Dark Road Rising [Paperback]

SPOILER alert for the previous book SONG IN THE DARK:

P.N. Elrod keeps her fans waiting, and we just take it, huh? But that's the cachet she's earned by having put out this enormously satisfying Vampire Files series. It's taken four years, but the next and twelfth installment is here finally. DARK ROAD RISING picks up just about where Song in the Dark (Vampire Files, No. 11) leaves off, with Jack Fleming now saddled with keeping tabs on intimidating New York mob boss, Whitey Kroun, who'd recently joined the ranks of the undead.

I like that P.N. Elrod doesn't stay pat with Jack Fleming's life. There's evolution. Things are happening for Jack, and not necessarily all good. From being a slain reporter to a bloodsucking shamus in his debut BLOODLIST (The Vampire Files), Jack's gone up in the world some. Solved his own murder. Landed an awesome girlfriend. Got in good with the local Chicago mob. Became a nightclub owner. And then P.N. Elrod began seriously effing with him.

It's still 1938 and, to recap past events, Jack Fleming had just endured the darkest, most brutal moments of his life (yes, even worse than when he first got bumped off). The author has never shied away from exploring Jack's dark psyche and now she really works in the poor guy's currently fragile state. Jack's been tortured before, but this time... this time was too much, and I'm thinking being skinned alive by a psychopath will put a crimp in your friggin' joie de vivre. A traumatized Fleming tried to kill himself, which then led to a physical dust-up with his outraged best friend and private eye partner Charles Escott. Thanks to Jack, Charles ends up hospitalized, and, as we eventually learn, his condition begins to worsen. So, yes, as DARK ROAD RISING opens, the state of things suck in a big way for Jack Fleming.

Meanwhile, Hollywood is beckoning to the most important person in Jack's life, his talented chanteuse girlfriend Bobbi Smythe. So add that into his sackful of concerns.

The Vampire Files has always been about that terrific blend of noirish, pulpy period crime thriller and urban horror/fantasy. As ever, the characters are sharply written, the action crackles, and the tone is atmospheric. Jack Fleming is a very appealing first person narrator, a vampire with a conscience trying to do right and survive in gritty 1930s gangland Chicago. But this is a very dark series, and that signifies a gradual crumbling of ethics for Jack Fleming. He's still a good guy, but now he's more tarnished. He's killed people. He's done stuff, he's done disturbing stuff. And, for half a mo, he'd even gone insane. In DARK ROAD RISING I was curious to see how well our guy would hold up.

Some more catching up: Jack, as a favor to injured mobster boss and pal Gordy Weems, had reluctantly agreed to temporarily oversee Chicago's North Side mob business. One fallout to this is that Jack ends up keeping company with the mysterious New York crime lord Whitey Kroun. As mentioned, Kroun had himself just become a vampire, and I'm wondering if P.N. Elrod is setting him up for his own series. Kroun cuts a dangerous and sinister figure and, chances are, his forgotten past comes with even more unsavory details. The book gives Kroun his own passages to narrate, and he proves to be an interesting character, even if part of me was resentful that pages were being taken away from Jack's own storytelling. Much of DARK ROAD RISING revolves around Jack trying to figure out what's up with Kroun, and also revolves around Kroun, a cold bullet languishing in his skull, not only trying to recall his past life but also the gruesome events leading to his death.

But, even more worrisome for Jack, an old enemy resurfaces and this deranged killer is bent on unlocking Jack's secrets. He gets darn close.

DARK ROAD RISING, like the other Vampire Files thrillers, demonstrates an authentic period feel, that oldtime 1930s gangster era flavor, and it meshes surprisingly well with the brooding supernatural elements. It's kinda like as if Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler had hung out with Richard Matheson in some seedy bar and the ideas just wafted up like cigarette smoke, or something else that wafts. I don't put DARK ROAD RISING over the prior entries, I don't think it's the best one yet. But it's just as entertaining, briskly paced, and as absorbing a read as those other novels.

For whatever reason, the other day I was trying to come up with some of my favorite more recent fictional literary characters. Several names came up right away: Repairman Jack, Harry Dresden, Katniss Everdeen, Slippery Jim diGriz (although, okay, the Stainless Steel Rat ran around some three decades ago, so he shouldn't count), Miri and Val Con, and Jack Fleming. It's always cool to catch up with Jack Fleming, living his unlife in perilous post-Prohibition Chicago, loving his girl, sleuthing cases with Charles Escott (who brandishes a Sherlock Holmes swagger), rubbing elbows with the underworld and then occasionally throwing elbows at the underworld. And, the whole while, he's trying to curb these unholy appetites. Jack Fleming may be prone to seizures and may have lost the ability to hypnotize people, but he's still a bad mother, and he's hardboiled enough and ornery enough to thrive in merciless, trigger-happy Windy City. Although, for his sake, he should probably tone down on the smart-aleck routine (but I'm glad that he doesn't).

