With Victorian and Gothic influence in a number of the Sherlock Holmes stories, the Canon can be great fodder for the mysterious, occult and spooky elements of Halloween. Certainly The Hound of the Baskervilles, "The Adventure of the Devil's Foot," "The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier," or "The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place" have elements that can make a reader's hair stand on end.

But the most direct link with Halloween as we know it today (other than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "Lot No. 249" - the original mummy story) has to be "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire." Sherlock Holmes himself was a bit dismissive of the supernatural in this case, saying "Rubbish, Watson, rubbish! What have we to do with walking corpses who can only be held in their grave by stakes driven through their hearts? It's pure lunacy."

But our guest on this episode, Les Klinger (a guest on Episodes 31 and 32, when he spoke about the Guy Ritchie / Robert Downey, Jr. movies and his role as Warner Brothers' consultant on the set) is no stranger to Dracula. He has written The New Annotated Dracula and has been an influential in the Dracularian movement. As we discuss the intersection of Holmes and Dracula, Les helps us understand the evolution of vampire literature and Dracula-influenced media.

In the discussion, Les alludes to other influential fictional works in the movement such as I Am Legend, In the Shadow of Dracula, and Anno Dracula by Kim Newman, who is the Distinguished Speaker at the 2013 Baker Street Irregulars Weekend. In addition to the popular work, Les noted that there is a scholarly vein of work (pardon the pun) in the field that brings more seriousness to the practice, albeit less fluid and constant than Sherlockian scholarship. But we kept coming back to the intersections of Holmes and Dracula, in all forms: written, film and stage, and how each have their cycles of popularity that are typically driven by a single piece of work each time.

Episode 47: Re Vampires

The first podcast for Sherlock Holmes devotees, covering the intersection of Sherlock Holmes and popular culture. Discussions about the timeless characters of Holmes & Watson, goings-on today in a variety of media, and interviews with interesting people who share a passion for the great detective.

Episode 47: Re Vampires

I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere