The Vampire Files: Difference between revisions

'''Books in this series:'''

* ''Bloodlist''

* ''Song in the Dark''

* ''Dark Road Rising''

'''Short stories in this universe include:'''

* "You'll Catch Your Death"

A collection of all the above short stories and at least one new one is supposed to be released eventually. A spin-off series called ''Jonathan Barrett, Gentleman Vampire'' was also written by Elrod. It is currently four books long and tells the backstory of a character introduced in ''Bloodcircle''.

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* [[Amnesiac Dissonance]]: {{spoiler|Gabriel Kroun.}}

* [[Anti-Hero]]: Jack. Escott definately has shades of this.

* [[Cold-Blooded Torture]]: "Buckwheats" in ''Cold Streets''. Also {{spoiler|what Paco and Slick did to Jack for days before finally killing him.}}

* [[Combat Pragmatist]]: Some of the bad guys do just shoot Jack, not that it helps against a vampire.

* [[Continuity Nod]]: Jack encounters works of art by the artists he met in "Art in the Blood" several times.

* [[Crazy Prepared]]: Escott. {{spoiler|''He carries dynamite in his car.''}}

* [[Good with Numbers]]: Opal. It's why she's a [[Living MacGuffin]].

* [[Green-Eyed Monster]]: The motive behind {{spoiler|Maureen, Emily, and [[If I Can't Have You|Barrett's]] murders by Lauren. Also why Leighton killed Sandra, but over her artistic talent.}}

* [[Heroic BSOD]]: Alex after his wife Celia's suicide. {{spoiler|Evan and Alex after Sandra Robley's murder. It should be noted that Jack can't hypnotize someone when they're like this.}}

** {{spoiler|Jack at the end of ''Cold Streets'' and all through ''Song in the Dark'', following Bristow's round of "buckwheats".}}

* [[I Love You, Vampire Son]]: The situation behind most vampire sirings, particularly those of Jack, {{spoiler|Maureen, Emily (assuming it worked), and (don't know if it'll take yet) Bobbi}}. Barrett tried to do this several times before it eventually took.

** {{spoiler|It did work with Emily, as later books mention that Jack knows two vampires in Long Island, not just one.}}

** {{spoiler|Subverted with Gabriel Kroun, whose undead resurrection was impaired by a bullet lodged in his brain. One reason Jack didn't initially realize what Kroun was is that he looks older than a vampire should.}}

* [[Intrepid Reporter]]: Jack wanted to be one, but it doesn't seem like he ever got a huge scoop. He's got the instincts of one though, which helps with his [[Private Detective|current job]]. It does occasionally get him into trouble, though.

** Granted, Jack does engage in a lot of conventional foreplay as a precursor to neck-nibbling. When he spies on another vampire/human couple who play out this trope without any such buildup, he considers it a bit too sedate for his liking.

* [[Lampshade Hanging]]: Done by the characters, especially Jack, to ''[[Dracula]]''.

* [[Living MacGuffin]]: Opal, Kyler's genius but highly sheltered accountant.

* [[Love At First Sight]]: Jack all but names this trope when he talks about when he met Maureen.

** Dracula actually exists in this universe, somehow. {{spoiler|In one of her other series, Elrod has the character Quincy Morris from ''[[Dracula]]'' turn into a vampire like Fleming, after having had an affair with the same woman that turned Barrett some time before the books.}}

* [[Overprotective Dad]]: Marian complains that her dad is one. He seems to keep a close eye on her but not interfere with her love life, but we don't see enough of him to be sure. {{spoiler|When you think about it he really can't be, considering the shit his daughter gets into without his knowledge.}}

* [[Reality Is Unrealistic]]: Madison Pruitt's hair looks so much like a toupee that Jack concludes it must be his real hair: a hairpiece would be better-made.

* [[Rich Bitch]]: Several, including some male examples. "Money makes you evil" is practically a theme of the series. The rich, especially those born to it, are capable of astounding feats of selfishness and cruelty, whether it's for further wealth or some other petty desire.

* [[Transhuman Treachery]]: Inverted with {{spoiler|Gabriel Kroun}}, who's a [[Heel Face Turn|much better person]] ''after'' rising as a vampire.

* [[Traumatic Haircut]]: {{spoiler|Bobbi gets one in ''Lifeblood''. Her kidnappers then send the locks to Jack and Marza.}}

* [[Values Dissonance]]: In-universe; Jack is more in line with modern morals than most people in the 1930's, which his comrades in WWI seemed to take offense to, though he held them off. He credits this with being raised on a farm and his family being too busy working so they can eat to bother teaching their children who to hate, though it could simply be that his parents had the same values, too. He doesn't give a rat's ass about race, and in "Lady Crymsyn," Elrod makes a point of it to show that Jack doesn't care about homosexuality, either. {{spoiler|It's also interesting to note that Elrod makes one of the gay characters a villain, or at least a criminal.}}

** For that matter, Jack's willingness to rearrange his own life for the sake of Bobbi's career -- and a career that requires her to dress and act sexy for other men's entertainment, no less -- is remarkable in an era when a man is expected to bring home the bacon while the woman keeps house. Justified in that they'll never have kids to support, so don't need to worry about homemaking.

* [[Wild Mass Guessing]]: [[Word of God]] has it that Jack's character evolved from her own Wild Mass Guess that the radio-drama character [[The Shadow]] must've secretly been a vampire, with powers of invisibility and hypnosis.

* [[The Windy City]]: The books take place mostly in Chicago.

* [[Xanatos Gambit]]: Jack pulls one in ''Chill in the Blood.'' {{spoiler|He's trying to stop a gang war between Sullivan and Angela Paco. It's not a [[Batman Gambit]] because he's trying to get rid of one of them, and doesn't really care which, as long as they stay out of his hair. One killing the other works too just as long as they stop bothering him.}}

* [[Your Vampires Suck]]: Some of the implausibilities of fictional vampires are poked fun at, such as asking why garlic would be any defense against a creature that doesn't need to breathe.

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Vampire Fiction]]