Book Review: The Journal of Professor Abraham Van Helsing

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

The Journal of Professor Abraham Van Helsing     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Allen Conrad Kupfer
Class/Genre:   Fiction   Horror   Vampire
Forge, April 2004, $19.95, 208 pp.

After his grandmother died, Allen C. Kupfur sorted out her things and found the journal of Professor Abraham Van Helsing, his grandfather’s friend. His grandfather disappeared under mysterious circumstances. He verified some of the facts that Van Helsing wrote about and agreed with professor that vampires exist and are a plague that must be eradicated. Allen is sorry he published the book because he is either ridiculed or sought after for advice on the nature of the vampire. All he wants is for the living and the undead to leave him alone.

After attending a lecture given at the university by Dr. Boreseu, Van Helsing is the only attendee who doesn’t make fun of his belief in vampires. The two men become friends and Dr. Boreseu invites him to his native Hungary. When he arrives at the Doctor’s house, he finds living proof that vampires do exist. Upon returning home his wife Rita is attacked by the vampire and dies where upon Van Helsing make it his life’s work to eradicate that plague that preys upon mankind.

Written in the form of a journal, reader see how Van Helsing becomes driven, obsessed and afraid but he doesn’t let his feelings get in the way of what he regards as his mission in life. Allen C. Kupfer has written a mesmerizing horror novel that takes the reader from Amsterdam to Hungary and finally to Persia. Fans of vampire novels will want to read this fascinating novel starring the most famous vampire hunter of all.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner