I couldn’t say why, but I have never been very interested in stories about vampires. I have never read Dracula, I have no interest in Buffy the Vampire Slayer or True Blood, and I think Twilight is some of the worst literary and movie cheese to come out in a while, but despite my general apathy for tales of bloodsuckers I was intrigued by Mark Collins Jenkins’ new book Vampire Forensics: Uncovering the Origins of an Enduring Legend. From the synopsis is seemed like a mix of history, science, and mythology that I could really sink my teeth into.

As it turned out, Vampire Forensics was not what I had expected. I had expected Jenkins to track down where stories