It is several months after events in A Nice Place to
Die as Blood Relations: A DS Ryan McBride Novel by J. Woollcott begins
and the scene is bad. Detective Sergeant Ryan McBride and others have come this
April day to Hungry Hall, a rundown country house near Antrium. It was the home
of Patrick Mullen. Now he has been found very much dead in his bedroom in a
scene that has shaken a number of officers.
Mullen was a retired Chief Inspector and a legend- for good
and bad reasons. Ryan’s new boss, Inspector Whelan, believes that the killing
has to be the work of somebody connected to one of Mullen’s old cases. McBride
isn’t so sure as the intensity of the crime scene means he thinks it is
personal and wants to focus on family and friends. Whelan says no and tells him
to look at past cases. This will become an ongoing issue as Whelan does
everything to micromanage his case, including putting him on the clock. Of course, some of her need to control is
being the new boss and trying to get credit to move up the ladder, but some of
it no doubt goes back to when both first joined the police and became rivals to
a certain extent. As his old boss discovered, it is best to let McBride do his
thing and get out of the way as he closes cases.
What follows is a complicated read. Several secondary
storylines introduced in the first book continue as characters continue to
evolve and relationships change. The case also generates additional new and
very interesting subplots. Those situations play a comfortable background
medley to a complicated murder case and other crimes.
Much is going on in Blood Relations: A DS Ryan McBride
Novel and the result is a complicated multi-dimensional read that works
in all aspects. A book and a series that I never would have heard about if not
for Aubrey’s recent review.
This is a series that builds on the previous book, A
Nice Place To Die. Highly recommended.
My reading copy came by way of the publisher, Level Best
Books, and NetGalley.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2023
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2 comments:
Thank you, Kevin, for that thoughtful, insightful review, much appreciated! J. Woollcott
Very much enjoyed the book. Hoping there will be another in the series.
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