Cold Streets

I love reading P.N. Elrod's Vampire Files series. To me, it's like tuning in to your favorite weekly television program. Her books remind me of the times I used to watch the Untouchables at night as a kid when it came on around midnight. I was the only one awake at that time of night, and I'd sit close to the television and I'd lower the volume I could barely hear it. You get to know the characters and the setting pretty well. Like a good episode, Cold Streets is a solid entry in the series. I thought her last one (Lady Crymsyn) would be tough to follow, but Elrod manages. Character development once again is strong. The way Elrod has her characters speak has you feeling like you're right there - post-prohibition Chicago. I love it!

It has the structure of episodic TV. Each novel has a whole adventure story in it involving new people we've never met before, their problems, and eventually a resolution of their problems. But meanwhile, within each novel, Jack Fleming struggles to become a "better" vampire -- when he's not even sure what it means to be a vampire. He has problems that resolve at the end of the novel into even worse problems yet to come. Charles Escott, Jack's human partner, struggles to keep his private investigating business going despite Chicago's gangsters and the depression. Together, they are telling us a tale of two people assimilating trauma and overcoming it. All right, those of you who've read my vampire novels like Those of My Blood know that's what I write, so it's no surprise it's what I prefer to read. Charles Escott has had his psyche reamed and re-arranged by events -- from the first book where a vampire walks into his office in dire need of blood, to his Dark Sleep where he must confront his past. And Jack wakes up murdered and now a vampire, and must confront the implications of his hypnotic powers and his bloodlust. Every time he thinks he has it all together and stabilized, another case comes along and he learns he really has no clue what being a vampire is all about. In COLD STREETS - we go with Jack to a whole new level of bloodlust -- learning, feeling, and knowing what it means when a vampire has all his blood drained out of him. Is there anything he won't do to replenish himself? And how can he live with it afterwards? Will his human friends stand by him? Do they know how to administer psychiatric therapy to a nearly catatonic vampire? It seems to me this series is very much like the TV Series Magnum P.I. -- with Jack Flemming as Magnum and Charles Escott as Higgins. Instead of being set in Hawaii, it's in 1930's Chicago, and instead of being a caretaker of a large house, Charles is the owner of the house and the private eye. But their relationship is very similar. In COLD STREETS we've come to 1938. I keep wondering what's going to happen when the war comes to America. Will Jack enlist? Will they draft him? Will he dodge the draft and go overseas by himself on his own mission? After all, Charles' family and friends in England are going to need help. I do hope P. N. Elrod keeps writing these novels. I'm dying to see what she plans to have happen next. I guarantee it won't be what I would write -- but I won't be able to put it down once I get my hands on the next book. Live Long and Prosper,Jacqueline Lichtenberg...

Jack Fleming is back in this the ninth book in Pat Elrod's Vampire Files series. In case you haven't met Jack yet, he's a former newspaper reporter who now owns and runs a swank late 1930's nightclub (Lady Crymsyn) in Chicago. Oh, and he's also a vampire - but one to the good guys as opposed to a bloodsucker. (And though each book in the series can stand alone, if you really want to discover the where, why, how and when of the whole story, you'll have to go back and read the previous eight books. You'll enjoy them, too!)When not acting as gracious host at Lady Crymsyn, Jack spends his evenings work with private agent (detective) Charles Escott and mixing it up with various Chicago mob bosses both friendly and un. This book opens with the solving of a kidnapping masterminded by character destined to become Jack's nemesis. Then it mixes in a pending mob war that could eliminate not just some of Jack's friends, but Jack himself.Elrod is great with seeding her plot with twists, turns and all out action. And in addition to bringing Jack back to life, she also brings reality back to Chicago and the 1930's. Jack might be a vampire, but you're sure to love him by the time you finish this book. I'm addicted to the series, and I can hardly wait for each new book's arrival. (And I would love to get hold of the one book I missed that is currently out of print.) As always I give COLD STREETS my ***** rating, and I can't wait for her next one.

In wintry 1938 Chicago, four thugs kidnap sixteen year old Sarah Gladwell, a teen with the intelligence of a ten year old. As instructed, Sarah's mother Vivian avoids the police, but hires private investigator Charles Escott and his partner Jack Fleming, owner of the Lady Crymsyn nightclub who are considered off limits by the mob.As a vampire, Jack has several handy qualities to include becoming invisible. He rides alongside Vivian though the woman does not know he is there. After the money drop, Jack rescues the girl and captures the four criminals. He hypnotizes them into confessing, but one of them, the ringleader Hurley Dugan, fails to react to his suggestion, claiming innocence, a circumstance that only drunks and the insane can accomplish. Worse, Hurley, hiding in Jack's vehicle, realizes that the sleuth is a vampire when he sees Jack drink the blood of a cow. Now Hurley is blackmailing Jack, who plans to have justice his style.The latest entry in the Vampire Tales is an exciting supernatural detective tale. As with the previous books in this series, the novel combines hard boiled sleuths, gangster with and without hearts, and a nightcrawler into a delightful story line that brings home the COLD STREETS of 1938 Chicago. The twist this time is the prime villain knows his enemy and plans to use it to advantage, leading to readers having one of the better tales in an intriguing series.Harriet Klausner

This is the 11th book in the Vampire files series, and it is still immensely readable with great characters that are like old friends by now.This book starts with Jack and Escott finishing a nasty kidnap case, that turns out to have unexpected consequences for them all. Jack's club "lady Crymysn" has turned into the neutral zone of the Chicago ganglands - however that doesn't stop gang trouble landing on Jack's doorstep at a very inconvenient time.This is a well told story with twists and turns throughout that keep your attention riveted, though at times you do feel sorry for Jack given the sheer amount of times the poor man has been shot, tortured and staked at various points throughout these books.While this novel can be read as a stand alone, to get the most out of it you should read all the series in order. This is an evolving series, where the characters change and the events in one novel can have consequences in another.I'm already looking forward to the next book in this series as it's such great fun following the adventures of Jack Fleming and his friends.