Reader be warned: The stories contained herein, with the possible exception fo the three Holmes tales, do indeed qualify as weird fiction. There just isn't even a single true vampire tale in the bunch, at least in the tradtional sense. I checked the reviews for this over on Amazon to see if I'd missed something, but nope, everyone seems to agree the title is basically a fraud, even though the stories themselves aren't bad, and in fact they're a good small sampling of ACD's supernatural fiction. It seems certain then, that ACD, even though he was acquainted and influenced by Bram Stoker, never wrote vampire fiction (that we know of).
Each tale, however, comes with an afterward that attempts to "justify" it as a vampire story.
To wit: "The American's Tale," is actually about a giant carnivorous, or perhaps "hemovorous" plant. It's a plant that sucks blood, so therefore it's a "vampire tale." Get it?
"The Captain of the Polestar", is mentioned on the blurb as being a tale of a "heat-sucking Eskimo Vampire." This story is included in two other anthologies Iv'e read. The most obvious interpretation is that the entity in question is a ghost that spells the death of the captain at the end, though in fact, this is never established, and given what information we have, it might indeed have been an Eskimo vampire. But it's pretty much up to reader interpretation.
"The Parasite" is a frightening tale involving hypnotism, and a woman who is able to literally take over and control the minds of her victims. I doubt she could be considered in any sense a vampire though, even if the title somewhat suggests this.
"The Winning Shot," is about a group of young friends who encounter a mysterious stranger in the country.;the man has a dark though charismatic persona, and does seem to have somewhat suggestive of a vampire, including supernatural abilites that are not established until the end. This story is noteworthy in that it is a rare tale in which the bad guy actually wins. Doyle is quoted as describing this story as "'a vampirey'" little tale." But there is nothing to suggest that the villain is vampiric in a literal sense; he is even up and about in the daytime!
I'm not too certain why the Holmes story "The Illustrious Client," was included here. The other canonical Holmes tale, "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire," has its obvious vampiric connections, but, as with the case of all stories in the Holmes canon, there is no true supernatural element. In fact, Holmes famously debunks the need for supernatural explanations early in the story. The tale is also rather famous for mention of "The Giant Rat of Sumatra," a tale in Watson's files that he informs the reader,"the world was not ready for." A number of pasthiche writers have written speculative accounts of just what that adventure might have been.
The final tale is a pastiche, "The Case of the Vanished Vampire" by Bill Crider not ACD at all, and therefore not canonical.It at first seems to be a team-up between Holmes and Watson and Van Helsing, Bram Stoker's famous vampire hunter. This has been done before, but all is not quite as it seems here. In any event, POSSIBLE SPOILER AHEAD, the story sticks to the canonical tradtion in that there is no actual supernatural theme here, and thus no true vampire.
All in all, a decent collection of weird fiction with a misleading title.
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