Blood Work
Michael Connelly
(Reviewer - Narayan Radhakrishnan)
2002 Time Warner
ISBN: 0446602620

Terrell McCaleb, a veteran FBI Agent & heart transplant recipient, is called back from retirement to investigate a murder, close to home.

Sr. Reviewer - Narayan Radhakrishnan writes:

Best-selling author Michael Connelly's Blood Work, though first published in 1998, receives renewed interest now in the wake of the release of its movie version starring Clint Eastwood.

As in any other Connelly thriller, this one also has the same masalas & ingredients in pristine precision that are the hallmark of a Connelly suspense potboiler, in particular the acclaimed Harry Bosch works.

Terrell McCaleb is recuperating from heart transplant surgery & is taking life easy at the moment, his only interest being boating & fishing. But he is reluctantly called out of retirement, when Garciella Rivers approaches him to find the truth behind the death of her sister Gloria Torres. Normally McCaleb would have told her to approach any other PI, but Garciella & he share a big bond -- it is Gloria's heart he received.

McCaleb has to investigate & when he does, he encounters a brilliant murderer, one who relishes playing the cat & mouse game - a killer so vicious & intelligent he is quite unlike any other criminal McCaleb has yet encountered.

Blood Work keeps the reader engaged until the very last page. It is a most effective whodunit & has us on tenterhooks until the last dog is hung. The only other work that I can compare it to in suspense building is James Patterson's Kiss the Girls.

It is not out of the blue that the murderer is revealed, the author drops many clues between the 500 odd pages, & a discerning reader might be able to identify the killer, however, let me confess, I was not able to, although once the identity is revealed, I wondered why I hadn't guessed it.

Blood Work also reminds me of the plot setting in the noir Sam Spade/Phillip Marlowe mysteries, although McCaleb, is as different from Spade or Marlowe as can be.

This is a wonderful read & worth the time & money spent.

More from Michael Connelly: Void Moon; Chasing the Dime; City of Bones; The Poet; Angels Flight; The Last Coyote; The Harry Bosch Novels: The Black Echo, The Black Ice, The Concrete Blonde.
(11/10/02)

Narayan
2002©Narayan Radhakrishnan
A RebeccasReads.Com Sr. Associate Reviewer

Reviewer's Bio:
I am a 26 years old lawyer practicing in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. Along with my legal practice, I have finished post-graduate studies for both Business Law & Human Rights. I am a self proclaimed numero-uno legal thriller lover & am the proud owner of all of Grisham's & Turow's novels. I enjoy John Mortimer's Rumpole & relish an occasional Martini & a rare Scot(ch)t-oline with a Patterson on the side.

My work A FICTION OF LAW is now about 500 pages in length & features 500 lawyer authors & 2000 legal thrillers covering a 300 year period - inclusive of entries from the USA, UK, Asia, Europe, China, Middle East etc. Still in search of a publisher.
www.keralatourism.org