Three academics on a search for Dracula across time and continents
In 1897, Bram Stoker immortalized Vlad Tepes — a.k.a. "The Impaler," a merciless tyrant who treated thousands of people like cocktail hour hors d'oeuvres — in his novel Dracula. More than a century later, Elizabeth Kostova's debut novel features three generations of academics on a quest across Europe for Dracula's tomb — a Dracula who, contrary to the belief of historians before them, may very well still be alive and biting.

The novel — an absorbing blend of the historical, mystery, and epistolary genres — opens in 1972 Amsterdam as the 16-year-old narrator learns of her father Paul's inheritance of a mysterious book that has involved him in the search for Dracula's final resting place. Paul explains how his discovery of the book as a graduate student, 20 years earlier, led to a hunt for his missing adviser, Professor Rossi. His research, spurred by a series of letters and notes Rossi left to him, propels him on an adventure with Helen, Rossi's daughter, across Eastern Europe. Both are certain that exploring the Dracula myth will lead them to the missing professor, and ultimately to Dracula's elusive tomb.

The scholars take their field research very seriously. Neither vampire stalkers nor visa complications can deter Paul and Helen from pursuing the truth about Vlad and his fate. When the three story lines — the young narrator's, Paul's and Rossi's, who went on his own hunt for Dracula in the 1930s — finally cleave together, we come to see a complete historical picture not only of the Dracula myth but also of the people who pursued him.

The eleven-hour abridged audiobook handles the interwoven narratives admirably, switching between characters with little effort and effectively using haunting musical interludes during section breaks. It helps that the recording holds an impressive array of accents — American, British, Eastern European — that neatly distinguishes one voice from another.