A review by raben_76325
Lifeblood by P.N. Elrod

3.0

Jack Fleming made it out of his first encounter with the mob alive. He has a new girlfriend and is currently partnering with his new friend Charles Escott to solve various mysteries for clients. In fact, life. . . er, death . . is going so well for him that he decides to give up the search for his old girlfriend, the vampire Maureen.

However, just as he gives up on his old life, aspects from that life are catching up to him. Fleming suddenly has two wanna-be vampire hunters on his trail, being pesky but dangerous to those around him. They consider him a demon and a target to be destroyed, but they don't ever give him any credit for not being evil.

As they become more threatening to those that he loves, he also does not know what to make of the sudden appearance of Maureen's sister. She is also looking for Maureen, but if she can get Jack to turn her into a vampire, that's really all that matters to her. Will she succeed? Or will Jack see her for who she is?

This is a fun little book. First, we have the bumbling vampire hunters. They are all in Jack's business, talking to his family, to his girlfriend and everyone in his life, attempting to find a way to kill Jack. They are full of mistaken information, and they have read so much vampire literature that they are full of crosses, silver bullets and totally mistaken cliches. It was so much fun to read.

At the same time, the vampire hunters are really the red herring in the story. The sweet "little old lady," Maureen's sister, is a dangerous lady, and she has some dangerous associates. We learn of Maureen's life with her sister, at least from Gaylen's point of view. We learn that Gaylen is dying and wants Jack to turn her into a vampire, and when Jack refuses, that's when the story really becomes dangerous for both Jack and his girlfriend, Bobbi.

It was interesting to learn of Maureen's background (and why she left Jack), and fun to see the way that the newbie vampire hunters interacted with Jack. This one is a fun story, but it's one that would be hard to appreciate if you haven't read the first volume. It's definitely not a stand-alone, and it is huge in Maureen's life, and I was surprised that the author didn't work harder to establish Jack and Charles as detectives before spinning so many details from the "big story" into the books. I would have liked this book to be more of a mystery for Jack and Charles to solve, and maybe had the fun vampire hunters as a distraction. However, this was a really fun and enjoyable book to read.