cover image Dracula: The Undead

Dracula: The Undead

Freda Warrington, . . Severn, $28.95 (320pp) ISBN 978-0-7278-6817-6

Warrington's so-so sequel to Bram Stoker's classic has the misfortune to follow on the heels of a superior sequel with a nearly identical title, Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt's Dracula: The Un-Dead (Reviews, Aug. 24). Seven years after Van Helsing and the rest of the vampire hunters ended Dracula's existence, the survivors return to Transylvania to perform a Christian cleansing ritual and to reassure themselves the evil is truly destroyed. No one will be surprised when their journey ends up triggering the monster's resurrection. Once again, the count threatens the body and soul of Mina Harker, whom he pursued in Stoker's Dracula . Amid less than compelling variations on the original plot, Warrington (Elfland ) throws in a subplot about the search undertaken by a professor friend of Van Helsing's for an academy run by the devil, whose students included Dracula, but its resolution will satisfy few. (Dec.)