And if you're starved for more Jack Fleming adventures, you should know there's a novella out there titled THE DEVIL YOU KNOW. It's a sequel to BLOODCIRCLE and has Jack crossing paths once more with fellow vampire Jonathan Barrett (who is featured in his own series). I say pick up both DARK ROAD RISING and THE DEVIL YOU KNOW. It may be long, long years again before P.N. Elrod gets out the next Vampire Files book. And that bites...

Dark Road Rising was a long time coming, and what a relief to see it. Sometimes, when I see my Vampire Files neatly arrayed in my bookshelf, I worry that Ms. Elrod will decide she won't write another. That would be a tragedy. Nobody does it better than PN Elrod.

Unfortunately, I've come too late - other reviewers have already outlined the plot and I don't want to give spoilers by saying more.

My feeling is that another narrator adds new dimension. Not only do you get to look inside another character's mind, you also see Jack from Gabriel "Whitey" Kroun's perspective.

You can't help but like Jack, a vampire with human failings, who is still very much the humanitarian. When circumstances force him to use his vampire abilities in ways he would rather not, his conscience becomes a heavy burden to bear, and Jack refuses to take the easy way out. This is apparent when he could avoid a beating from Shoe Coldfield, and a lowering in his girlfriend Bobbi's esteem, by telling them how he came to put Charles Escott in hospital. But, as far as Jack is concerned, he did the dirty deed and earned any punishment coming his way, so he says nothing. This is only one facet of Jack's personality that makes him a hero you feel very close to. The Vampire Files are more than vampire tales, or mysteries - in them, Ms. Elrod explores a man and his ethics, which barely diminish when he becomes one of the undead.

Mystery, murder and mobsters in 1930s Chicago - throw in a vampire or two and meet Sam Spade with fangs. Don't miss out on a tremendously good read. This has all the atmosphere, chills, thrills and dark deeds of the previous books in the series. And if you haven't read any of the Vampire Files, go get yourself Bloodlist and discover Jack from the beginning of his career as the vampire you`d want as your best friend.

*Dark Road Rising* is the best book yet in the Vampire Files series, further developing the numerous complex characters and taking us, once again, into some very rough territory. It opens a few minutes after the ending of *Song in the Dark,* with Fleming driving Gabriel "Whitey" Kroun, one of the few other vampires he's met since his own turning, to a safe place where Kroun can recover from the violent events that concluded the previous book. Fleming has been recovering himself from the aftereffects of severe trauma following his brutal torture by a gangland thug in *Cold Streets,* book 10 of the series. Some of his vampire powers, such as the ability to hypnotize others, have been lost or sharply curtailed, and Fleming has no idea how to heal himself or whether he even can. He is therefore very interested in the fact that Kroun lacks some of Fleming's gifts, such as the capacity for dematerializing, which Kroun attributes to the fact that his death left him with a bullet permanently lodged in his skull.

*Dark Road Rising* focuses principally on Kroun's efforts to unravel the mysteries of his own identity and how he came to be dead and a vampire. Kroun appears to know things about vampires that Fleming does not, but he doesn't share Fleming's driving need to learn more about what he knows and how he learned it. As Kroun persists in tracking down ever more disturbing clues about his past, Fleming's own recent history sneaks up behind him and catches him while he's preoccupied with Kroun.

Because of the strong focus on Kroun and his story, *Dark Road Rising* features a dual first person narrative, with chapters alternating between Fleming and Kroun. This device was used by Adrienne Barbeau and Michael Scott in *Vampyres of Hollywood,* but I think Elrod pulls it off much more successfully.

I highly and enthusiastically recommend *Dark Road Rising*. Jack Fleming is a "good guy vampire" but these are not romantic stories. Elrod doesn't flinch from gritty details, or the kind of brutal violence that you'd expect from the series milieu, 1930s Chicago. The supernatural elements--vampires and at least one ghost--are treated with matter-of-fact respect, as Elrod emphasizes character and plot rather than gimmickry and camp.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 12 reviews  4.2 out of 5 stars