Sherlock Holmes & Count Dracula by Christian Klaver, 425 pages

 Sherlock Holmes is dead. His body lies in a solitary grave on the Sussex Downs. But Dr. Watson survives, and is now given permission to release tales in Sherlock's 'black box', those cases that are, dear reader, unbelievable - for their subject matter is of the most outré and grotesque nature.

Beginning with 'The Adventure of the Lady's Finger', Holmes and Watson discover a dark, uncanny world beyond their imagining. It starts with a victim whose flesh reacts adversely to silver and sunlight, whose blood does not thicken when exposed to oxygen. And then a Transylvanian nobleman arrives at Baker Street demanding Holmes's assistance in the kidnapping of his beloved wife, Mina.

The Beautiful by Renee Ahdieh, 425 pages

 In 1872, New Orleans is a city ruled by the dead. But to seventeen-year-old Celine Rousseau, New Orleans provides her a refuge after she's forced to flee her life as a dressmaker in Paris. Taken in by the sisters of the Ursuline convent along with six other girls, Celine quickly becomes enamored with the vibrant city from the music to the food to the soirées and—especially—to the danger. She soon becomes embroiled in the city's glitzy underworld, known as La Cour des Lions, after catching the eye of the group's leader, the enigmatic Sébastien Saint Germain. When the body of one of the girls from the convent is found in the lair of La Cour des Lions, Celine battles her attraction to him and suspicions about Sébastien's guilt along with the shame of her own horrible secret.

When more bodies are discovered, each crime more gruesome than the last, Celine and New Orleans become gripped by the terror of a serial killer on the loose—one Celine is sure has set her in his sights . . . and who may even be the young man who has stolen her heart. As the murders continue to go unsolved, Celine takes matters into her own hands and soon uncovers something even more shocking: an age-old feud from the darkest creatures of the underworld reveals a truth about Celine she always suspected simmered just beneath the surface.

The Bloody Tower by Carola Dunn, 425 pages

I really like the Daisy Dalrymple mysteries. This one was set at the Tower of the London.

We Hear the Dead by Dianne K. Salerni, 425 pages

The title of this book grabbed my attention and I had to check it out after reading the description. The Fox sisters were famous in the years before the Civil War as mediums who spoke to the dead, basically starting the spiritualism movement. This book follows the sisters Maggie and Kate from their early days, playing a joke on a cousin, to their rise as mediums who consorted with some of the highest echelons of society. This teen fiction book is more historical fiction than fact, but by doing so the author has brought this period of history alive. I especially enjoyed how the story jumped between the two sisters' viewpoints, though at times I had to double check which sister was telling the story at the moment.