Rating: 
Summary: Vampire hunters are after good guy vamp Jack Fleming
Review: P. N. Elrod's series "The Vampire Files" kicks into high gear in Book Two, "Lifeblood." Nice guy vampire Jack Fleming is still getting used to being one of the undead, helping his friend Charles Escott with a few investigations and trying to build some sort of happy live with Bobbi Smythe. However, his "life" is suddenly facing a couple of major complications. First, a pair of fairly incompetent but nonetheless deadly vampire hunters are on his trail. They do not know that crosses and silver do not bother our hero, but there is no reason for Jack to tell them that. Second, he has finally had a response from the ads he has been placing for Maureen in newspapers around the country and meets Gaylen Dumont, an old woman who claims to be his beloved Maureen's younger sister. Yes, it seems that Maureen is the vampire who sired Jack, and now Gaylen wants a small favor from our hero. "Lifeblood" ups the ante a bit from the first book in "The Vampire Files." Elrod has a much better feel for the bad guys (and gals) this time around that she did with the gangsters. The practical side of being a vampire has been pretty much worked out in terms of what parts of what everybody knows about vampires, courtesy of Bram Stoker's "Dracula," are actually true. But what I like is that the practical realities of being a vampire are central to the story Elrod is telling. There is also a harder edge to this story, with the more gruesome elements balancing the comic confrontations a bit more than in the previous volume. It is clear that we are in the beginning of a lengthy tale to be told and I appreciate a writer who wants to take their time in telling their tale well.
Rating:
Summary: Vampire hunters are after good guy vamp Jack Fleming
Review: P. N. Elrod's series "The Vampire Files" kicks into high gear in Book Two, "Lifeblood." Nice guy vampire Jack Fleming is still getting used to being one of the undead, helping his friend Charles Escott with a few investigations and trying to build some sort of happy live with Bobbi Smythe. However, his "life" is suddenly facing a couple of major complications. First, a pair of fairly incompetent but nonetheless deadly vampire hunters are on his trail. They do not know that crosses and silver do not bother our hero, but there is no reason for Jack to tell them that. Second, he has finally had a response from the ads he has been placing for Maureen in newspapers around the country and meets Gaylen Dumont, an old woman who claims to be his beloved Maureen's younger sister. Yes, it seems that Maureen is the vampire who sired Jack, and now Gaylen wants a small favor from our hero. "Lifeblood" ups the ante a bit from the first book in "The Vampire Files." Elrod has a much better feel for the bad guys (and gals) this time around that she did with the gangsters. The practical side of being a vampire has been pretty much worked out in terms of what parts of what everybody knows about vampires, courtesy of Bram Stoker's "Dracula," are actually true. But what I like is that the practical realities of being a vampire are central to the story Elrod is telling. There is also a harder edge to this story, with the more gruesome elements balancing the comic confrontations a bit more than in the previous volume. It is clear that we are in the beginning of a lengthy tale to be told and I appreciate a writer who wants to take their time in telling their tale well.
Rating:
Summary: Vampire hunters are after good guy vamp Jack Fleming
Review: P. N. Elrod's series "The Vampire Files" kicks into high gear in Book Two, "Lifeblood." Nice guy vampire Jack Fleming is still getting used to being one of the undead, helping his friend Charles Escott with a few investigations and trying to build some sort of happy live with Bobbi Smythe. However, his "life" is suddenly facing a couple of major complications. First, a pair of fairly incompetent but nonetheless deadly vampire hunters are on his trail. They do not know that crosses and silver do not bother our hero, but there is no reason for Jack to tell them that. Second, he has finally had a response from the ads he has been placing for Maureen in newspapers around the country and meets Gaylen Dumont, an old woman who claims to be his beloved Maureen's younger sister. Yes, it seems that Maureen is the vampire who sired Jack, and now Gaylen wants a small favor from our hero. "Lifeblood" ups the ante a bit from the first book in "The Vampire Files." Elrod has a much better feel for the bad guys (and gals) this time around that she did with the gangsters. The practical side of being a vampire has been pretty much worked out in terms of what parts of what everybody knows about vampires, courtesy of Bram Stoker's "Dracula," are actually true. But what I like is that the practical realities of being a vampire are central to the story Elrod is telling. There is also a harder edge to this story, with the more gruesome elements balancing the comic confrontations a bit more than in the previous volume. It is clear that we are in the beginning of a lengthy tale to be told and I appreciate a writer who wants to take their time in telling their tale well.
