Fred Saberhagen - The Holmes-Dracula File

Fred Saberhagen - The Holmes-Dracula File (Ace, 1978: Tor, 1989)



Blurb:

Crime Makes Strange Partnerships
And none stranger than that between Sherlock Holmes and Count Dracula.
Holmes confronts a pair of impossible problems: a ring of criminal masterminds threatening to loose thou­sands of plague-infested rats into the streets of London and a bizarre killer who leaves a trail of bloodless corpses ... and no other clues ....
Dracula holds the key to both mysteries. Returned to London on a personal matter, the Count is quickly entangled in a web of evil that even his undead powers may not be enough to breach.
Here are the secrets of The Holmes-Dracula File

Fred Saberhagen has written tales of DRACULA for over a decade, and has been chosen to write the novelization of the new blockbuster motion picture, BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA. Saberhagen's skill in crafting dark fantasy has been much acclaimed:
"Vampires with a. difference! And the difference is Fred Saberhagen. His writing mesmerizes." - Brian Lumley

The second in Saberhagen's New Dracula series, which, on the strength of the three i've read, might not be quite as insane as Robert Lory's Dracula Returns, but that's not for lack of trying. True, Loren Estleman also pitted Holmes versus Dracula in a novel the same year, but Fred's has the advantage of hot rat army action and a plot which looks as if it may have been inspired in part by the then-recent antics of a certain punk rock beat combo. Another plus: this is yet another of Dr. Watson's trillion manuscripts which he had secured in a bank vault under strict instruction they should not be published until the nineteen seventies, and they're usually the juiciest.

It's 1897 and some poor old codger is wandering along the East India Dock Road when he's bludgeoned from behind by cowardly cockney thug Matthews. On regaining consciousness, he finds himself strapped to a bed in a 'hospital room' with fleas crawling all over his chest although none dare bite him. He realises his ability to command them marks him out as different, but .... who is he? And why can he sense the presence of a huge and very pissed off rodent on the other side of the wall?

It soon transpires that our friend is but one of several patients of mad doctor 'the physician', each recruited to the practice in much the same way as he was. Together with his sadistic, butch lesbian German assistant, Frau Grafenstein, this fellow is planning to celebrate the Queen's jubilee by unleashing a plagued-up rat army on the capital which, as 'Sod the Jubilee!' demonstrations go, kind of takes the gloss off the Pistols' boat party on the Thames. The old guy, bored with his confinement, speaks kindly to Sally, the girl who's sent to sit with him while the others are busy elsewhere being evil, and, when he convinces her that they laugh at her behind her back on account of her birthmark, she attempts to set him free. Unfortunately, the Doctor and Frau Grafenstein catch her in the act and drag her off for punishment. Needless to say, this is administered by Frau Grafenstein, although, wisely, the author leaves it to our imaginations exactly what Sally endures that makes her scream so. As it happens, her ordeal was in vain. The old man has proved immune to infection, so Matthews bundles him, still manacled, into a sack and, together with the Frau, rows him out on the Thames and dumps him overboard. But rather than drown, the old guy materialises on the wharf. One attack on the Grafenstein jugular later and at least now he remembers what he is, if not who ...

Holmes, meanwhile, is investigating the suspicious disappearance of brilliant young biologist Dr. John Scott, last known whereabouts the West Indies, where he'd gone to seek out exciting new diseases. After confirming that he'd captured the plague-carrying Giant Rat of Sumatra, his letters home to bride-to-be Miss Sarah Tarlton had ceased, and the poor girl has every right to be concerned. John's portable laboratory has arrived back in London - and has been claimed by persons of shady aspect - and it's even rumoured the young philanthropist has been spotted on the streets of our great city. Why has he not made any attempt to contact her?