This book is a much more enjoyable take on the vampire fiction motif than most. Jack Fleming awakens to find that after his death (which he can't remember) he has become a vampire. He knew it was possible.

Most of the first book deals with Fleming's attempt to find out who had killed him, and why. The book is set in post-repeal, post-Capone 1930s Chicago. The setting is well realized without becoming the center of attention. Fleming and the major secondary characters are fully fleshed out and believable.

I liked this book because it did not approach the vampire as the pinnacle of either lust or power. Fleming's status as newly undead also spares us the almost-always poorly done character of the centuries old bloodsucker. There are also several traditional downsides to the vampiric condition that are rarely seen in modern vampire fiction to which Fleming is subject.