Blood Hunt
by Ian Rankin
Published by Little, Brown
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Reviewed by Linda Lee
This book was originally released in Great Britian under the pseudonym Jack Harvey in 1995, when mad cow disease was big news there. The idea that a chemical company might be behind the start of the disease was bandied about as were phone taps, assaults, stolen papers and a mysterious death associated with the company.
Gordon Reeve is retired military after serving many years in the SAS--think Navy Seals in the U.S. He has started a school teaching survival using the techniques he learned while protecting his country. His wife helps him run the school, and together with their son, they make a good life. Demons still show themselves occasionally, but who could have seen as much death and mayhem and not still be haunted?
Gordon's brother Jim, a freelance journalist, is found dead in a car in San Diego, an apparent suicide. Not being close, Gordon accepts this explanation and travels to California to arrange his brother's burial. In a soldier mentality, he sets out to do this as quickly and cleanly as possible. Things turn out to be drawn out and dirty. A friend of Jim's suggests he was murdered--and a little digging proves his theory to Gordon.
Jim had been investigating Co-World Chemical as a link to disease that could eventually harm millions worldwide. Because he was a freelancer, no one really knew what he was trying to do, his contacts and what he knew. Once Gordon starts investigating, these things become very important.
Tension heightens when a man who had been his partner in the SAS, a man Gordon had learned to hate, comes into the picture--from the wrong side. Now he is safe nowhere, on any continent, but he has to stop the people he feels had his brother killed before they kill him, or hurt his family.
Ian Rankin has written a book with dead-on dialogue and packed with suspense, which had me seriously rooting for the good guys and hoping to see the bad guys get theirs. I started out seeing his protagonist as a bit two dimensional, but was quickly won over by the plotting of his story.
Armchair Interviews says: What a storyteller Ian Rankin is.