While the name of the ‘Master of Shadows’ is not strange to you, the sequel of Dracula (1897), Dracula’s Child (2020) surely is. Did you once think evil could die as easy? By chopping of heads and staking of hearts? Did you think the 19th century was the end of Dracula, Son of the Devil and Father of Vampires? I regret to inform you that ‘He has returned’.

In the latest account of his dark existence, London suffers. Dracula returns to the very place of his defeat years before when the band of warriors fought back. He swore he would take his revenge and he does. The tactician waits patiently many years for Mina and Jonathan’s son (Quincey Harker) to grow, and just at the peak of their happiness – on the boy’s birthday – he strikes.

The Professor, Abraham Van Helsing, collapsed suddenly at the Harkers’ home during dinner. Before he becomes totally unconscious, he utters a prophecy that is the center of this book. He turns to the boy at the ridge of death and, with a mouth pouring with blood, he says “You are to be the vessel.” Van Helsing eventually dies after long months of bedridden care in the Harker’s home, during which all his friends suffer many sadnesses.

Arthur the nobleman has remarried since the horrible death of his former wife. He is at first excited about the news when he tells Dr. Seward, Mina, Jonathan Harker, and the professor during dinner at the Harkers’ home but all that happiness goes to waste in the event of Helsing’s collapse and his wife’s lucidity. In all accounts of the story, Arthur seems to suffer the most losing all but his noble name and seat in the English House of Lords. He gets married to a former mental patient of Dr. Seward, his good friend, and she gets pregnant but eventually loses the pregnancy. The sad story gets worse when the woman eventually begins having strange dreams and she gives her life to save her husband and many others from a bomb at Van Helsing’s memorial. Another wife influenced by Dracula.

Dr Seward goes missing, which only adds to the sorrows of his friends who desperately try to find him. Jonathan takes to drinking, much to Mina’s irritation. He has no worthy purpose after leaving his law career and defeating Dracula, at least he thought he didn’t. Good hearted Mina is too concerned about her husband, son, and friends and not herself. The explosions and gang uprising in London worsen her gut feelings but what costs her her life is the fact that her son, Quincey, is Dracula’s Child.