Measure of Blood

December 2, 2013
A tragic murder case preoccupies Richard Christie in George’s so-so seventh novel starring the Pittsburgh, Pa., homicide cop (after 2012’s Simple). Someone stabbed Maggie Brown to death, leaving her seven-year-old son, Matthew, to discover her corpse. The boy reported seeing a man arguing with his mother in their apartment—someone whom he’d seen once before, and who said he was Matthew’s father. With no relatives to claim Matthew, Christie decides to intervene to arrange for him to live with foster parents who are friends of the detective and who have been desperately hoping for a child. With the killer’s identity revealed early on, the narrative shifts from the police investigation to his efforts to both evade detection and connect with the boy he believes to be his son. Readers should be prepared for minimal complexity and an unremarkable plot. Agent: Otto Penzler.

December 15, 2013
Maggie Brown knew her affair with the much younger Nadal Brown was a mistake, and she broke it off. Then, several years later, she runs into him and learns that he is convinced he is the father of her son, Matt. That mistake is at the heart of this tragedy; Maggie is murdered, her son calls the police, and he is moved into foster care. But Detective Richard Christie has a better idea; friends of his have been trying to adopt, and he thinks the boy would be a good fit. The agency agrees, and the confused young boy finds himself in a new home. But Nadal is determined to get his son back, and while Christie is working hard to find Maggie's killer, he also finds the boy's true biological father. There are a lot of players here, but the story moves along rapidly; and while the child-in-jeopardy premise is a familiar one, the suspense keeps building as the fate of the boy hangs in the balance. Should appeal to fans of Mary Higgins Clark.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)