Lifeblood

The Vampire Files: Lifeblood (1990) P.N. Elrod

Several weeks have passed since the events of Bloodlust, and Charles Escott offers Jack a part in his investigative services. But the next case they end up investigating end up being a search for the whereabouts of Jack’s lover Maureen–the vampire who sired him. Despite the fact that Jack has decided to give up on Maureen.

As the series progresses, it seems that of the two, Escott is far more willing to use Jack’s powers to their advantage than Jack is. Jack is uncomfortable using his vampiric powers to confuse people, while Charles sees it as useful for some of their investigations.

As far as secondary characters, I actually like Gordy better than Bobbi. Not that there’s anything wrong with Bobbi, she just doesn’t have any depth. She’s pretty, she can sing, and she accepts Jack as he is. But I don’t find her interesting. Of course that’s pretty much par for the course in 30s mysteries, but still. And I was sorry not to see Coldfield in this book, as I found his character very interesting. However, I’m not sure how much they’d actually have seen of him, since segregation was quite strong in the 1930s.

The mystery, I think, may have been a little strong in this book than in the previous. Although Jack has to discover who killed him–and why–in the first book, the story is as much learning about who he is and what he does as about the mystery. In Lifeblood we know the main characters, and we know what Jack can do, so we got to concentrate a little bit more on the mystery. Of course the solution to this mystery also gave us more about Jack’s past–as well as Maureen’s.

Again, although he mentions all the right cars and books and movies and restaurants, the dialog still doesn’t feel like 1936 Chicago. The feel of the story is more modern to me, despite the Great Depression trappings. But that hardly lessened my enjoyment. Since, after all, this is a story starring a vampire. So it doesn’t really have to perfectly fit the time period if it doesn’t want to.

A nice follow-up to the first story, and I’ve already started on the third (easy enough, since all three stories are in the same book).
Rating: 7/10

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