A Love Like Blood Pdf Summary Reviews By Marcus Sedgwick

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A Love Like Blood Pdf Summary

In 1944, just days after the liberation of Paris, Charles Jackson sees something horrific: a man, apparently drinking the blood of a murdered woman. Terrified, he does nothing, telling himself afterwards that worse things happen in wars.

Seven years later he returns to the city – and sees the same man dining in the company of a fascinating young woman. When they leave the restaurant, Charles decides to follow…

A Love Like Blood is a dark, compelling thriller about how a man’s life can change in a moment; about where the desire for truth – and for revenge – can lead; about love and fear and hatred. And it is also about the question of blood.

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A Love Like Blood Review

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3.0 out of 5 stars Charley Jackson: wimpy vampire hunter!
Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2014

By no means a conventional vampire story; the book appears to represent an attempt, by its author, to try something a bit different and, in this respect it succeeds. It concentrates on the centrality of blood to the maintenance of life and examines our human fascination with it, which may also explain, at least in part, our equal fascination with the mythical creatures for whom it, literally, forms the essence of their existence.

I was attracted to the book because, I’m something of a Francophile, a lover of Paris in particular, and a fan of Gothic literature and books set in war time and it begins in France shortly after that city has been liberated from the Nazi occupation towards the end of WWII. So, with all those boxes `ticked’ I settled down to read with keen anticipation that my eagerness would be well rewarded. Alas, this was only partially true! It is written well enough by a well-regarded author of books that have until now been targeted at the young adult market. And it does begin promisingly enough sketching out a background for its protagonist, Charles Jackson, a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corp, and setting up a raison d’etre for all that follows.

While visiting, with his superior officer, a museum on the outskirts of Paris one day Jackson is drawn to look into a bunker in the grounds and there, in the darkness within, is disconcerted to witness what he believes to be a man drinking the blood of a prone young woman. The man looks up from his gory refreshment and stares at Jackson with a look of barely concealed amusement. Startled, Jackson stumbles out into the glare of day and makes his way back to his major and is subsequently driven away from the nefarious scene to what he believes to be `reality’.

Time passes. However, he is caused, vividly, to recall this event in 1951 when, as an `up and coming’ star of the medical world, he is invited to address a prestigious medical conference on the latest developments in his particular field, haematology. Following what he feels was a disappointing performance he leaves the conference early and later that day, in a brasserie, is stunned to see the same man from the bunker seven years before. This time he is only in deep conversation with a young woman. When the woman leaves alone Jackson decides to follow her to another bar and manages to strike up a conversation. In doing so he finds out her name, Marian, and that she is an American PhD student at the Sorbonne whose thesis, on how blood is used in The Divine Comedy, is in an area of research in which an old friend of his is a world renowned expert. She finds this sufficiently an inducement to accept Jackson’s invitation to visit Cambridge and there meets, Professor Hunter Wilson, Jackson’s friend and eminent Dante scholar.

Jackson intends to use the visit to try to `pump’ Marian for all the information she has about the mysterious man from the bunker and ends up falling in love with her. She tells him that the man’s name is Verovkin, a wealthy Estonian minor aristocrat who is acting as her `patron’, but she reveals little else about him. She returns to Paris with little sign that she reciprocates Jackson’s feelings. He manages to meet with her sporadically but she seems very reluctant to divulge anything further about Verovkin and, at some point, stops responding to his letters. Eventually he travels to Paris to confront her but is dismayed to learn that she has returned to America, due to a breakdown in her health.

Convinced that Marian has come to harm and that Verovkin is responsible, guilt drives Jackson to begin his quest to find Verovkin and bring him to justice. The quest is pursued over the next two decades and wreaks havoc with Jackson’s career, health and relationships.

In its early stages the book’s pace is exactly right and the reader feels that the stage is set for some exciting action. The author manages, too, to convey a distinctly unsettling atmosphere as Jackson’s pursuit of his prey takes him, at first, to Avignon and then on to various other parts of Europe. However, the pace then drops and for long periods nothing seems to happen and our `hero’ Jackson proves himself to be something of an incompetent clot and just a bit too wimpy! Okay, some nasty things happen to him and others but, in response, he just seemed to cry a lot and not do very much else!

There is much discussion about blood, the Eucharist and various other mythical associations which would all be very interesting providing there was more of a pay-off for the reader in terms of some sort of progress being made. Eventually I got just a bit fed up with Jackson’s blubbering and simply found the ending, having patiently waded through with increasing disinterest, irritating!

About Marcus Sedgwick Author Of A Love Like Blood pdf Book

Marcus Sedgwick Author Of A Love Like Blood pdf Book was born in Kent, England. Marcus is a British author and illustrator as well as a musician. He is the author of several books, including Witch Hill and The Book of Dead Days, both of which were nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award. The most recent of these nominations rekindled a fascination with Poe that has borne fruit here in (in The Restless Dead, 2007) the form of “The Heart of Another” – inspired by Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Of his story, Sedgwick says, “This was one of those stories that I thought might be a novel originally but actually was much better suited to the tight form of the short story. I had the initial idea some years ago but was just waiting for the right ingredient to come along. Poe’s story, as well as his own fascination with technique, provided that final piece of the puzzle.”

He used to play for two bands namely playing the drums for Garrett and as the guitarist in an ABBA tribute group. He has published novels such as Floodland (winner of the Branford Boase Award in 2001) and The Dark Horse (shortlisted for The Guardian Children’s Book Award 2002).