For more than 100 years, readers of the Sherlock Holmes tales have played "The Game" - treating Holmes and Dr. Watson as real, historical figures. Now, for the first time in a major book, Dracula comes to life in the same way.

Leslie S. Klinger, a world-renowned Sherlockian and editor of The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, takes Bram Stoker at his word: The collection of letters, journals, and newspaper articles which comprise Stoker's classic narrative is accepted as historical truth.

Klinger (with tongue firmly in cheek) posits that Jonathan and Mina Harker, Abraham Van Helsing, Lucy Westenra, and of course the Count himself were real individuals, whose true identities were deliberately concealed.

Klinger is hosting a talk and book signing tonight at 7pm at the Elmer L. Andersen Library on the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis.

You can find The New Annotated Dracula in bookstores everywhere.