Carmel: A Vampire Tale is a 2000 gothic vampire novel by Sean Manchester, published by Gothic Press. It is Manchester's only work of fiction, billed on publication as a "definitive sequel" to Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897). An accompanying CD of original music, composed and performed by Manchester, was released alongside the novel.
Overview
The novel draws heavily on Manchester's earlier non-fiction account of the Highgate Vampire case, transposing elements of that narrative into an explicitly fictional gothic vampire story positioned as a continuation of Stoker's original.
Reception
Reviews of the novel have been consistently unfavourable. Critics have described it as a poor and clumsily assembled work, and reader reviews have characterised it as a weaker reworking of Manchester's own earlier non-fiction The Highgate Vampire, itself already noted by critics for its heavy debt to Stoker. It has been unfavourably compared to other officially sanctioned Dracula sequels, including Dacre Stoker's Dracula: The Un-Dead (2009).
The book also became a flashpoint in a wider public dispute between Manchester and horror writer Ramsey Campbell, a four-time World Fantasy Award winner, after Manchester dismissed Campbell as a "writer of pulp fiction" — a characterisation reviewers noted sat awkwardly given Campbell's substantial genre-fiction accolades relative to Manchester's own single novel.