Dracula's Gold

Despite crude, often unintentionally hilarious writing and a mix-and-match jumble of a plot, this novel actually delivers the goods when it comes depicting the Count himself. Lory's Dracula is powerful, formidable and truly nasty - but he is also a sort of vampire on a leash, controlled in an ingenious manner by an aging American crime-fighter who apparently wants to use the Count as a tool against evil. All that happens here, however, is that a pair of nasty gold-diggers get their comeuppance and Dracula's secret treasure trove is kept secret. Lory was clearly building a highly involved mythos around Dracula, in this case interweaving elements of the vampire legend with tales of Atlantis and even a Lovecraftian touch. I can't argue with the appeal of that sort of pulp-fictional invention, but I did find that Lory's clumsy attempts at a prose style subtracted something from the enjoyment of his goofy, action-packed plot and the occasional effective moment of horror.