Diaries of the Family Dracul Trilogy by Jeanne Kalogridis

This trilogy is an expansion and creation of the events leading up to those in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Covenant with the Vampire and Children of the Vampire bring to light Vlad's deal involving a dark power and his family, and the struggles brought on by this. The final novel, Lord of the Vampires, meets with Stoker's plot and adds the events and perspectives of the characters that Kalogridis has built up in the previous two novels. All three books include the Dracul Family Tree at the beginning.

Covenant with the Vampire

"In her incredibly accomplished fiction debut, Jeanne Kalogridis takes on one of the most compelling and terrifying classics ever written, Bram Stoker's Dracula. Dark, sensual, and charged with suspense, Covenant with the Vampire reveals the mysteries behind Dracula, transforming it into a piece of a puzzle that is much larger, more complex, and more compelling than anyone might have imagined.

Beginning fifty years before the start of Bram Stoker's novel, Covenant with the Vampire introduces us to Dracula's family, who are bound by a covenant as ancient as their blood to serve Dracula and to protect him. At the castle of Prince Vlad Tsepesh, also known as Dracula, Vlad's great-nephew Arkady has recently taken over the job of managing the thriving, busy estate. Arkady is honored to care for his beloved though eccentric great-uncle... until he begins to realize what is expected of him in his new role.

Either he provides his great-uncle with victims to satisfy his needs, or Vlad will kill those Arkady loves. He is trapped into becoming a party to murder and sadistic torture. And it is in his blood. When Arkady learns that his newborn son is being groomed to follow one day in his footsteps, he knows that he must fight Dracula, even if it means his death.

The first installment in a rich historical trology that will span the fifty years before Dracula and finally overlap with the events in that book, Covenant with the Vampire reveals secrets that will shock and delight readers of the original. Written in diary form, like Dracula, Covenant with the Vampire is the erotic, compulsively readable debut of a major new voice in vampire fiction." (from book jacket)

Paperback Info: ISBN 0440215439, Dell Publishing, 1994
Hardcover Info: ISBN 0708988725, Charnwood Publishing, 1994

Children of the Vampire

"With Covenant with the Vampire, Jeanne Kalogridis launched a thrilling new vampire trilogy that takes on one of the most intriguing horror classics of all time -- Bram Stoker's Dracula. Haunting, sensuous, and compulsively readable, this debut novel was published to much critical acclaim, and established Kalogridis as a major new voice in vampire fiction. Now Children of the Vampire, the dark and stylishly erotic second book in the series, delves even deeper into the terrifying mysteries behind Dracula.

It is Amsterdam, 1871, twenty-five years before the start of Stoker's novel, and twenty-five years following Arkady Tsepesh's flight from his family's ancestral castle with his wife and young son, Stephan, after learning that he and his family are bound by an ancient covenant to serve their ancestor, Prince Vlad Tsephesh, who is also known as Dracula. For Vlad is a vampire, and the fated firstborn sons in every generation must bring him the victims he needs to survive. Arkady has tried to break the covenant and failed. He is now a vampire, separated for his beloved wife and son, with one all-consuming desire -- to destroy Vlad before he draws Stephan into eternal service through the blood ritual.

But Arkady has come too lage to Amsterdam. Vlad kidnaps Stephan, and spirits him away to the castle in Transylvania to undergo the blood ritual. Arkady enlists the help of Stephan's stepbrother, Abraham Van Helsing, ih his thrilling battle against Vlad, as he seeks to free his family and put an end to the age-old blood covenant -- even if it means he must destroy his own son.

This spellbinding book, rich in historical detail and told in diary form, like Dracula, is an exciting -- and terrifying -- continuation of The Diaries of the Family Dracul, the absorbing trilogy that will serve as a prequel to Bram Stoker's chilling tale. With Children of the Vampire, Jeanne Kalogridis penetrates even deeper into the secrets behind Dracula, illuminating this classic novel in a vivid, compelling, and utterly memorable way." (from book jacket)

Paperback Info: ISBN 0440222699, Dell Publishing, 1995

Lord of the Vampires

"Lord of the Vampires is the extraordinary conclusion to Jeanne Kalogridis's much touted, highly acclaimed trilogy of The Diaries of the Family Dracul. Covenant with the Vampire and Children of the Vampire set the tone for this lush, erotic, compulsively readable series that explores the mysteries behind Bram Stoker's classic novel Dracula.

After the death of his half brother, Stephan, at the hand of Vlad Tsepesh -- also known as Dracula -- and after the destruction of his vampire father, Arkady, also at the hands of Vlad, Abraham Van Helsing has traveled the world slaying many vampires. With every vampire he destroys, Bram becoms stronger and Vlad weaker, and soon Bram hopes to kill finally the fearsome vampire who has kept the Tsepesh family enslaved through a centuries-old blood ritual.

But a desperate Vlad and his vampire great-niece, Zsuzsanna, summon help from the most powerful, brutal, and beautiful vampire of all -- Countess Elisabeth of Bathory. Bram aligns himself with a courageous band of humans as he hunts Vlad and they finally succeed in killing the head of the Tsepesh clan, just a Bram Stoker foretold in Dracula. But the terror does not end with the death of Vlad, for there is another force that drives Vlad, Szuzsanna, Elisabeth, and all the vampires in the world, an ancient entity more evil than anything Bram has ever encountered: the lord of the vampires. And for Bram to defeat this Dark Lord, he must once again risk losing his very soul, to save not only his family, but humanity as well.

In this final book in the trilogy of The Diaries of the Family Dracul, Kalogridis brilliantly melds her own fascinating story of the Tsepesh family with that of Bram Stoker's Dracula. Told in diary form like the first two books and Stoker's own chilling tale, Lord of the Vampires reveals the dark, startling truths behind the original Dracula." (from book jacket)

Paperback Info: ISBN 044022442X, Dell Publishing, 1996