Book Review: The Beast of London by LD Goffigan (Mina Murray #1)

Mina Murray once lived an adventurous life, but after a tragedy in the forests of Transylvania, she left it all behind. Now she has settled into a quiet routine as a schoolteacher in London, engaged to the respectable solicitor Jonathan Harker, attempting to fit into the stuffy upper class London society to which he belongs.

Her dark past comes careening into her present when Jonathan is abducted by a group of vampires from a society ball. Determined to rescue him, she teams up with her former paramour Abraham Van Helsing and his colleague, Scotland Yard Inspector John Seward.

As they pursue Jonathan’s abductors from England to the Low Countries and beyond, Mina realizes that Jonathan’s abduction is tied to a larger threat against humanity…

My Review: 
The idea of Dracula and vampires in general have fascinated me since I saw Christopher Lee's Dracula films as a kid. I don't know how many times I've watched Dracula has risen from the grave! I am always wary though of these historical re-tellings so it was really great to find one that I actually enjoyed.

Mina is a great character. She was once an adventurer with her beloved father, and her former boyfriend Abraham Van Helsing but her father's death ended her explorations. She is now a teacher in London, preparing to marry her society fiance, lawyer Jonathan Harker. Mina loves to excite the poor kids she teaches with her adventure tales until the stuffy Head Horace Welling puts an end to it, with a threat about her losing her job if she continues. She is also struggling with the rules of society and Jonathan's very disapproving mother. As much as she loves him and feels they have a secure future, Mina worries that she is not going to be able to fit into that society life that she does not enjoy.  

Her former flame Abraham comes back into her life to tell her that he believes the creatures that killed her father in a Transylvanian forest are in London, which she doesn't want to believe. She feels uncomfortable seeing him again after 3 years apart and decides not to tell Jonathan about his arrival. It is when the vampires attack a society dance they are all at and snatch Jonathan in front of her that she is forced to face up to the creatures being real. She knows there is no point in telling the police what she really saw that night and instead trusts her story to Scotland Yard's John Seward, who is already investigating the strange illness that a friend's wife is suffering from. Mina and Abraham recognise the symptoms from their trip abroad and have to face that they need to return to where her father died to get answers and find Jonathan. 

Abraham and Mina decide to make preperations for the journey. They are to be joined by John, his friend Arthur and sick wife Lucy, who seems able to share details with them of where the vampires are and what they are doing. They are aware that it is a risk to take Lucy in case she ends up out of their control but options are limited. It turns out that Lucy is not the only thing to worry about on the sea crossing to Europe when a strange illness starts to take the crew members. I very much enjoyed the tense nature of the start of the journey which then turns into an all out battle to survive and escape. The book then looks at the dangerous journey through Europe with the vampires in hot pursuit.

The book was really well written. I don't generally enjoy books that are set in this time period because the whole society thing leaves me cold but in this case the author only touches briefly on it to show how Mina doesn't really fit in. The main focus is on the vampire story and that keeps moving at a nice pace. I enjoyed the way the characters were written to make you care about them and root for them when things get difficult. I also liked the sub plot about the good vampires trying to stop the bad. 

I would warn that this book is aimed at setting up the plot so there is no resolution to the main Jonathan story here. It very much continues on into the next book. I'd say that this book really sets the stage for the rest of the series, introducing the characters and who are on what side, and showing how they meet up after the journey. It is certainly not slow and goes along at a good pace with a good mixture of tension and action sequences. I was intrigued by the vampires that we meet during the book-the brutal bloodthirsty ones, and the more civilised ones that appear to be allies of Mina. I'm very interested in what is coming in the future books which I've already bought. And what about the gorgeous cover art!

It's hard to predict whether fans of the classic Dracula will enjoy this book as retellings are hit and miss for some people. I personally found the original Dracula too slow and descriptive but this version really appealed to me. I guess it will come down to personal taste but I found this to be a fun vampire story.

Read December 2018
4 stars.