The Brides — Charlotte Cross

The Brides is a mesmerizing dual timeline novel -- told through letters, diary entries and psychiatric reports -- that places women at the centre of literature's most famous vampire story.

Before Dracula, there were the brides . . .

Come to me, and be mine for eternity

1903. Sir John Seward, survivor of Count Dracula's murderous campaign ten years before, takes up a post as a psychiatric doctor at an Oxford public asylum. There, a new patient arrives whose traumatic experiences resurrect horrors John has spent a decade trying to forget.

1884. Mafalda Lowell journeys from London to Budapest to care for her recently widowed aunt Reka. She uncovers the chilling truth about her uncle's death, and writes to her secret love Lucy North for comfort. Chaperoned by her former schoolfriend Eliza and lady's maid Alice, Lucy travels across the continent to be with her beloved.

Only Alice, beset by nightmares and terrifying visions, notices the strange black-clad man who seems to follow them wherever they go. When Eliza is struck down with a mysterious wasting illness, her doctor orders her to take the healing waters of Transylvania, which forces her to make a journey with devastating consequences.

Four women. Three brides. Which one escaped . . . ?