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Sherlock & Dracula: Lifeblood

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A CLASSIC HISTORICAL DETECTIVE THRILLER WITH A SUPERNATURAL TWIST

Seven years after Dracula’s apparent demise at the hands of Jonathan Harker and his five compatriots in the forests of the Carpathian Mountains, Sherlock Holmes is asked by Mina Harker to help track down what she believes is the returning vampire before he takes his revenge. But she may be too late. Can Sherlock and Dr. Watson find the lair of Dracula located somewhere in Victorian London before vengeance is served.

Based on the characters developed by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in his works depicting the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and characters developed by Bram Stoker in Dracula.

348 pages, Hardcover

First published June 21, 2021

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667 people want to read

About the author

Kev Freeman

13 books34 followers

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5 stars
103 (41%)
4 stars
78 (31%)
3 stars
53 (21%)
2 stars
7 (2%)
1 star
7 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
Profile Image for Kathy.
3,285 reviews58 followers
July 29, 2021
3.5 rounded up
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are after Dracula. Good story but writing is awkward at times
Profile Image for The Shayne-Train.
440 reviews102 followers
February 11, 2025
---DNF at 52%---

I tried, y'all, I really tried. This story was clunkily written and boring AF, but still, I was willing to slog along. What did me in was the abysmal editing. Weird sentence fragments all over the place, and for some reason one of that chapters just starts over partway through. I'm pretty sure I learned the difference between a comma and a period in elementary (school), my dear Watson.
Profile Image for Connie.
443 reviews21 followers
Read
July 5, 2021
DNF!
I was looking forward to reading this. Sherlock Holmes and Count Dracula, two of my favourite characters. Unfortunately it's full of typos that ruined my reading flow, the biggest was halfway through chapter 14, when it jumps back to the beginning of chapter 14.
Profile Image for Liz.
79 reviews5 followers
July 25, 2021
When I started to read “Sherlock and Dracula” the author stated that the story was written in the style of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Bram Stoker. Though the story line is definitely a must read for those who love mysteries and the paranormal (5 star rating for that) I found the mimicry a bit contrived and pushed, which made certain parts of the story not so easy to read. If you look past these issues, you will find yourself locked up in a battle for the safety of London against the biggest evil of all time, Dracula! Fortunately, we have the greatest detective leading our battle, one who has solved so many other crimes, Sherlock Holmes and his assistant Dr. Watson. This story gives the history of Dracula and his previous visit to England 7 years earlier, when Stoker’s story is set. It also touches on Holmes’ original case, so you can see how the two stories can be tied together. Reading this took me back to a simpler time, a time when I originally read all of the stories about Holmes. Finding a story that will do that is a definite plus any more. I would definitely recommend this story, even though I gave it 4 stars. If you are looking for an old fashioned paranormal mystery, make sure you give this book a read, and don’t forget to enjoy your stay in late 19th century England!
Profile Image for Kimberly #Audiofile.
2,563 reviews29 followers
December 10, 2021
This was awesome!
Narration was fantastic. Narrators voice changes amazingly per characters. Sherlock, Watson, Dracula, mrs Hudson and the inspector are all present in this awesome retelling.
Great listen. 4 stars.

Gifted audio for honest review ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Profile Image for Jessi Bone.
308 reviews8 followers
July 18, 2022
Sherlock along with Dr. Watson have been pulled into a mystery. It all starts with a ghost ship landing in Whitby, a letter-coded letter from Jonathon Harker. . Inside the letter was a coded message only with the Jonathon journals can the message be decoded. With the assistance of Jonathon's friend Mina he is able to get the clue and a tale that unfolds may prove that Dracula is real and is living in England. When Captain Lestrade comes to ask for his assistance in the death of Jonathon Harker, there may be some truth to Harker's claims that Dracula is real and wants to have a home in England.

I have to give Kev Freeman props I was not sure how I would be about the Arthur Conan Doyal meets Bram Stroker horror mystery yet I found it quite enjoyable. On day one I read one-quarter of the book in one sitting and was quite disappointed I had to put it down. The tale is intriguing and Mr. Freeman it an adequate job mashing the completely different genre types together. The reason this book got a four-star rating is not because I did not enjoy it I actually left a little disappointed. I love a book I can read again and again this one I can not find myself picking up again. I think it left a sad almost melancholy tale even for the mystery/horror genre. I don’t feel like I was cheated I bought the kindle version to enjoy and I will try the book again in the future and I may update my review then but at this time so many things were unresolved with the characters as a whole definitely leaving a four-star. This book is not a very large tale at three hundred and forty-eight pages and the 2.99 price on kindle is definitely worth the cost. This is a gothic mystery with horror as well this is not an all-ages read because it is dark.
Profile Image for Darren.
373 reviews5 followers
March 15, 2023
I will be upfront and say I am a Sherlock Holmes fan and a Dracula fan. I have been since around 1979, I saw a Sherlock Holmes movie with my grandfather (I believe Basil Rathbone was Sherlock Holmes) and then I saw Dracula starring Frank Langella with a friend of mine, and gramps’ number one lesson came to mind…The book is always better. So, I got my hands on Dracula by Bram Stoker and The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Just like that, I became a fan of both.

