A Matter of Taste
Cover art by Jim Thiesen.
In Chicago, in our day, he is known as Matthew Maule – but that is merely the latest of a long string of names he has carried. John Southerland, like the rest of the Southerland family, calls him Uncle Matthew. After all he's an Old Friend of the Family.
Meeting "Uncle Matthew" Angelia Roban is a little overwhelmed. Her fiance's descriptions haven't prepared her for this handsome, vigorous, charming man who appears no older than forty. She's bemused when he eats nothing during their "get acquainted" dinner, though John has told her that Uncle Matthew often follows one fad diet or another, and further bemused by his flirtation with a redheaded waitress, who later joins the family in Uncle Matthew's apartment.
The next morning, the redhead has fled, a pair of bloody sores on her neck. John and Angie find Matthew lying in bed, apparently comatose, but John won't call a doctor. He summons, instead, his brother-in-law, Joe Keogh, an ex-cop.
Angie begins to learn the truth about the Southerland family's Old Friend when Joe arrives, armed with lead-cored wooden bullets. He's dealt with Matthew's enemies before. Maule is over five hundred years old...
And once he was known as Count Dracula.
Fred Saberhagen
Fred Thomas Saberhagen (1930–2007) was a Chicago-born American science fiction and fantasy fiction author most famous for his Berserker series of science fiction stories.
He also wrote a series of vampire novels in which the vampires (including the famous Dracula) are the protagonists, and a series of post-apocalyptic mytho-magical novels beginning with his popular Empire of the East and continuing through a long series of Swords and Lost Swords novels. Saberhagen died of cancer, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Dracula sequence
Also known as Vlad Tepes series.
Dracula sequence consists of ten primary books, and includes one additional book that complement the series but is not considered mandatory reads. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.