A Chill in the Blood: A Retro Review

The 1990s was a fertile period for crime-fighting bloodsuckers. Author Tanya Huff wrote a themed sequence of books under the umbrella caption of The Blood Books (1991-1997.) Adapted in 2007 for CBC Television as the short-lived Blood Ties, the stories partnered a police detective with a vampire. Another Canadian TV production, Forever Knight, aired from 1992-1996. In this case, the vampire was himself a police detective. I have always preferred fictional private eyes over their counterparts on the force, which is why I was drawn to P.N. Elrod’s 1998 novel A Chill in the Blood. The book is the seventh in a series referred to as The Vampire Files, which stars PI Jack Fleming, a former journalist whose career path takes a detour after he dies and comes back as a vampire. Set in 1937 Chicago, post prohibition but still in the throes of The Great Depression, the narrative captures the color and corruption of the era. Fleming is one glib and gutsy gumshoe, who is still learning the scope and limitations of vampirism. As the narrator of the yarn, he lets his vulnerabilities be known as he adjusts to his situation with a wink and a quip.

Fleming is wry in his observations: “You don’t need to be a vampire to influence others with a stare, just have to have the knack for it. Some people are naturals, others learn how to control it. How much is bluff and how much is real depends on the individual and how others react to them. I had a reporter friend back in New York who once saw Hitler in person and said it was the look in his eyes that grabbed people first and pinned ‘em to the wall. You either fell under his spell and loved him or came up with an instant and irrational urge to shoot him. My friend wanted to shoot, which he found to be extremely upsetting since he’d been raised a Quaker.”

Even with his ability to hypnotize and to vaporize into invisibility, the supernatural shamus finds formidable foes in various mob members who are out to eliminate anyone/everyone perceived as an enemy/obstacle. He does, however, have in his corner two reliable, albeit shady, allies: Suave Charles Escott, whose British accent gives him cachet, and Shoe Coldfield, an African American who engages in activities that severely strain the patience of his upstanding sister. In addition to rivaling gangster cadres, Fleming, Escott, and Coldfield must reckon with cops on the take and feds who have their own agenda. Standard stuff in the noir universe but made more interesting by the Nosferatu nuances. Fleming reflects on how blood drinking makes him feel: “It’s hard to explain what the stuff does to me, only that prior to my change I’d never felt anything quite like it before. Sometimes it soothes; others, it hits like a hammer. Either way was fine, more than fine. Since my heart doesn’t pump I don’t know how the stuff flushes me with that special kind of heat that flows from deep inside right out to my toes and fingers. But it feels great. Better than great. Sometimes when I’m really starved, the tide of it flooding through me is almost as good as sex — but only almost.” So says the guy whose primary sanguinary source comes from the veins of the legs of stockyard cattle. He’s a 20th Century vampire with an adaptation process that includes wearing a belt stuffed with his native soil — from Cincinnati.

Since the novel A Chill in the Blood is roughly halfway through Elrod’s Vampire Files cycle of books, its place in the oeuvre features characters from earlier writings and hints at the return of others. This doesn’t, however, detract from reading the novel as a standalone. It is the only book in the series to win an award: It was the recipient of The Lord Ruthven Best Fiction Award, bestowed by the Lord Ruthven Assembly, an organization comprised of scholars whose course of study focuses on the vampire as a cultural and literary entity.

I’m not sure why I was drawn to re-reading the book now. Perhaps there’s a connection to having seen the film Sinners, which is also set in the 1930s, and has gangsters and more than one vampire. Whatever the reason for choosing it, A Chill in the Blood provided me with a bloody good time. It’s great summer escapism that cools down the seasonal heat by transporting the reader to wintry Chicago, while rendering a break from the mundane.