And the Fog Thickened

In «Dracula» by Bram Stoker, Mina Harker had a close friend, Lucy Westenra — a quintessential «new woman» of the late Victorian era.

In the novel «And the Fog Thickened» by Julie Si Dao, this classic image is reinterpreted: her Lucy not only tries to choose a suitor from three devoted admirers — Lord Godalming's son Arthur Holmwood, Dr. John Seward, and his American friend, adventurer Quincy Morris from Texas — but also struggles with a whole host of age-old obsessions, including somnambulism and an obsession with death. In her dreams, she often wanders along the moonlit coastal cliffs of North Yorkshire near the ruins of the ancient Whitby Abbey, where she encounters the mysterious stranger Vlad; he sees in her the «ideal woman of the era» and promises her immortality. She cannot resist this new obsession — but what if these are not just dreams? And who arrived in the port of Whitby on the Russian ship «Demeter» from Bulgaria — a ship on which no living soul was found, only thirty boxes of earth?..