Abraham van Helsing is the most famous vampire hunter in literature, and while he vanquished the Count, he may not have been the best father. His daughter Anneke is on the hunt for the creature who killed her father (she happened to be the only person to see this haunting creature), which has helped to fuel her drive to become an accomplished detective in Amsterdam. She lives with her mother, who refuses to leave her home. Anneke’s obsession with the otherworldly, beautiful woman who she saw standing over her father’s body is akin to her father’s obsession with the undead count. But who… or what… is the woman Anneke is hunting?
Anneke has a complicated relationship with her father, Abraham Van Helsing—doctor, scientist, and madman devoted to studying vampires—up until the night she comes home to find him murdered, with a surreally beautiful woman looming over his body. A woman who leaves no trace behind, other than the dreams and nightmares that plague Anneke every night.
Spurred by her desire for vengeance and armed with the latest in forensic and investigatory techniques, Anneke puts together a team of detectives to catch her mysterious serial killer. Because her father isn’t the only inexplicably dead body. There’s a trail of victims across Europe and Anneke is certain they’re all connected.
But during the years spent relentlessly hunting the killer, Anneke keeps some crucial evidence to infuriatingly coy letters, addressed only to Anneke, occasionally soaked in blood, and always signed Diavola. Devil. The obsession is mutual, and all the more dangerous for it.
The closer Anneke gets to her devil, though, the less sense the world makes. Maybe her father wasn’t a madman, after all. Diavola might be something much worse than a serial killer . . . and much harder to destroy. Because as Anneke unearths more of Diavola’s tragic past, she suspects there’s still a heart somewhere in that undead body.
A heart that beats for Anneke alone.
Anneke pulls together some like-minded individuals who want to see justice served because her father is not the only victim. She makes a connection as a result of the increasingly bizarre and disturbing nature of crime scenes she investigates. I found some parallels to the crime scenes in the movie Se7en. Pulling Anneke along her quest for vengeance and answers are letters addressed to her, with the nickname of “Little Fox” and signed “Diavola” (There’s our title!). Anneke and her crew, in truth a found family, journey across Europe following Diavola. This found family is a wonderfully crafted set of characters: her one-time lover David; his colleague and special friend Maher; and the young Inge; daughter of one Anneke’s colleagues.
Anneke has a few things stacked against her. Diavola is clearly something other and supernatural, but Anneka does not believe in the supernatural. Anneke has, to put it mildly, daddy issues. Abraham was so obsessed with the vampire, could not overcome the grief of losing his son when the boy was very young, that he all but ignored Anneke. Many of her actions – as she tells us in the first-person narrative – are in service to making him proud despite struggling internally with the logic she holds that he likely would never acknowledge her. As the novel takes place at the end of the 19th and first couple of years of the 20th Century, Anneke is fighting against very strong gender norms as women at the time were typically not detectives. Her colleagues constantly test her in ways they would not test a man of her experience and knowledge. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly as the novel progresses towards conclusion, are her growing feelings for Diavola.
There’s a lot going on in this novel from a thematic standpoint – parental issues, romantic issues, sexuality issues, gender issues, trust issues, and science/technology v. supernatural/folk tales to name just a few. White blends these issues and more together in a tantalizing smoothie of a story. In other words, it all works together extremely well.
The character dynamic was believable, each character felt unique. Even though Inge and Anneke were women doing a job most closely associated with men, and fiercely intelligent, White used these similar character traits to illuminate their uniqueness from each other. I also enjoyed what Maher brought to the found family and how he served as a bridge between Anneke and David.
Then there’s Diavola… what a delightfully charming antagonist! She proves a wonderful foil to Anneke… confounding, enticing, alluring, and as we learn more about her, tragic. As she and Anneke are drawn closer together and find more in common than not, the narrative tension increases even if the flavor of that tension shifts. Diavola awakens something in Anneke, and this quest along with Diavola herself gives Anneke the strength to overcome her daddy issues, believe in herself fully in every manner of who she is.
The Fox and the Devil is a novel that ticks a box been high on my list of late – a story at the intersection of crime thriller and supernatural horror. While the novel isn’t exactly straight up horror, the crime scenes are fairly grisly and we’ve got vampiric demons as integral to the novel so there’s definitely some level of appeal to fans of horror. After all, it is set in the world of Dracula. White has played with Dracula in the past (Lucy Undying, which I haven’t read) as well Frankenstein (The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein, which I read and enjoyed) to great effect. What comes through here is White’s respect and love for the uber-vampire novel and that she had a lot of fun answering the question of “What would a story featuring Abraham van Helsing’s daughter look like?” Well, I thoroughly enjoyed the answer and there’s enough room here at the end of The Fox and the Devil for more stories featuring Anneke and her found family. I’m not saying a sequel is necessary because as a standalone, this was a wonderful novel, but I sure wouldn’t mind reading more of Anneke and her crew.
Also, kudos to Andrew Davis for the lovely, eye-catching cover. The image is lovely and I liked the interplay of the colors.
I tore through this novel in a couple of days, I was so taken with Anneke and her quest for knowledge, the relationships White introduced and allowed to live and breathe, and the supernatural element was handled extremely well. I wouldn’t be shocked in the least if The Fox and the Devil will remain near the top of my favorite reads of the year by the time 2026 draws to conclusion.
Highly recommended.
© 2026 Rob H. Bedford
Hardcover | Del Rey
March 2026 | 368 Pages
Review copy courtesy of the publisher, Del Rey
It sounds incredibly compelling to follow Anneke’s journey as she channels her drive to become an accomplished detective in Amsterdam into finding the creature who killed her father.