SHERLOCK HOLMES VS. DRACULA

Despite the comic-book title, this is an example of the more cautious and studied sort of pseudo-Sherlock, with lots of references to the Canon and Watson in familiar ""Good Lord!"" form. Not that the purist approach makes Estleman's academic, short-story-sized notion any more prepossessing. The premise: a Russian ship arrives in England with all aboard de-blooded and dead, then disoriented children start turning up on Hampstead Heath with wounds on their throats, so an intrigued Holmes follows the clues to a vaulted chamber where Brain Stoker's Van Helsing is driving a stake through a vampirette's heart. Holmes thus learns of Dracula and seeks out his London hiding places, and the Count responds by kidnapping Mrs. Watson (""the fiend has my wife""). As usual, Holmes seems to die but is quickly resurrected, and no doubt he'll be surfacing again soon in still other jiggers of literary milk-of-magnesia for the Baker Street Irregulars.