It is the end of the 1st World War and Europe is trying to repair some of the damage caused by the conflict. Much of the damage, however, is not just physical destruction of buildings or the terrible numbers of dead. The war has left many men mentally scarred needing extensive psychiatric elp before they can return to a relatively normal life.

Lisa Watson's fiance, Denis, is in just such a position. Something he experienced while on the front line has caused his true personality to retreat and his kind is now convinced that he is the detective Sherlock Holmes! Lisa, a doctor, has managed to obtain a position at the facility where he is being treated – the Carfax War Hospital, but she does not know that the nearby Carfax Abbey was the location of the tomb of an infamous creature killer – Dracula, nor does she know that the hospital used to be known as the Seward Sanitarium. Similarly, she is totally unaware of her facial similarity to one of Dracula's victims, Lucy Westenera!

As Lisa works to try and restore Denis's mind, others have less positive intentions. Bombing raids have broken open Dracula's tomb and the fiend is now free to start his reign of terror once more. She is also faced with a difficult decision – whether to allow one of the other doctors, Dr Winterthur, to use a form of electric shock therapy to try and help Denis return to a normal life.

Dracula: Asylum is another book in a series that takes some of the classic Universal Studios monsters and looks at what could have happened to the characters once the original stories came to an end. The novel moves forward in time some twenty years, to the end of the 1st World War, and asks the question "What if Dracula were to return". A twist is added in the fact that Lisa Watson bares an uncanny resemblance to Lucy Westenera, a fact that is not lost upon Renfield (who has remained in the hospital since the end of the original story, waiting for the return of his master, Dracula).

As with Shadow of Frankenstein, Dracula: Asylum is an interesting development upon the classic gothic horror story of Dracula which retains much of the atmosphere of the original work. There are enough twists and turns to keep most readers hooked right to the very end. As a long-time fan of all things vampiric I was initially a little concerned that this book would not live up to my expectations but I need not have worried. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the story and look forward to the next in the Universal Studios Monsters series.

Synopsis
Dr. Seward's Sanitorium was supposed to be a place of healing, a refuge for the mentally ill, where they could come to heal, recover from the traumas of their life. That was before the undead creature known as Count Dracula descended upon them, spreading pestilence and death wherever he walked. The monster was eventually destroyed, and the tormented souls of the madhouse were once again safe. Or were they? Years later, in the days following the end of the First World War, Dracula is restored to life. Trapped beneath the grounds of the madhouse, his evil reaches out into the minds of the weak and insane. As death claims victim after victim, will anyone be able to stop him?