Meh. I enjoyed the characterization in this book. While the plot cleverly interweaves into actual history, it's quite predictable. it's worth reading for the glimpses into the lives of literary lights of the day, but the story isn't particularly compelling.

It's almost cheating to count this for the Postal Reading Challenge. It's told from Stoker's perspective, under the conceit of being a record of a kind with the novel Dracula. While Dracula felt like a scrapbook of various accounts and journals, this is really one long narrative with letters, notes, and articles tacked in here and there. I had hoped for more. ( )

I can't read books written in language like this. ( )

This was very slow reading,however, my interest was kept by the unique perspective the author took.

The story is based and focused on Bram Stoker directly and how and why he came to write his famous novel Dracula.

I don't want to include any spoilers but even though I had to take many breaks, I believe the reading was well worth it. ( )

Written in the form of journal entries and newspaper articles, James Reese’s novel The Dracula Dossier pits Bram Stoker, author of Dracula, against the greatest monster of the late 19th century: Jack the Ripper.

Four things prejudiced me against this novel before I started reading it: first, it is an epistolary novel; second, it has footnotes, which, with very few exceptions, I have always thought were a waste of ink; third, the prologue reads like bad Sherlock Holmes pastiche; and finally, the printing on the odd numbered pages was so faint that I had trouble making out some of the words. Eventually I decided I was being unfair: just because the book is in a form I don’t care for doesn’t mean it’s a bad story and the printing can hardly be held against the writer. Thus it was in a very forgiving mood that I started reading.

The book started strong, with a richly detailed and suspenseful description of Bram Stoker wandering the streets of Manhattan in a blizzard, leaving behind him a trail of blood. And then…nothing happened for another hundred pages. Finally, on page one-hundred-twenty-something, things started to pick up. Unfortunately, the event was the start of a half-baked supernatural plot that was poorly grafted onto the story. The first Ripper murder didn’t occur until over 200 pages in (the book is only about 350 pages long) and the plot after that is so convoluted and ridiculous it’s difficult to describe. The ultimate defeat of Jack the Ripper is probably the most absurd part as it is accomplished with the use of some painted backdrops, a double, and a Scottish Castle.

The Dracula Dossier is quite possibly the worst book I have ever read and I mourn for the trees that died to produce it. ( )

This one was a bit of a slog, for me. I am a fan of reading of the fictional exploits of Bram Stoker, Arthur Conan Doyle, and their contemporaries, but this started out plodding and seemed to get worse. I had the same problem with The Historian, which I note some other readers did, as well. It may just be that I am vampired out at the moment, with so many of them saturating every form of media right now. I would give another James Reese book a chance, as his prose itself is not bad and some of his ideas show promise. ( )