This is a gloriously haunting vampire novel set in the glittering world of elite New York. Jean-Luc "Jack" Courbet has the perfect life. His art critiques appear regularly in the "New York Times". His Greenwich Village apartment is filled with tasteful antiques. And his finely chiselled face and body make him an object of desire for the men he meets in clubs and bars - men who satisfy his dual need for pleasure and cruel pain. For Jack, though, the antiques aren't antique at all. And the need for pleasure and pain is an instinct rather than a predilection. Beneath the glittering whirl of his elite lifestyle lies a simple, deadly secret: he is a vampire, transformed a century ago in Paris by his powerful stepfather. Now, driven by an age-old thirst for vengeance and locked in a game of cat-and-mouse with the mother who wants to destroy him, Jack haunts the streets of New York City, hunting for sex and blood - until he falls for aspiring actor and model Claude Halloran. In Claude, Jack glimpses the innocence he has lost - an innocence that gives new meaning to his life lived in darkness. An erotic journey of the heart will take Jack beyond the threshold of desire into the pain of his own past - from France's closeted nobility to the hidden obsessions of Victorian London - and finally into a present-day world of flesh and fantasy where love and lust are more than appetites: they are the keys to survival.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In what promises to be the first of a series, Lord shows that he has a good eye for detail, but this debut novel amounts to little more than an episodic account of the kills of his remorseless vampire protagonist, Jean-Luc "Jack" Courbet. Having been converted to vampirism, along with his actress mother, No‰l, in 1870s Paris by Phillipe, Marquis de Charnac, Jack stalks the all-too-trusting and willing gay men of Greenwich Village. His crimes draw the attention of not only the local gay press (which chronicles "the Horror of West Street") but also his despised mother, who's attempting to blackmail her son into revealing the location of Phillipe's grimoires of power. Jack's lethal seductions of his victims, fleetingly met and unmourned, are too gruesome for a sustained erotic charge. The author forgets that it is the threat, not the actual act of killing, that produces the greatest emotional tension and interest. In addition, the sexual explicitness may be disconcerting for readers seeking more conventional or "straight" thrills. As one character tersely comments toward the end of the novel, "And as smart as you are, and with all that you've learned over the years, you couldn't find another way to stay alive without killing people?" The same could be asked of the motives of this talented author. Lord could establish a name for himself, provided he stops treating potential victims of his darker creations as numbers to be disposed of swiftly after use. On the other hand, he may remain content to produce the gay vampire equivalent to American Psycho.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
The vampire Jean-Luc Courbet rises after sunset and admires his own beautiful physique before going out to the gay bars of New York City. There he trolls for good-looking young men with whom he can have sex. Unfortunately for these fellows, Jean-Luc follows his lovemaking by draining them of every drop of their blood. He hides the bodies as well as he can, but soon enough the police discover them along with additional corpses killed in the same way. It seems that another vampire is at work, and Jean-Luc suspects an old enemy. Through flashbacks, the reader learns how Jean-Luc became one of the undead and who it is that wants to destroy him. There are many things to criticize about this novel stilted dialog, poor plotting, lack of character development but this book has nothing even remotely to do with literature. It is about titillating the reader with one sex scene after another. Not a suitable purchase for most public libraries. Patricia Altner, Information Seekers, Bowie, MD
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
New Millenium Vampire,
By A Customer
This review is from: Bound In Blood: The Erotic Journey of a Vampire (Paperback)
