Book Review: Blood Memory

Reviewed By: Ali Karim - RAM

Blood Memory     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon UK PB Amazon UK HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Greg Iles
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Thriller   Forensics   Serial Killer   Woman Main Character
Hodder & Stoughton, 2005

I am a long-time fan of Greg Iles and was really pleased that Hodder & Stoughton have been bringing his back catalogue into print for British readers. Blood Memory is Iles' 9th novel and I am pleased to report that it is a tightly clipped and unusual mystery. It is a departure from his earlier thrillers, which is good as Greg Iles was in the UK recently and he was quoted in The Bookseller saying - ''So many thrillers today are formulaic and one-dimensional. I feel like there used to be a higher standard. I know I'll get in trouble for saying this, but the problem is that the whole industry is built around writing one book a year; It's not enough time to write a good book." I am pleased to report that his comment above does not apply to this novel which is a stark departure from his previous work in so far as it is a Southern Gothic tale about family, abuse and the unreliability of memory. Featuring Dr Catherine 'Cat' Perry, a female forensic expert on bite-marks [recovering from an alcohol addiction] and a past filled with trauma, she teams up with her lover Detective Sean Regan of the New Orleans PD to track a serial killer operating in her hometown. The spin is that the killer targets men in violent sex-attacks. Faced with blackouts, depression, pregnancy and a past that is haunted by the death of her father [an ex-Vietnam Vet], she soon finds herself in the centre of the investigation. Blood Memory is a jigsaw puzzle that is part thriller, part gothic melodrama and part detective mystery - but much greater than the sum of its parts. Written in first-person, it has murderous twists and turns that make the ground that the reader walks upon more quicksand than sold narrative. The tale takes an unconventional path linking the secrets of a powerful southern family dynasty to events blacker than the swamps that conceal the truth. An unusual addition to the Iles catalogue.

Ali Karim - RAM

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