Nicely written but not my cup of tea, more detective/crime than supernatural. ( )

I’ve been meaning to get to this for years, and I’m glad I took it for a spin. The reader, Barrett Whitener, was quite good, with the exception of the English accent he did for Escott. I didn’t have to speed it up much to get the flow I wanted.

This is a fun take on vampires, and I’m up for reading another. I love the buddy cop vibe Fleming has with Escott, the tough guy talk from the 30’s setting, and the neat powers Fleming has. For a vampire, he’s a pretty good egg. ( )

A pretty traditional 1930s-era crime novel, with the twist that the protagonist is a vampire. ( )

written for the time period after the depression, a detective novel with a vamp twist. Not you typical Vamp book. It reads like the ol' gum shoe books, interesting and cunfusing because of the different type of living/speech then. The characters draw you into the story well and carry it well. ( )

This is a great series with the best of both worlds -- vampires & a hard boiled detective ( )

I read this quite a while ago. It was one of the first modern day film-noir style vampire stories I read. In my opinion it helped define the genre. At the time, I quite enjoyed it and I enjoyed the second in the series as well. (None of the others were released yet) Since then, there has been a lot of stories in this same genre, and I'm a bit overloaded on them, so I don't know if I would feel the same way now, but it is definitely worth a read. ( )

Bloodlist by P.N. Elrod is the first book in the Vampire Files series. The story is set in a gangster-dominated Chicago of the 30s, and revolves around Jack Fleming, a vampire. In Vampire Files #1, Jack wakes up and realizes that he is dead, and a vampire. He has to work out what happened, and why, and learn the new rules that govern a vampire's life. The tone is wry, the story is interesting, the premise is intriguing, and the supporting cast of characters add to the fun. This is a good twist on a couple of old themes - noir fiction & vampire tale -- and they work well together.

Jack says it best of all:

"I've always had a weak spot for strange ladies. One very beautiful girl had even warned me that she was, get this, a vampire. But did I listen? No.

Before you know it, I'm being chased by an ugly thug with a gun, and a bullet blasts its way through my back, and, believe it or not, nothing happened. I survived! How? You guessed it. I, Jack Fleming, ace reporter, have been transformed into a vampire, which has its advantages. You never die, you never grow old, you sleep all day, and, best of all, you can hunt down your own murderer." ( )

What a delightful find - I enjoyed this book immensely. A great addition to the genre. ( )

A book noire - written just like pulp detective fiction of the 40s but with Vampires.

I don't like the setting enough to continue with the series - too many references to things like 50 cent hotel rooms to mean anything to me. I'm not familiar with the culture or the environment and I don't really care what happens to the main character.

If you like hearing about "technology" and lifestyles and facilities as they were in the 30s and 40s, you might like this book. Personally, I like full-auto guns and a world where there's DNA to worry about. ( )

Fun paranormal noir mystery set in Chicago during the Depression. None of the characters is particularly original -- down on his luck reporter, private investigator, crime lords and thugs of various descriptions, femme fatale -- but the author combines them in creative ways.The narration style is deadpan, which works OK for the protagonist's voice, but doesn't work very well for some of the other characters' voices, especially the PI, who is supposed to have an English accent and, well, doesn't. ( )

Bloodlist is the first book on the Vampire Files series by P.N. Elrod. They all feature newly turned vampire Jack Flemming. This book was okay. A bit different from what I was expecting based on the few short stories I've read featuring Jack Flemming. I listened to this on audio book; and the audio book was very well done.

Jack Flemming wakes up dead on a beach, or should I say undead. Someone has murdered him and, because of his association with a female vampire in his past, instead of dying Jack has turned into a vampire. With the help of the ever-curious private investigator Charles Escott; Jack and Charles try to track down Jack's history to find out who murdered Jack and why. This whole book takes place in Chicago in the 1930's and deals a lot with the gangs that were big during that time and with the Depression.

This book is written in a horror/mystery style. The book itself is very much a mystery/crime story. The writing is gory and fairly dark. There was a lot of action in the story; which was fun to read. Although I found Jack's vampiric powers to be pretty basic, traditional, and uninteresting. Although Jack makes good use of his powers some of the time, there are many times though where he doesn't use his powers and this lack of use doesn't really make sense. I didn't really like Jack much as a character. In the short story I read about Jack, Jack was much lighter and funnier than in this book. Charles is a hoot though and I really liked him.

I was waiting for some twists in the story or *something* to surprise me. Nothing really did though. This is a solid crime novel involving a vampire with slightly special powers. There is a lot of violence and dealing with gangsters. If that's your thing you would really like this book. Unfortunately I was looking for something a little more fantasy/sci fi and this book was surprisingly mundane in that area. The writing is fine, nothing special but nothing horrible either. I do not know if I will read any more books in this series or not. It will depend on what else I have to read. ( )

Wry, noir tone in 1930s Chicago setting but with an unusual character - Newsman Jack Fleming wakes up dead and immortal. But he's still a down-to-earth guy who wants justice for his murder, accompanied by a vivid group of friends he makes along the way as he deals with the case and his new status as undead. ( )

a 1930's reporter turned vampire. Well done. ( )

So one night Jack Fleming wakes up, well, undead. He is missing about 4 days and has no idea why he was killed. As he goes about adjusting to his new life style, he also tries to solve his own murder.

This is the first of the series and is a lot of fun. It is set in depression era Chicago. The characters are great and the story moves along at a nice pace. Looking forward to the next. ( )

(Amy) Hallowe'en was coming up when I grabbed this off the shelf, so I figured it was time for some vampire fiction. Actually, that was just an excuse - from time to time, I'm just in the mood for vampires. I'd blame Buffy, but really, it predates my watching of that show by quite a bit. I think it's part of the same thing that makes me enjoy re-told fairy tales - I like seeing what various authors do with the assorted vampire legends out there, taking the bits and pieces they like and discarding the rest.

This one is a little less exploratory than some I've read. Crosses and garlic are out, but pretty much the gamut of Other Vampire Schtick is in. Which was actually kind of nice - it's been a long time since I've read about a vampire with the running-water aversion and ability to discorporate. Kind of quaint.

But enough meta-talk. The basic plot here is that our protagonist wakes up dead one evening, with no memory of how he got that way, and a driving need to hunt down his killer and return the favor. Which is a neat twist, really. It's mostly a detective story with a vampire in it, which I suppose I expected, given the PI hat the guy on the cover is wearing (the fact that it's set in 1930s Chicago is a bit of a tip, too). I'm not, by and large, a fan of detective stories, but I suspect I'll pick up the next one of these at some future point, at least until I run out of the ones I already own (six of them, Librarything tells me, though I can't be bothered at the moment to find out if they're consecutive). We shall see at that point if I'm hooked enough to keep going.
( http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/zenos-library/2007/11/bloodlist-pn-elrod.html )

back to the usual vampire, fantasy stories. Jack Fleming was a journalist before he died and became a vampire. He still doesn’t know who or why he was killed except that one of his killers mentioned something about a list. So as he tries to get used to his new state of affairs (i.e learning about his vampiric abilities and limitations) he is also investigating his own death with the help of an eccentric millionaire, Escott, who is fascinated at having met a real life vampire ( )

collector; first printing