A Chill in the Blood (Vampire Files, No. 7)

During his life Jack Fleming had been a reporter with a nose for the grittiest news, and now that he is dead, Jack is a vampire private eye with a thirst for blood and justice, but he may be the only one in a world of guns and gangs who can stop an all-out street war before it starts.

Brisk and bloody action paces this slick new case in Elrod's Vampire Files, which picks up where the series left off with Blood on the Water (1992). Conscientious PI Jack Fleming, who's a vampire, still prowls the mean streets of Depression-era Chicago, putting the bite on crooks and reflecting wryly on his divided nature ("Sure I was a vampire, but like everyone else on the planet I'm still only human"). Although one of the undead, he's the least cold-blooded character in this hard-boiled shoot-em-up laced with larceny and murder. From the moment he's fished off the bottom of Lake Michigan in the opening pages, he finds himself a pawn in a brutal turf war waged by mob moll Angela Paco and a rival from New York eager to usurp her control of the Hydra syndicate. Jack's efforts to contain the combat and save the skin of a bookkeeper caught in the crossfire are complicated by the intrusion of Merrill Adkins, a federal crimebuster as vicious as the hoods he hunts. And when $700,000 secretly skimmed from the Hydra coffers becomes part of the spoils, even he can't keep track of the double-crosses and betrayals. Elrod excels at creating sticky situations that test Jack's resolve to limit displays of his vampire powers to hypnotism and invisibility, and she finds room in the busy narrative to accommodate the involvement of debonair sidekick Charles Escott, alcoholic sawbones Doc Clarson and other series regulars. Echoes of Hammett and Chandler abound, but the novel succeeds in its own right as an entertaining exercise in supernatural noir.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Hardcover outing for this established series entitled The Vampire Files, from the author of another vampire yarn (Keeper of the King, 1997, with Nigel Bennett). This one's a gumshoe/vampire hybrid set in 1937 Chicago, where Jack Fleming, once a hard-nosed reporter, is now a vampire p.i. caught in the middle of post-Prohibition gang warfare. Jack's partner is a professorial Englishman, Charles Escott, while his girlfriend Bobbi sings in a nightclub owned by good-guy gangster Gordy. Elrod takes us right into the middle of the furious but deft plotting and brisk, believable action. Big-time mobster Vaughn Kyler, having kidnapped rival Frank Paco, is now dead; Angola Paco has retrieved her father but, unfortunately, Frank's gone gaga. The Paco gang won't accept Angela as their boss, however, so she's forced to use Frank as a mouthpiece. Neither is Angela particular about who gets hurt as she takes revenge on the remnants of Kyler's outfit. The latterproblematically for Jack, Angela, and everybody elsehave requested the presence of ruthless Irish mobster Sean Sullivan from New York. Snappy vampire-with-a-conscience yarn, laced with a blackish humor that comes in somewhere between wry and wisecracking. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Premises don't get too much odder than this: in 1930s Chicago, Jack Fleming, ace reporter, meets a beautiful woman, gets killed, and becomes the world's first vampire private eye. Elrod calls her novels about Fleming (this is the seventh) "The Vampire Files," a title apparently designed to remind readers of The Rockford Files. It's a good comparison, too: like TV's Jim Rockford, Jack Fleming spends a great deal of his time fast-talking bad guys, hanging out with beautiful women, running around, and getting beat up. (He also makes himself invisible, passes through solid walls, and drinks blood.)This novel is pretty much self-contained as Elrod provides just enough background to bring newcomers up to date without slowing down the action. The story shifts easily between comedy and mystery, and Elrod's treatment of the practical aspects of vampirism (Fleming is claustrophobic, which makes sleeping in enclosed places, like coffins, something of an ordeal) is clever and refreshing. An excellent installment in a fine series. David Pitt

As a pair of powerful gangland bosses prepare for a bloody war of vengeance and retaliation in the streets of 1930's Chicago, private investigator Jack Fleming insinuates himself into the center of the maelstrom in an attempt to prevent a violent confrontation. Fleming's vampiric nature and his struggle to control his thirst for blood adds a touch of the supernatural to the latest installment of Elrod's popular Vampire Files series. The author's combination of dark fantasy and hard-boiled detective story glistens with wry humor and sharp dialog. A good choice for most libraries.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.