Even so, vampirism is a central element of the plot and, in addition to a few intriguing plot points, there are also a couple of cool references to “ Varney The Vampire” and even a brief H.P.Lovecraft reference too 🙂 Some of the later parts of the story include some moments of gory horror, sadistic horror, suspenseful horror and character-based horror, but not that much more than you’d expect from a gritty 1920s-50s style hardboiled detective novel. In terms of this novel’s horror elements, there aren’t that many. One of the first things that I will say about this novel is that, whilst it takes a little while for the main story to really get started, it’s a really compelling “film noir” vampire novel 🙂 If you like stories by Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Mickey Spillane etc… but wish they contained a little bit of vampirism, then you’re in luck 🙂 Not only does Jack notice a mysterious car following him, but someone also contacts him about his long-lost ex-lover ( and the vampire that turned him) Maureen…. Jack spends some time with his lover Bobbi and Escott continues renovating his house.īut, things don’t stay that way for long. Soon after this, things return to normal. A case which would have gone to plan if Escott’s client hadn’t marked the bills Escott was supposed to hand over to the criminals.Īfter narrowly escaping with their lives and recovering their client’s stolen property, Escott is absolutely furious and decides to play a cruel practical joke on the client to teach him a lesson. It isn’t long before things start going wrong and he finds himself in the middle of one of his friend Escott’s cases.

Of course, he overhears a mysterious conversation between several other patrons. The novel begins in mid-1930s Chicago with world-weary ex-reporter, and vampire, Jack Fleming ordering a drink in a dive bar.

This is the 2003 Ace (US) paperback omnibus that contained the reprint of “Lifeblood” (1990) that I read.

Lifeblood by P.N. Elrod