Rating: 
Summary: Second in the series, lots of plot and action
Review: Second novel in the series about Jack Fleming, PI and vampire. Those who already know that they like vampire novels, anything at all that features a vampire, can skip this review, and likewise, those who hate the whole idea of vampires can skip it. But for those trying to decide whether or not to read more of this genre, or whether the one vampire novel you've already read was a fluke, it may help to have some ways to categorize these novels. Thus: BunRab's Standard Vampire Classification Guide. First, most authors of vampire novels approach from one of the main genres of genre fiction; thus their background may be primarily in romance, or in science fiction/fantasy, or in murder mysteries, or in horror. Second, many vampire novels come in series; knowing whether this is one of a series, and where in the series it falls, may be helpful. Then we have some particular characteristics: - Is the vampire character (or characters) a "good guy" or a "bad guy"? Or are there some of each? - Are there continuing characters besides the vampire, through the series? - Are there other types of supernatural beings besides vampires? - Can the vampire stand daylight under some circumstances, or not stand daylight at all? - Does the vampire have a few other supernatural characteristics, many other supernatural characteristics, or none other than just being a vampire? (E.g., super strength, change into an animal, turn invisible) - Does the vampire have a regular job and place in society, or is being a vampire his or her entire raison d'etre? - Does the vampire literally drink blood, or is there some other (perhaps metaphorical) method of feeding? - Is sex a major plot element, a minor plot element, or nonexistent? - Is the entire vampire feeding act a metaphor for sex, part of a standard sex act, or unrelated to sex? - Is the story set in one historical period, more than one historical period, or entirely in the present day? - Does the story have elements of humor, or is it strictly serious? - Is the writing style good, or is the writing just there to manage to hold together the plot and characters? P.N. Elrod's series about Jack Fleming is in the hard-boiled detective genre. Fleming is a good guy (although with worries about his own ethics). Fleming is a former journalist (before he died), now working as a sidekick to a private investigator. The series takes place in the Chicago of the '30s, after Al Capone is locked up, but before the Depression ends. Criminal gangs are still a big force in Chicago. Besides Jack and his boss, various criminal mobs, and police both honest and corrupt, are recurring characters in the series. So is Jack's girlfriend, Bobbi, a nightclub singer. Jack drinks blood, but it doesn't have to be human- he uses cows at the Stockyards usually, and likes horses as a treat. He does, however, also drink a little from his girlfriend during sex. Sex is discreet and not too frequent in the series- no explicit details; this is a detective series, not a romance. Jack has a few supernatural powers associated with being a vampire: the usual ones of being stronger and faster than humans, and he also can turn invisible and float through walls. He must sleep during the day, on his native earth - but garlic and crosses don't bother him. There aren't any other kinds of supernatural characters in the series. As befits the detective genre, there is a certain amount of wisecracking in the dialogue; Jack can be a smart-ass sometimes, and the criminals can be inadvertently funny. Overall, the series is a well-done version of the genre, each book being easy to read and most of the characters being well-described and thought out. The second book in the series gives us more information about Jack's first love, Maureen, who turned him into a vampire, and who has been missing for several years. We also learn more about Jack's own family. One caution for new readers: if you haven't read the first book in the series, go back and read it - this series pretty much has to be read in order. Unlike many series, the action in each book here is not separated by some unwritten-about period; the action in each book picks up quite soon after the previous book, often as early as the next day - or night. This book has more than one plot going on; besides the search for Maureen, and meeting with an unusual member of her family, there are also a couple of vampire-hunters after Jack. The vampire hunters are a bit two-dimensional, stereotyped characters - a simple minded young bumpkin following an older religious fanatic. Jack is disgusted with how many people seem to buy every word that Bram Stoker wrote. Hey, Jack's a nice guy, not a villain- he calls his mother regularly, sends money home to help his parents out, and does his best to live as normal a life as one of the undead can! When he kills someone in this book, he is worried, because even though the guy deserved killing, and had tried to kill Jack (ha!), Jack doesn't want to become a killer himself. His worries about the ethics of his condition are interesting to follow.
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