“Bram Stoker’s Dracula was killed by a bowie knife?  And by a Texan?  No way!  It was done by a stake in his heart –  right?”

” Wrong!”

In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, first published in 1897, he is indeed killed by a Texan welding a bowie knife.  Obviously, I had not read the book even though I have a copy of it along with Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein that I did read recently.

I subscribe to print and digital versions of Texas Monthly, a magazine that covers all things Texas – politics, art, dance halls, food, music, tourist spots, trends, rodeos, history, tequila,  glamour and grit.  The magazine upholds the pride of a currently red state with a weird blue capitol of Austin without being pompous while poking fun of a state that was once a country and has threatened to secede in recent years.

In the October 2025 issue the first installment of The Bowie Knife That Killed Dracula, a novel by William Broyles and Stephen Harrigan, was published.  It is described this way.

“The character who kills Dracula at the end of Bram Stoker’s classic novel is Quincey Morris, a Texan who does the job with a bowie knife.  Our serialized novel tells his story – and that of his famous  blade.”

I anticipate each new chapter that comes out every Saturday and I have started reading Bram Stoker’s novel.  It is rather like reading parallel novels.  Here is a link to the first installment.

Now Texans have something else to brag about!  And the bowie knife has a worthy history of its own.