As dawn breaks over London, the body of a young man is discovered in a windswept Notting Hill church yard. The killer has left Detective Chief Inspector Grant Foster and his team a grisly cryptic clue...However, it's not until the clue is handed to Nigel Barnes, a specialist in compiling family trees, that the full message becomes spine-chillingly clear. For, it leads Barnes back more than one hundred years- to the victim of a demented Victorian serial killer... when a second body is discovered Foster needs Barnes' skills more than ever. Because the murder clues appear to run along side the tangled blood-lines that lie between 1879 and now. And if Barnes is right about his blood-history, the killing spree has only just begun.
I was really in the mood for a good, page-turning crime-thriller and this book fitted the bill perfectly. Dan Waddell draws you in immediately with a murder taking place in the first few pages. There are two key characters in the book, Detective Chief Inspector Grant Foster, he definitely has some skeletons in his closet but he is in no way cliched as fictional detectives can be. Nigel Barnes is the other key character in unlocking the mysteries surrounding the case. He too has things in his past that he would prefer to stay there, the author gives the reader little snippets of information about Barnes and it takes the whole book to get a good idea of his true character.
I loved the genealogy aspect of the book, it added a whole different element and Dan Waddell's research shines through in his writing. A lot of the book takes place in the Family Records Archive and The National Archives at Kew. I once spent a lot of time at The National Archives helping my husband to research his history dissertation and I have to say that Dan Waddell describes the type of places they are and the characters who frequent them perfectly.
The plot in The Blood Detective is excellent, I don't want to give anything away but I loved the twists and turns that the story took. The ending was a complete surprise to me and it was lovely to read a mystery that really did keep me guessing right to the very end. I read on the internet that Dan Waddell is said to be writing a series of books surrounding the character of Nigel Barnes, I hope this is true as I would definitely read the next one.
6 comments:
Oooh this one sounds very good and with London as a setting this could be great with me living there, I shall keep my eyes peeled!
Simon- I really enhoyed it, London plays a big part in the story and I'm sure you would know much more about the locations mentioned than I do!
This sounds so good, Dot, I will definitely keep a look out for it, I haven't read a good thriller in ages.
Thanks for the review.
Kim- I think you would like it, you can tell that it has been really well researched.
I really like the sound of this one. I love a good mystery and it sounds a bit gothic and dark. Perfect!
novelinsights- I would definitely recommend it, I want to read the next one in the series when it comes out.
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