I read most of these other reviews before I read BOUND IN BLOOD. I'm glad I did. It was because of the weak reviews that I picked it up.The book's a shocker. For many year's we've been treated to humanized vampires who have retained their human emotions and with them cluttering displays of pathos and bathos. David Thomas Lord did none of that. His vampire, Jean-Luc, is the second most evil monster I've ever come across. His mother, Noel, comes in first! This novel comes closer to true art than any horror novel ever has, and it's his first book! Horror literature! Who'd have thought it! If it is to become a series (as was hinted at), I can't wait. In a time when horror has become either splatter-punk, gangsta nonsense or simply horrified romance novels, BOUND IN BLOOD soars above the pack. Lord's characters, notably Jack, Noel, Claude and Laura, are timeless. Their commentaries on the mortal world around them are bitingly true and murderously satiric. Lord's prose is absolutely top-notch. No contemporary horror writer can touch him. The book is a marvel of information. Lessons on art, music, theater and fashion only add dimension to the underlying story of betrayal and revenge between lovers and between mother and son. It is a violent book. Violence in the most cruel and most surprising ways. It is full of sex too. Some readers may not be up for the amount of sex and violence in this book. But it's not gratuitous. Jack lures his victims with his sexuality. Or, perhaps, with theirs. As for the violence? Well, it's a horror story involving a creature who drinks the blood of mortals. He's not Mary Poppins, or for that matter, Lestat.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
LOVED THE BOOK, HATED THE VAMP!,
By
This review is from: Bound In Blood: The Erotic Journey of a Vampire (Paperback)
Jean-Luc (Jack) Courbet seems to be your average wealthy 27-year old Greenwich Village inhabitant with the tall perfectly muscled body of a gay Olympic God. Fortunately he hasn't aged a day in almost 130 years --- ever since his late stepfather, the Marquis de Charnac, provided him with the opportunity to be reborn as an undead. In other words, Jean-Luc was wooed, used and vampirized by daddy dearest. Now, as Jack searches the Village haunts and meats racks for his next meal (he has a taste for only the finest "beefboys" on display) he realizes that his mother, the Vampiress from Hell, has again tracked him down. And, as she has done before, is adding her own victims to his normally discrete dining choices in order to create a public panic and media circus about the "Horror Of West Street," which she would like everyone to believe is non other than her son Jack. Well, at least some of the victims on the rapidly growing list were objects of his "love and lust" but not all of them. Besides, his victims were politely offed in a loving and gentlemanly way, while the strange kills were brutally slaughtered. Unlike the "straight or somewhat straight" vampires that populate the writings of Laurel Hamilton, Jack is a totally repulsive gay vampire with no redeeming human qualities (probably because he is a vampire) and you're sure to hate him like I did. Actually, he reminded me of the way a lot of gay men use and abuse their love/lust choices in real life. So maybe the author wrote Jack the way he is as a social commentary. Fortunately, that didn't keep me from rapidly turning the pages to see what happened next. And hopefully it will be the same way for you. Unfortunately, too many loose ends are left dangling at the end of the book, which means that a sequel is undoubtedly on the way.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Intriguing vampire tale,
This review is from: Bound In Blood: The Erotic Journey of a Vampire (Paperback)
Over a century ago in Paris, Jean-Luc Courbet and his mother became vampires when his stepfather the Marquis de Charnac converted them. In the present, Jean-Luc, known as Jack, lives and stalks mortals in Greenwich Village, a place where the evening always has delightful morsels. However, the active gay community notices Jack's appetite. They raise the alarm through the gay media that a serial killer, dubbed as the "Horror of West Street", hunts his prey amidst their people. Besides the rage of the gay press, Jack's mother demands he provide her with Charnac's grimoires. As Jack deals with the gay community warnings and his mother, he thinks he may be in love as he finds model Claude Halloran a bit more appealing than just a late night snack. David Thomas Lord shows he is a writer with tremendous abilities yet the first "erotic journey of a vampire" tale centers on the kill way too much as opposed to Jack's seduction of his victim. The premise of a gay vampire is quite intriguing and works in a fresh manner while Jack is a fascinating character whose morals fit a creature hunting humans as food. However, the support cast, especially Jack's targets, never feel developed enough so that the audience doesn't empathize with their deaths but instead thinks of them as statistical counts of cannon fodder. Still, the potential for a great series is here if Mr. Lord allows the audience time to digest the nuances that make the victims human. Harriet Klausner
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