Heavy, much historical information. Ruins the story a bit. ( )

This is a novel that draws on the myth of the vampire, Dracula. In it, he still exists in the modern world and is seeking to expand his influence and terror. However, some are trying to find him in order to finally destroy him with a silver dagger or silver bullet to the heart. This imaginative story, which is full of a mounting sense of fear and family secrets, follows their researches through ancient archives in Oxford, Amsterdam, Paris, Istanbul and other locations as they try to uncover where he might be buried or hidden. They are the historians of the title, but as they near their quest, they discover that Dracula too is an historian and has been amassing an enormous library of manuscripts and books over the past five centuries in order to protect his power. In a compelling climax. the researches take their toll on Dracula’s hunters as he fights back with a sense of mounting dread and threatens to infect them with his poison and through his bite, ensnare them, like him as members of the undead.

(Gigantic spoilers included!)

I felt ultimately torn about this book - after a slow but atmospheric beginning, I was awake late into the night finishing this wonderfully creepy and erudite story. The Historian in the title could describe numerous of the characters in the novel, or indeed its largely hidden villain. The multi-layered plot follows the lives of three people - Paul the diplomat, his daughter (who is never named), and Paul's former teacher, Professor Rossi. Each of them is hunting a missing parent/mentor who accidentally discovers, upon receipt of a mysterious book, that Dracula is not only still alive(ish), but is still fascinated with evil and cruelty, and still taking an active interest in those pursuing him. The wonderful conceit is that the wicked Count has a fantastic personal library dedicated to evil, and is looking for someone to willingly volunteer to become immortal and curate it for him.

In the end I gave it four stars because even though it is quite slow - in the first half, pages are spent describing exotic locations around France and central Europe with the regularity of a travelogue, all beautifully written but not necessarily advancing the story - it creates a rather wonderful and lush atmosphere that bears fruit later. This pattern of faults and virtues continues throughout - the conception of Dracula, when we meet him, is wonderfully realised and chilling, but he is dispatched too readily, and the happy(isn) ending is enabled by the sacrifice of a throwaway character - I thought at least one of the remaining main characters needed to make the terrible choice be sacrificed to the library, and this is where everything tends, and the drama would be in choosing which. Plotwise it's also highly coincidental, but since this is true of Stoker's Dracula too it seems churlish to carp. The evidence that the disparate heroes gather and which fuels their trail is complex, some bits repeated to the point of obviousness, others hidden (names and places and connections would come up as though they had been explained earlier), and yet on the other hand the forward momentum in the last third is irresistable and unstoppable, leading to unbearable tension.

So all in all, not an instantly rewarding read but I was very glad I did it, though my disappointment at the tidy disposal of the invidious Impaler at the end (especially as he was so beautifully realised) somewhat hampered my enjoyment.
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Holy Cow everyone RAVES about this book and it COULD have, SHOULD have been amazing but I found it ponderous and dull and so ploddingly dull that I gave up before I was half through. Plus, the lead character kinda sucked. ( )

The tale was good, but she REALLY needed a better editor, the book was much too wordy ( )