Bloodguilt by MK Murphy – blog tour – AnnaBookBel

Picture the scene: You’re a hitman, hired to take out real estate developer Jason Florens before he can ruin someone else’s evil plans. But you arrive at the scene where he is and someone has been there before, he’s gagged and tied to the bathtub taps, you remove the gag.

“Oh God,” Floren moans, eyes wild. “You’re police officers, aren’t you?” The man’s overalls don’t exactly scream “police,” but Floren is traumatized and his judgment impaired, so his confusion is understandable.
This is Sam Turner – a man so far outside the law that the question is almost laughable. But he keeps a serious face and lets Floren decide for himself.
“Damn it,” Floren groans, tears still streaming down his face. “You’re going to arrest me, aren’t you?”
“Not necessarily,” Sam says gently. “Tell me everything that happened, and maybe we can figure something out.”
Hope blossoms in the eyes of the project developer. …

Chapter two takes an abrupt turn, we meet Sergeant Rick Turner at a warehouse fire. A lot of heroin has gone up in flames, making the smell rather strong. Rick has been working on those using the warehouse for a month. There are some strange things though, it seems the fire was reported as it started – the caller suggested sending hazmat units.

Chapter three introduces us to a small group of four men and one woman celebrating their success. Cap, Brock, Frosty, Pug and Prozac. Cap makes them realize that it wasn’t perfect, someone could have gotten killed, they were lucky.

So three chapters in and three strands set in motion. The dominant one will be Rick’s as the multi-agency team he’s part of who work on OCGs (Organised Criminal Gangs) look into the warehouse fire and the man who led it, Emin. It’s not long before they hear of Emin’s plans to set up a new spot in the East End, they look at a warehouse in Limehouse. Rick goes to look at it too and sets up security. The vigilante group are also on the case. Then things get very complicated, very quickly. Shots are fired. People get hurt.

The vigilantes are an interesting group, with their campaign to bring about social justice, but I can’t really tell you more about them without spoiling things. However, there is a lot of rivalry within the task force with the various agencies involved, with some of the bigwigs disagreeing on how to run the operations and what statements to make. The action never stops. Rick also has a new concern, he thinks he is being followed.

It turns out that Sam is Rick’s older brother, which, if I had read the first book in the series, Dead man walkingshould have been obvious from the beginning. Rick is always wondering what Sam would say, like he’s a guiding voice on his shoulder. The two are apparently close, but estranged by Sam’s alternative lifestyle. There’s clearly a storyline in the relationship between Rick and Sam that kept me guessing for a while, but things eventually become clearer in that part of the novel as the stakes are raised considerably by Sam and the brothers’ pasts come back to haunt them. Both Rick and Sam are compelling characters. Rick is a great detective, solid and very good at his job, but compared to Sam, the good guy, he’s rather boring. Sam is unpredictable, a sociopath and much more interesting!

I really enjoyed it Bloodguilt and looking forward to Rick’s return and hopefully Sam, but I should have read Dead man walking to be the first to get the best out of this novel.

Source: review copy. Headline HQ paperback original, 288 pages.

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