Now the pairing of Holmes and Dracula is not necessarily a new concept. It has been done before, and Loren D. Estleman’s book comes to mind. So if you are going to put these two together in the same book, it better be an outstanding story. For the most part, this book was an outstanding story. At least as far as the concept goes.

Mina Harker goes to 221B Baker Street to enlist the services of Holmes and Watson. She fears for her life as well as the life of her family. One of her friends that helped take down Dracula is dead, and there is not a drop of blood to be found in his body. The puzzle entices Holmes enough to take the case and soon, he is dashing headlong to a confrontation with Count Dracula. If Holmes, Watson, and others fail, London will be enslaved in darkness.

As I said before, the concept was outstanding. The delivery, not so much. Where the story moved at a fast pace, towards the middle of the book I found myself tripping over misspelled words, sloppy punctuation, and bad grammar. It was as if the editor or editing program quit halfway through. Some of the dialogs ran like a certain little green character from a galaxy far far away and it became cumbersome to read.

All in all I give this 3 bookmarks out of 5.
Profile Image for Adam E..
125 reviews6 followers
January 8, 2022
This story begins in 1894 Victorian London and is told from the point of view of Dr. John Watson who is Sherlock Holmes' colleague and friend.  Watson reads an article in the newspaper about a recent shipwreck that took place in a harbor near Whitby, England.  When the ship crashed ashore during the night of a storm, a corpse was found tied to the steering wheel of the vessel.  The name of the ship was The Demeter.
     Holmes receives a letter from his friend Jonathan Harker who wrote a journal concerning his visit with Count Dracula in Bram Stoker's famous novel.  Harker's letter contains an invisible inscription at the bottom of the letter in which he writes about visiting London in the next few weeks.  Later that day, Holmes receives a second letter from Harker who writes that it is not safe to go to London and to please burn the first letter because Count Dracula will be visiting London soon.
     Seven years later, Mina Harker who is Jonathan's wife, visits Holmes from Whitby to ask for help.  She tells an amazing tale of terrifying events that took place shortly after The Demeter shipwreck.  She provides Holmes with hers and Jonathan's journals that contain accounts of their encounters with Count Dracula who they thought was killed, but now seems to still be undead and staying somewhere in London.
     This is a well written story that mixes the famous characters of Sherlock Holmes and Dracula.  Since Arthur Conan Doyle and Bram Stoker were contemporaries, it is fun to read about their characters crossing paths.  The dialogue is reminiscent of the style of writing of both of the authors.  A great book for fans of classic mystery and gothic horror.
97 reviews1 follower
April 22, 2022
Sherlock & Dracula Lifeblood

A story told from Watson view of all the events of a search for the vampire named Count Dracula. Their story begins when a secret coded message arrives and they can’t decipher it, seven years will pass, till one day a lady shows up at their doorstep with the handwritten journals of the man who sent the secret code. At this point they are trying to solve the murder of a man who is mentioned in the journal. They are solving one murder when another happens and another. The clues that they are learning along the way leads them to the search for Count Dracula, they are now searching for his lair and learning all the ways they can kill him and the people he had turned. They find his hideaway and set out to rid the world of him only to be set up and seemingly trapped. They have their crucifixes and garlic, holy water and bullets and knives that have been dipped in holy water. When Dracula figures out that a young boy whose parents have been turned, and they have killed is hiding in what was to be his own coffin, he thinks he has won the battle. He doesn’t know that the child is holding a knife dipped in holy water and when he opens the coffin the kid plunges the
Knife into his heart and kills him. The child who is put in the care of a good family grows up with a mission to rid the world of these creatures.
Profile Image for d.mcnicholas.
68 reviews
July 28, 2021
The tone of the author's writing put me in mind of the old black and white films staring Basil Rathbone as the famous and eccentric detective. I was even hearing his voice as I read him speaking in the story. I've read Bram Stoker's masterpiece many times and was impressed how Kev Freeman tried to stay true to the atmosphere and Victorian era feel. I can almost picture the dirty, polluted, smoggy streets of London.
This tale is set seven years after the supposed death of The Fanged Lord of Darkness. He's back and out for gruesome revenge of those who slew him. You just can't keep a bad man down. Sherlock is brought into the chase by the lovely Mina Harker, who fears for her beloved Jonathan. Will the the master detective and his loyal sidekick, Watson, be able to best the Dark Lord or will it be our pipe smoking hero's end? To find out you'll have to read it yourself....it's elementary, my dear Watson lol
451 reviews6 followers
July 7, 2021
Disclaimer: I received this book as part of GoodReads' First Reads program

In 19th century London, something is afoot. Of course, the title says it all. This is a story of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson pursuing Dracula and his minions. Having read most of Arthur Conan Doyle's Holmes stories, as well as Dracula, as a child, I was curious to see what the author had done. He manages to capture the feeling of a Holmes story quite well, in my opinion, and the element of Dracula adds a nice spice to the mixture. The book reads quickly, and I would recommend it without hesitation.
329 reviews2 followers
November 25, 2021
Nicely Done

