Friday 5 May 2017

BLOG TOUR: The Blood Detective - Dan Waddell


I joined this blog tour at the last minute but I think that fate played a hand as this is an AMAZING book and I am so pleased that I have read it so I can share my thoughts with you.

Don't forget to enter the giveaway at the bottom of my post to win your very own e-copy of this brilliant book!




Genre: Crime
Release Date: 28/02/2017
Nominated for the CWA New Blood Dagger in the UK and Macavity First Book award in the USA, and winner of the Prix Cezam Littéraire.
As dawn breaks over London, the body of a young man is discovered in a Notting Hill churchyard. The killer has left DCI Grant Foster and his team a grisly, cryptic clue. 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. 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's skills more than ever. The murderer's clues appear to run along the tangled bloodlines that lie between 1879 and now. And if Barnes is right, the killing spree has only just begun . . .

The Blood Detective is a haunting crime novel of blood-stained family histories and gruesome secrets.

What did I think?

A couple of years ago I decided to trace my family tree and it is such an addictive hobby, in fact it is almost as addictive as this amazing book!  The Blood Detective is so fast-paced that I absolutely whizzed through it in no time at all with my heart pounding at a million miles per hour as it approached the gripping sweaty-palmed conclusion.  You definitely don't need any interest in, or prior knowledge of, genealogy to enjoy it as it is such a brilliant piece of crime fiction in its own right.

I loved all 3 of the main characters: DCI Grant Foster, who doesn't want to close his eyes for fear of missing the killer, his right hand woman, DS Heather Jenkins, and tweed wearing genealogist Nigel Barnes.  Foster and Jenkins work brilliantly together, it feels like they have know each other for years and can almost second guess what the other is going to do or say, which comes in pretty handy towards the end.  Nigel Barnes was my favourite though, living in his dusty flat surrounded by towering piles of books (sounds like heaven!).  The way that he sliced through years of history like a knife through butter was a joy to behold, relying on his experience and gut feelings to trace both ancestors and descendants.

The story revolves around murders in London and their link to the Kensington Horrors of 1879.  Even the police didn't see this one coming as they race to uncover clues before the next victim is revealed.  Nigel works day and night at the Family Records Office to trace descendants from the original crimes and hits more than his fair share of brick walls.  A brick wall to you and me is just a slight nuisance to Nigel as he knows how people changed their names to become more anglicised.  You really don't know what is in your past until you look.

I absolutely loved this book!  I found the genealogy storyline riveting and not just because I have an interest in it myself, but because it felt like clues were being unearthed right before my eyes.  Foster and Jenkins make a brilliant team and I hope that there are lots more books planned in this excellent series.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest an unbiased opinion.

My rating:





BUY LINKS


About the Author



Dan Waddell is the award-winning author of more than 20 works of fiction and non-fiction, among them the bestselling book which accompanied the BBC TV series Who Do You Think You Are? His first crime novel, the critically-acclaimed The Blood Detective, won the prestigious Prix Cezam Littéraire in France and was nominated for debut awards in the UK and USA. He lives in London with his family.




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