Bound In Blood: The Erotic Journey of a Vampire

Bound by revenge and a thirst for sex and blood, gorgeous vampire Jean-Luc "Jack" Courbet falls in love with aspiring actor and model Claude Halloran and finds himself embarking on a journey into the past, from France's closeted nobility and the dark underworld of Victorian London to the present day where he discovers that love equals survival. Reprint.

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.

From Booklist

Will our era of technological marvels lead to genetically engineering a new, immortal "generation" of fangless vampires? After all, handsome, blond Jack, aka wealthy Parisian Jean-Luc Courbet, sometimes replaces old-fashioned canine teeth with two-inch, folding, stainless steel blades. The gay and independently wealthy art collector, who writes articles for art journals and magazines for his own amusement, also has taste, verve, and his own tuxedo. No mere coffin for him! In his new Greenwich Village digs, he sleeps in an antique, carved Moorish chest. Still, 120 years of vampirish love is still blood lust, and Jack is lonely. No number of well-built, virile young men seduced into spilling their blood for him can obscure that reality. Lord ends this journey through nights of lust and blood with a set-up for a sequel, and to be sure, an audience for Courbet's adventures is to be found among Ann Rice enthusiasts, though some of those may be put off when the teeth of a cop taken hostage are used for graphic dismemberment. Whitney ScottCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From the Publisher

BOUND IN BLOOD is a Philadelphia Gay News Bestseller!

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