And the Fog Thickened

In Bram Stoker's «Dracula», Mina Harker had a closest friend, Lucy Westenra — the archetypal «new woman» of the late Victorian era.

In the novel «And the Fog Thickened», Julie Si Dao reinterprets this classic image: her Lucy not only tries to choose a suitor from three devoted admirers — the son of Lord Godalming, 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 sleepwalking and an obsession with death. In her dreams, she often walks along the moonlit coastal cliffs of North Yorkshire near the ruins of the ancient Whitby Abbey, where she encounters a mysterious stranger, Vlad; he sees in her the «ideal woman of the era» and promises her immortality. She cannot resist this new temptation — but what if these are not just dreams? And who arrived in the port of Whitby on the Russian ship «Demeter» from Bulgaria — the ship on board of which no living soul was found, only thirty boxes of earth?..