{"id":275,"date":"2006-06-19T21:04:08","date_gmt":"2006-06-20T04:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=275"},"modified":"2025-06-29T08:50:36","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T12:50:36","slug":"lifeblood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/275","title":{"rendered":"Lifeblood"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Vampire Files: Lifeblood<\/em> (1990) P.N. Elrod<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Several weeks have passed since the events of Bloodlust<\/em>, 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.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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).
\nRating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,8,291,43,16],"tags":[873,638,546,314,312,872,313],"class_list":["post-275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy","category-mystery","category-paper","category-private-eye","category-supernatural","tag-chicago","tag-great-depression","tag-interwar-period","tag-jack-fleming","tag-p-n-elrod","tag-prohibition","tag-vampires"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-4r","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":276,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/276","url_meta":{"origin":275,"position":0},"title":"Bloodcircle","author":"Michelle","date":"June 20, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The Vampire Files: Bloodcircle (1990) P.N. Elrod The third book in The Vampire Files series, Bloodcircle, seems to clear up the last bits of Jack Flemming's past. Jack and Charles Escott decide to travel to New York to see if they can discover what happened to Maureen. I have to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/06\/Vampire-Files-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1519,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1519","url_meta":{"origin":275,"position":1},"title":"Dark Road Rising","author":"Michelle","date":"November 25, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Dark Road Rising (2009) P.N. Elrod Jack Flemming is in trouble. He's put his best friend and partner in the hospital, and the mobsters from New York won't leave him alone. Even worse, one of the mobsters is actually a vampire, and in a strange twist of fate, Jack is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/Dark-Road-Rising.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":315,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/315","url_meta":{"origin":275,"position":2},"title":"Fire in the Blood","author":"Michelle","date":"September 22, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Fire in the Blood (1991) P. N. Elrod The Vampire Files Vol II I have to say that I found Fire in the Blood disappointing on multiple levels. Although the mystery wasn't bad, I know I've read at least one of the major conclusions. So it was only the details\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/09\/Vampire-Files-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":316,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/316","url_meta":{"origin":275,"position":3},"title":"Blood on the Water","author":"Michelle","date":"September 25, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Blood on the Water (1992) P. N. Elrod Okay. Now I'm starting to get frustrated. This is the second book with an unfinished story arc. It's not quite as bad as the previous book, but it's still frustrating. Blood on the Water picks up immediately after the end of Fire\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/09\/Vampire-Files-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2550,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2550","url_meta":{"origin":275,"position":4},"title":"The Devil You Know","author":"Michelle","date":"September 29, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The Devil You Know (2009) P. N. Elrod I like PN Elrod's Jack Fleming series. Jack is a vampire, living in the 1930s, who works as a private eye, owns a nightclub, and quite accidentally developed ties to the Chicago mob. It's fun, and I enjoy the setting immensely. In\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/devil-you-know-elrod.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":323,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/323","url_meta":{"origin":275,"position":5},"title":"Lady Crymsyn","author":"Michelle","date":"October 16, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Lady Crymsyn (2000) P.N. Elrod After finishing the last three books, I was reluctant to read this book, for fear it would continue what felt to me as a downward spiral. However, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Lady Crymsyn went back to the things that I had liked\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/10\/Lady-Crymson.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}