Precious Blood

  Precious Blood
  Jonathan Hayes
  Paperback 448 pgs.
  Harper


















Amazon blurb-

New York City medical examiner Hayes provides plenty of authentic forensic atmosphere in his grisly debut. But his tale of a maniacal serial killer loose on the streets of Manhattan dwells too much on the carnage with insufficient focus on his protagonist's emotional state. Dr. Edward Jenner, an occasional private consultant who resigned from his post as a New York City forensic pathologist after the trauma of 9/11, is positive the gruesome crucifixion murder of a young college student is the handiwork of a burgeoning serial killer. When Ana de Jong, the murdered girl's roommate, appears in his loft, desperate for help, Jenner is plunged deep into a world of cruelty and death, a world he tried so desperately to leave behind. As more bodies pile up and the killer's methods become increasingly sadistic, Jenner races to identify the ancient text engraved in the victims' flesh, hoping it will lead him to the truth behind the murders. The somewhat creepy relationship that develops between Jenner and Ana distracts, while fans familiar with the conventions of the serial killer genre will find much of the action predictable.
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I'm not going to go to deep with my review since my hubs already did one for me *here* : )  I agree with Amazon and my hubby as far as the author not delving into the emotional state of the killer quite enough to clarify the carnage.  While I know the reason, it is not spelled out in black and white, something that bothered my hubs and probably could have been touched on more.  I also agree that the relationship with Ana de Jong and Dr. Jenner was unnecessary.  It actually ticked me and made me dislike her somewhat.  For the most part, the characters are good ones.  You have your crew of NYPD that are decent, there is the coroners staff that have a great affection for Dr.Jenner and are glad he's back.  His neighbor Jun is a good character too, I wish they would have went into that a bit more, and you  have the resident s.o.b that you hate, so that works well.  While it's true that it's somewhat predictable, I still enjoyed reading it, the quick pace, and tension building was perfect.

A favorite snippet of mine -

"How did you know?" Jenner asked Frank.  "Roundtree.  He said if you didn't show up tonight, we could call him Captain A$$hole for a year."

exchange between Doc Jenner and Med.Ex. office Security personnel after Jenner thinks he snuck in.


I'll give this one 3 cannolis


This also makes me up to # 10 in the Thriller-Suspense Challenge hosted by Book Chick City.  If you'd like to join just click the title or the challenge button in the marquee to the left.