Book Review: Blood Matters

Reviewed By: Cheryl - RAM

Blood Matters     Amazon US TPB Amazon Canada TPB
Taffy Cannon
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Woman Main Character   Police Procedural
Series: Roxanne Prescott # 2
Perseverance Press, April 2007

This is a very good police procedural, second in the series featuring Roxanne Prescott, a young San Diego Sheriff's Department police officer from a long line of Texan lawmen. Her team is called in when the body of a prominent local personality is found by one of his employees.

The victim Sam Brennan has earned a much-respected and well-known reputation during a lifetime working in the adoption and infertility fields - beginning with the tracing of birth parents and children given for adoption and continuing to the ultra-modern adoptions of frozen embryos. He was a popular man, surrounded by happy families who owe him their very existance - so why would anyone murder him?

But families bring out the worst as well as the best in people. Sometimes finding lost parents or children means finding tragedy or rejection and replacing joyful fantasy by painful reality. There are other possible motivations too - money inspires many crimes, and Brennan had become very rich from his efforts to help adopted children, birth parents, and the infertile.

The secrets in Brennan's life which led to his death are revealed in the end to be rather minor to be the cause of such turmoil. In addition, the various allusions to current American political issues seem narrow- minded - surely religious adoptive parents do not invariably choose 'Aryan' children! However, the depth of character development of the main character and the excellent descriptions of California redeem the book, which is, all in all, a very solid modern police procedural.

Cheryl - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Cheryl - RAM