Review: Blood Relations: A DS Ryan McBride Novel by J. Woollcott

 

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