The Vampire Files/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Alas, Poor Villain: Jack has a little after accidentally Mind Raping one, but pretty much gets over it. Also some for Braxton and Webster, especially the latter. And Robert Tielli, though YMMV.
  • Complete Monster: Gaylen DuMont, that crazy, heartless bitch. Lauren Francher too. And Raymond York. And Helen Tielli. The majority are women, which may be because the most male villains are gangsters, so their cruelty is more mundane and tends to be more efficient besides. Not to mention Hurley Dugan.
  • Counterpart Comparison: Jack Fleming and Harry Dresden of The Dresden Files. The series titles are obviously similar. Also, both take place in Chicago (one in the 1930's, one in modern day). Both have the main characters that is a supernatural P.I., though Jack is more of an assistant, at least officially (notably, The Dresden Files is listed on the Vampire Detective Series page, since it has most of the stereotypes -- hell, it has more than The Vampire Files). Both have trouble with The Mafia (the Paco gang and its successors, Johnny Marcone -- Vaughn Kyler from Fire in the Blood has an eerie similarity to Marcone). Both have Badass Normal sidekicks/ partners (Charles Escott and Karrin Murphy), both had their first love go missing or die in their backstories (Maureen and Elaine). Both Jack and Harry are wiseasses, though we see more of Harry's sense of humor.
  • Crowning Moment of Funny: In the first book, when Jack dresses up like his own freshly dead corpse and uses his Super Smoke to "haunt" his murderer, making him look paranoid and crazy to his men, and generally having a grand old time screwing with him.
    • Two in Lady Crymsyn. The first is Escott's reaction to seeing Sherry La Belle, the actress Jack hires to play the aforementioned Lady. And later, when Jack dumps Navis and Upshaw into the slime pit at the Stock Yards. You're all ready to believe that he's about to cross the Moral Event Horizon by drowining them in the leftovers of slaughtered cattle, then it turns out its not deep enough to drown them and Jack's just making them sit there all night and is laughing his undead ass off.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Apparently Johnathan Barrett, seeing as how he got his own spin-off.
  • Nightmare Fuel: The "dreams" Jack has when he spends the daytime without his home earth. Also, directly after the Hope Spot above, Jack is left nailed to the floor by a freaking stake, and no one has any idea where he is. He is in unspeakable pain, he's on the roof and sunrise is coming, and Bobbi is probably going to be a snack for the demented bitch who did this to him. When Escott later comes to rescue him, what he sees probably qualifies. The stairwell is soaked in blood all the way up to the cieling, his best friend is pinned to the floor and maybe dead for real, and looks like an ancient corpse. The scene where Jack and Escott find Barrett staked in Bloodcircle probably qualifies too, if only because it highlights Jack's previous impalement. And the story of how Maureen was killed... yeah, being a vampire makes you harder to kill, but when you are it's pretty damn horrific.