This started with my two favorite characters from all of literature, Dracula and Sherlock Holmes. What's not to like? Accepting the notion that Dracula hadn't been defeated as told by Stoker, this addendum is a terrific way to introduce Sherlock and Watson into the history of vampires. I would have loved it if there had been a way to equate the ultimate evil of Dracula with Sherlock's arch-enemy, Moriarty. That could have been really interesting. Otherwise, this was pretty neat.
Profile Image for fred jones.
1,788 reviews11 followers
April 13, 2025
I loved this one. a great idea paying homage to both classic characters. Mina Harker engages Sherlock Holmes when she fears Dracula has returned. Following on from Bram Stokers classic novel and adding Holmes and Watson it is an atmospheric listen with strong descriptions and characters. Narration by Michael Langan is excellent with a good range of voices that brings the story to life. Highly recommended. I received a complimentary copy of the audio from the narrator and am leaving a honest voluntary review,
52 reviews
September 16, 2022
I enjoyed this, I'm not going to lie. It combined two of my all time favorite things, Dracula, and Holmes. Is it a book I'd recommend to people, really it would depend. I think, unless you really love both of those things, and are willing to see them come together, you really wouldn't enjoy it. I guess the easiest way to describe it is as a niche piece that will always be more likely to have a cult following than major success.
45 reviews
February 13, 2023
In my opinion, a very enjoyable read.

This was one of those books that I just happened to come across and I didn't know anything about it. But I decided to take a chance and it has turned out to be one of the 1st books in a long time that I read in less than 24 hours. I thoroughly enjoyed the way the author brought two legendary fictional characters together into one story. I Look forward to the next book in the series.
85 reviews2 followers
August 31, 2024
A Tale of Darkness and Light

A great retelling of the Dracula myth. The characters now including Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. Although the storyline is mostly eternal I enjoyed the book very much. I recommend this to who enjoy reading Dracula and Sherlock Holmes, it does not disappoint.
Profile Image for Chris.
45 reviews
September 1, 2024
Enjoyable story. I really liked how the author meshed the characters of Holmes and Watson into the story of Dracula without rewriting Dracula. Bringing the Prince of Darkness back to London was a great idea and it even incorporates the entire party that fought Dracula the first time. I wish better for Van Helsing but even then his part in the story was well done.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
1 review
July 11, 2021
Really enjoyed this book.......although nothing will ever come close to the Bram Stoker edition this book came a close second. With the original characters out of Dracula and also out of the Sherlock Holmes tales it was entertaining and very atmospheric......loved it !
Profile Image for Glo.
65 reviews
October 15, 2021
Sherlock and Dracula

It was a really slow and difficult read at the start,but perseverance paid off and I really got into it after a while. A good mix of the Sherlock Holmes and Dracula stories.
Profile Image for Carolyn Sullivan.
176 reviews1 follower
January 1, 2022
This mashup truly works! Well executed in it's world building that it seamlessly builds the Holmes and Vampire worlds into one. They complement each other in ways that at first might make you skeptical. Well done! Well done!
Profile Image for Jim.
46 reviews
February 7, 2022
Very descriptive setting as a gothic novel should possess. Also, the plot was unpredictable at times, which created the suspense needed to make this a 5
Star read. Highly recommend to the Dracula or Holmes aficionado.
1 review
July 29, 2022
pass

Take a pass on this one. This story needed a thorough editing job. Dialogue is terrible and while I realize the author used excerpts from Bram Stoker by intention it didn’t work well. One of the few stories I have abandoned without reaching the end.
76 reviews2 followers
January 1, 2023
Read at your own risk !!!

This truly was presented in the same explicit language and form of the brilliant Sir Arthur. It gave me great pause and let me recall that not all in this world is revealed.....yet.
Profile Image for V.
72 reviews
April 1, 2025
The writing style put me off for a moment but I continued on. Overall a great story and a new take on the classic characters we all grew up with. First in a series and I plan on continuing. Although I feel they could be read as standalone as well. Either way I plan to read the rest.
Profile Image for Anna.
186 reviews
October 26, 2025
This is an interesting story of Sherlock and Watson battling Count Dracula. However, the punctuation was below par. Commas and periods in the weirdest of places made the flow of reading impossible. I had to regroup and read over again to get to the gist of the sentence. Whoever proofread this book did a very poor job. This is just my opinion, though.
Profile Image for Katherine.
66 reviews
August 2, 2021
If you are a fan of Sherlock Holmes or Dracula, you will enjoy this must-read book.
81 reviews
November 7, 2021
Should have been better …

Given the legacy of the 2 protagonists this should have been a page Turner but didn’t manage to live up to originals
21 reviews
December 28, 2021
Wonderful remake

It is a great storyline remake of one of my favorite books. I loved the inclusion of sherlock holmes. Very enjoyable book
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews

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