Van Helsing returns to England, and what is left of the band is brought to London, though each has suffered since their ordeal with Dracula and none are certain they can trust one another.

I can't say much more about the story without spoilers, so I'm stopping.

This book read like the modern suspense novel it is. It is a quick read and for me the characters were strong because I already knew most of them. The one thing this book did for me is want to re-read the original. I read it many years ago and it was hands down the scariest, creepiest book I'd ever read. My remembrance of it was a story wherein the suspense grows and grows pushing the reader to look around just to be certain there was nothing really there. It set rules within which the reader could sustain belief and stayed within them.

In the sequel, I didn't have the same feel when reading it. This book was like any other suspense novel, excepting there was more gore than I typically am used to reading. The 'rules' of vampires were gone in this story. They could seemingly do anything, which also didn't work for me.

There was a tie-in to the Jack the Ripper murders, which I actually liked, but the closing reference to the Titanic was a bit much and was clearly setting up a further sequel.

Typically, I'd give this a three, but as a sequel to a classic it had to do more than be average, so it gets the two.