I honestly hold my hands up and say I've never heard of this book before, so when I saw it, I thought "Mr stoker did a sequel to Dracula?!" I wasn't sure? but it was free on my Kindle so I read it. Thinking Dracula's come back! But in fact it's a collection of really good well written stories.
Dracula’s Guest: This is part of the original Dracula, which was cut to reduce the length. It has very little to do with Dracula (the character and the book) and is a bit of an odd story really. That being said, they are so very creepy moments in it.
The Judge’s House: A haunted house story with a painting which is absolutely Creepy!
The Squaw: A particularly gruesome story involving cats. Predictable but contains some fantastic imagery.
The Secret of the Growing Gold: A weird ghost story, which I didn’t like very much.
A Gipsy Prophecy: The classic format of characters learning a prophecy and then trying to stop it coming true. It doesn’t do what you expect it to do and this is really pleasing.
The Coming of Abel Behenna: Two men fall in love with the same woman. Only one can marry her and it seems they will go to any length to ensure they can have her.
The Burial of the Rats: This story confused me. It’s mostly a long chase, but I just didn’t get what the point of the story was. Mind you, what the title actually means pretty unpleasant…
A Dream of Red Hands: The story of a bad dream and a man desperate to make up for past sins. Not exactly a horror story, but it makes you think about whether people should be forgiven for their crimes.
Crooken Sands: This begins as a very funny story and then turns into a great little psychological tale. I was beginning to think the stories got worse as they went along, but this one was one of the best of the book and a great way to end.
All in all a really good collection of tales and one that should go in any gothic horror collection. :)
