Author: Perry Lake
First Published: 2022
Contains spoilers
The Blurb: Featuring the greatest names in vampire literature...
The beautiful vampiress Carmilla seduced the daughters of the noble houses of Europe. Lord Ruthven did the same. What happens when they meet?
On their latest vampire-hunt, Baron Vordenburg and his son find themselves the guests of a Serbian baron, Latos. More guests are due to arrive, but whom? And from where?
The Lady Lenore, searching for the source of a telepathic blast, becomes the muse for a drunken poet. Will she drain him dry or turn him into a vampire?
When Lenore returns to Europe, she finds herself in the clutches of ghouls... and forced to submit to their demands!
A new Baron Vordenburg takes up his family's crusade—but what is he to do when all of Europe erupts in revolution? Is Dracula behind the chaos?
Mircalla has found a charming playmate. She hopes to transform her into a vampire. What will she do when Dracula refuses her?
At long last, Dracula is prepared to face his greatest enemy in the blood-soaked streets of Paris. Is he nuts? How can he hope to defeat the deadliest and most powerful vampire of them all?! Watch Dracula take on LILITH, the Blood Goddess!
Every king requires a queen... or three. How will Dracula go about assembling a trio of brides with which to rule the Night?
In the foggy streets of London's slums lurks a vile murderer. Behind him is a fiend even darker and deadlier, guiding his every move. What unholy conspiracy can they have in mind?
And finally, the action and horror leads right up to the minute when Dracula meets Jonathan Harker! See how it all came together!
Dracula, Elizabeth Báthory, Carmilla, Lord Ruthven, Lenore, Countess Dolingen... All of them, together at last, in the pages of The Legend of Dracula, Book IV: INTO THE MOUTH OF DEATH!
The review: So this is the fourth in Perry Lake’s recently revised series (you can look at my review for book 3 and that links to the other two reviews). This is, by far, the strongest of the series. The author’s style really strengthened from the last volume to this, with a confidence evident that carries the reader. For the early parts of the book, Dracula is more a shadowy figure pulling strings whilst other vampires take centre stage. This makes for a satisfying dark overlord and then it shifts as the book develops, and whilst his presence is fleeting in the story that runs parallel to Le Fanu’s Carmilla, following that he becomes more front and centre in the volume generally, as we approach the timeframe of Stoker’s novel.
One nagging doubt I had about the series was the power imbalance between Lake’s Dracula and Stoker’s especially given his many minions but the author deals with that neatly and logically within the strictures of his worldview and, rather than running a story parallel to Stoker he offers a brief synopsis of the Dracula plot (with a suggestion of reading the novel if you haven’t already). With some Lovecraftian overtones, this is the best of the series thus far. 8 out of 10.
In Paperback @ Amazon US
In Paperback @ Amazon UK
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