Bound in Flesh

I bought this book on a Sunday, and consumed it with frevor by Tuesday afternoon. It was superbly written and very sensual. You could almost hear the story through the paper. I'm glad that the follow up was so well written and thought- and image-provoking. David, the wait was well worth it. I am sorry to hear about your accident. I hope you have survived from it. And I am sure your fans appreciate the effort you have placed in writing the book.

Art critic Jean-Luc "Jack" Courbet and his lover model Claude Halloran (Jack changed Claude in BOUND IN BLOOD) have literally taken a bite out of the gay communities of the Big Apple, the Vegas Strip, the Big Easy, and Paris to name a few of their haunts. The two vampires dine on the blood of their homosexual victims, but leave Manhattan since word spread about the "Horror of West Street". As they leave behind mostly dead but some enslaved undead, they make a mistake that might prove divine intervention for them if they can control and convert NYPD cop Michael O' Donald. He has turned but thirsts for revenge especially against those who changed him. Claude thinks Michael is perfect to finally eradicate Jack's violent much more powerful then them mother Noel Courbet. However, not only is Michael a shockingly independent thinker, "mother dearest" is coming for them as they failed to obtain as she demanded the Charnac's grimoires for her. Meeting red witches and switching bodies to hide their "souls" from Noel, Claude and Jack become Vegas stage magicians so they can dine in style. Still both wonder how they seem to be in hell in a hand basket quicker than nipping some mortal gay's neck. Changing the scope from the Greenwich Village sexual gay kills by Jack of underdeveloped prey in BOUND IN BLOOD yet keeping the morality of a creature hunting humans as food, BOUND IN FLESH is a terrific vampire fantasy focusing on the two vampires hiding from Mommy Dearest. The key cast members are fully developed especially Jack, Claude and Michael so that the audience can accept gay vampires traversing the world's hot spots. Sub-genre readers will enjoy the second Bound thriller as David Thomas Lord writes an exhilarating vampire tale. Harriet Klausner

Lord, David Thomas, "Bound in Flesh". Kensington Books, 2006 Amos Lassen and Literary Pride One thing that I must say before I review "Bound in Flesh" is that Kensington Books continually turns out interesting books to read. My contact there, Craig Bentley, always makes sure that I am in the know as to what is coming out and then graciously sends me review copies. I always look forward to publications from Kensington and I have yet to be let down by anything I have read from them. Some of you may recognize the author, David Thomas Lord, from his first novel, "Bound in Blood". In it he began his gay vampire saga. The story continues with "Bound in Flesh", an erotic thriller. Using the catch phrase "when life ends, pleasure begins...", you know you are in for some exciting reading. Our main character, Jean-Luc "Jack" Courbet is an art critic with a secret that he shares with his partner, an actor and model, Claude Halloran. This secret has taken the lives of many but it has also given others eternal life--as vampires. Jack is over a hundred years old having been brought into the world of the dark by his stepfather and he himself has brought Claude into the fold. Together they are creatures of the night. The world is theirs and they travel it--from the U.S. to France, New York to Las Vegas, their meals are everywhere. It seems that the gay lifestyle has a great deal of similarity with the vampire way of life. We are both creatures of the dark as we, like vampires, roam the clubs and bars looking for satisfaction. Our desires and our hungers are very much the same even if the ways we go about achieving satisfaction is not quite the same. Unlike us, vampires are able to create legions of followers who stay with them; even after death. We should also be so lucky as to have our conquests worship us after a night of pleasure. In many case, we cannot be bothere3d to say hello to them after the initial tryst is over. In this novel, one of the newly acquired "lovers" is not as loyal as other vampires that they have created have been. Perhaps Jack AND Claude had stepped out of their realm when they came across Mike O'Donald an ex-cop. WHEN Jack created him there was something that was not quite the same, somehow he was created with a sense of revenge. From a friend, O'Donald has learned the secrets of Tantric sex magic. Mike is determined now to save Las Vegas, Sin City, from the ravages of Jack and Clause's vampirism. Mike, alone, can save the helpless since he possesses the powers to do so. For those of you who fell in love with Lestat, the homoerotic vampire created by Anne Rice, you will love this book. Rice's book are homoerotic by association, Lord's are downright erotic and his creations are beautiful and sensual, exciting and brutal. His prose is magical and he sweeps you into the story magically. The world of vampires has always reflected sensuality and gays have always been swept up by vampire stories. What Lord has done is to elevate the

BOUND IN FLESH, the second installment in Lord's epic vampire saga (reportedly a five book series), raises him to the zenith of the modern vampire fiction mountain. This may be one of the most inventive takes on the classical vampire archetype I've read in many years. Not since Anne Rice's classic vampire fiction have I found myself so immersed in a fictional vampire world. In the first novel, BOUND IN BLOOD, we met Jean-Luc Courbet (Jack to his friends and victims), a seductive predatory gay vampire living in New York City. On the international lame from his murderous mother, he played 'serial killer' across the Big Apple, dining on the hottest of NYC gay society. As the victims piled up, the story came to an end in true tragically operatic fashion, a literally fiery denouement. BOUND IN FLESH flashes forward a month, and Jack's last victim, ex-cop Michael O' Donald, finds that his dead lover is only the beginning of his problems, as vampire slave Claude Halloran entraps him and plans to use him to finally destroy Jack's super powerful monster of a mom, Noel Courbet. This tale alone would have made a decent enough story to captivate his fans, but, for Lord, that's just the tip of the fang. From France to New York, and then to The City of Sin, BOUND IN FLESH runs the gambit, from soulful introspection, as O' Donald must come to grips with his new undead powers and limitations, to the fantastical in the shape of Purity St. Martin, The Red Witch, and Baum and White, freakishly tall albino undead twin lovers who oversee all of Jack's legacy and estate, inhuman creatures with their agenda. Jack and Claude form a union of sorts, and switch their old bodies for new (now Apollo and Loki) to become the toast of Las Vegas as a duo of impossible and mysterious show magicians. O' Donald and Purity form their own union to hunt down the vampires and destroy their evil plans to perform a Black Mass to gain ultimate undead power. We have blood, lust, magic and betrayals enough to keep any Greek tragedian racing through to the last page. The end will not disappoint even the most jaded of vampire fiction fans. With BOUND IN FLESH, Lord changes the pace of the story, dropping most of the ponderous sex scenes from BOUND IN BLOOD, and using more dialogue to carry the exposition. Proving himself more than a 'vampire writer', or even an eroticist, with this newest installment, he impresses that even the stall tropes of the weary vampire sub-genre have yet to be completely sucked dry. Using a classical style- with just enough sexual edginess to titillate- he manages to break beyond the standard horror fare to create his own fiction- an admixture of horror and fantasy, and undeniably his forte. His characters are flawed beings, and can never know perfection, but move on instinct and emotion. His villains are more than simplistic bloodsuckers looking for a fresh meal; these creatures are Machiavellian masters infused with immense ment

This book, similar in ilk, surpasses its predecessor. To set first-comers expectations, please see the lot of Bound in Blood reviews. There is an *unmistakeable* leap forward in quality of writing here -- I could have written the first book, but not this -- and an equally unmistakeable lapse in quality of editing. It's not grammar, as another review bemoans, but density of prose that makes for occasional discomfort. Your life won't change, but enjoy. And enjoy the growth of true talent. Congratulations!