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A review by cj_mo_2222
Splinter in the Blood by Ashley Dyer
4.0
A woman stands over Detective Chief Inspector Greg Carver as he sits unconscious in his living room, a bullet wound in his chest. The woman wipes the house of fingerprints, removes Carver's case notes from the Thorn Killer homicide cases from his house, takes off her gloves, and then returns to his living room. When she sees Carver is still alive, she calls for help.
Detective Sergeant Ruth Lake is on the scene when paramedics arrive and she tells him she found Carver unconscious and bleeding. To everyone talking to her, Ruth appears to be nothing more than a worried colleague. However, even the Thorn Killer watching the footage from the crime scene on television can tell she's hiding something.
"Splinter in the Blood" opens with a shocking first chapter that immediately grabs your attention. The suspense remains strong as the book proceeds with narrative from Ruth's point of view, the Thorn Killer's point of view, and confused, dreamlike flashbacks experienced by Carver. As the investigation into both the Thorn Killer and Carver's shooting progress, it's obvious both Carver and Lake are keeping secrets, but it's not clear why. The Thorn Killer is creepy. He applies multiple tattoos on his victims using a sharp thorn. All of these elements combine to create tension and suspense that makes the book hard to put down.
Neither Carver nor Lake are afraid to break the rules and sometimes Lake goes a little overboard, which makes it even harder to determine the good guys from the bad guys in the book. It's not clear if Lake is trying to harm or protect Carver. Some of Carver’s actions definitely call his judgment into question, but the reader doesn’t know if either he or Lake could be a killer. Either way, I grew to respect and like the characters, especially Lake, even though I couldn't fully trust them.
The novel has elements of a procedural as Lake continues to hunt down a serial killer, but has a complicated plot with twists and turns I never could have guessed. The book gets a bit long in the middle as Lake seems to cover the same ground in both cases. However, it picks up again when Lake starts closing in on the dangerous serial killer. The identity of the killer was a surprise, and the book’s ending keeps you on the edge of your seat until the final paragraph. "Splinter in the Blood" seems to be the start of a new series, and I hope so because I enjoyed the mixture of suspense and complex characters with depth.
This review was originally written for Smitten by Books review site and blog. The book was provided to me in exchange for an honest review.
Detective Sergeant Ruth Lake is on the scene when paramedics arrive and she tells him she found Carver unconscious and bleeding. To everyone talking to her, Ruth appears to be nothing more than a worried colleague. However, even the Thorn Killer watching the footage from the crime scene on television can tell she's hiding something.
"Splinter in the Blood" opens with a shocking first chapter that immediately grabs your attention. The suspense remains strong as the book proceeds with narrative from Ruth's point of view, the Thorn Killer's point of view, and confused, dreamlike flashbacks experienced by Carver. As the investigation into both the Thorn Killer and Carver's shooting progress, it's obvious both Carver and Lake are keeping secrets, but it's not clear why. The Thorn Killer is creepy. He applies multiple tattoos on his victims using a sharp thorn. All of these elements combine to create tension and suspense that makes the book hard to put down.
Neither Carver nor Lake are afraid to break the rules and sometimes Lake goes a little overboard, which makes it even harder to determine the good guys from the bad guys in the book. It's not clear if Lake is trying to harm or protect Carver. Some of Carver’s actions definitely call his judgment into question, but the reader doesn’t know if either he or Lake could be a killer. Either way, I grew to respect and like the characters, especially Lake, even though I couldn't fully trust them.
The novel has elements of a procedural as Lake continues to hunt down a serial killer, but has a complicated plot with twists and turns I never could have guessed. The book gets a bit long in the middle as Lake seems to cover the same ground in both cases. However, it picks up again when Lake starts closing in on the dangerous serial killer. The identity of the killer was a surprise, and the book’s ending keeps you on the edge of your seat until the final paragraph. "Splinter in the Blood" seems to be the start of a new series, and I hope so because I enjoyed the mixture of suspense and complex characters with depth.
This review was originally written for Smitten by Books review site and blog. The book was provided to me in exchange for an honest review.