The characters are remarkably chauvinistic and stuffy and pretentious, and a large percentage of the book focuses just on exploring the main character.
This is a buddy novel set in the pretentious halls of turn-of-the-century British academia. Because of this, there is a distinctly homoerotic feel from one of the rescuers, Anthony Seymour, and of the main character, Dickie Fountain.
There is also an older gay 'auntie,' who is a likable character despite his stereotypically gay fussing and fluttering about.
In all, it is never clear if there is any vampirism, or if this was just a blood cult bent on sadomasochism. However, there are enough hints of the supernatural to leave the reader unsure.
This book was the basis of a rather poor film called 'Blood Suckers' by director Robert Hartford-Davies (1970). The homosexual undertones of the story were obviously enough that when the film was made, the 'buddy' makes an out-and-out declaration that he is not a homosexual.
