Transylvania, London, New York... Dracula is everywhere

1912: It's been a quarter of a century since Count Dracula was killed by Van Helsing. Then, a man's body is found in London's Piccadilly Circus and it looks as if he was murdered by a... vampire! Dracula lives!

Dacre Stoker (a great-grandnephew of the Irish author Bram Stoker, who created Dracula 112 years ago) is bringing the old monster back to life in Dracula: The Un-Dead. The novel, coming in October, caused a storm in the publishing world when the US rights were sold last year for $1 million. Shooting of a film version is set to begin in June. Dacre Stoker, who formerly coached the Canadian Olympic pentathlon team, wrote the book with historian Ian Holt, a member of The Transylvanian Society of Dracula.

Vampire books and films are hot right now. Stephenie Meyer's Twilight novels have sold 42 million copies, and the first of the film adaptations made $177 million in its first seven weeks. In December, Ballantine paid $3.75 million for Justin Cronin's new trilogy about a pandemic that turns humans into vampires. Mexican film maker Guillermo del Toro's debut novel, The Strain, about a vampire virus which attacks New York, will be published in June.