Blood Line

This treasure is a true whodunit that will keep the listener guessing who killed the closeted gay drug-dealing surfer. Was it his fiancée? His boyfriend? His drug contact? And, more to the point, is the victim really Alan Rawlins? Or is Alan the killer? With a delightful British accent, Kim Hicks leads the listener through the process of uncovering the truth of the bizarre series of events. She also does a great Jamaican bodyguard and a hard-nosed boss and amuses Americans by pronouncing garage as ÒGARageÓ and migraine as ÒMEgraineÓ and talking about car parks (parking garages) and caravans (RVs). Hicks communicates the frustration and determination of Detective Anna Travis as she tries to solve the case and prove herself a capable investigator in this perfectly performed novel. M.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

July 16, 2012
La Plante’s well-crafted seventh Anna Travis novel (after 2011’s Blood Fury) finds the London detective chief inspector looking into a missing person case. Evidence of a pool of blood is discovered directly under the bed of 26-year-old car mechanic Alan Rawlins, who lived with his attractive fiancé, Tina Brooks, but there’s no body and no identifiable DNA. Travis and her team must investigate Rawlins’s character and context in lieu of anything more concrete. As they dig deeper, the image of the hardworking, straitlaced Rawlins is replaced by one of a hard-living gay surfer. Several credible suspects emerge, and, in a nice twist, the identity of the victim comes into question. A lively plot and a number of satisfying revelations offset the leisurely denouement. La Plante’s habit of revealing a little too much about earlier cases or books may frustrate readers who are joining the series late. Agent: Gill Coleridge, Rogers, Coleridge & White.