Brothers in Blood

October 7, 2013
This grim crime novel from Davies (Forests of the Night) starts off stronger than it finishes. A journal written by Russell Blake between 1968 and 1970 recounts his sick friendship with fellow teen Laurence Barker, who, like Blake, lives in Huddersfield, a dreary West Yorkshire town with an aura of despair that Davies captures perfectly (“there was still enough of the town’s pre-war industrial past in evidence to keep it parochial and old fashioned despite the creeping cheap veneer of Sixties sophistication which was gradually invading the place”). After meeting at a party, Blake and Barker realize that they are both bright and bored, and with a mutual foe in a hated teacher, they plan a sadistic revenge involving the teacher’s beloved dog. Soon the pair is committing random murders. By 1984, Det. Insp. Paul Snow, a policeman with a secret, is on their trail. The nihilism of Blake’s narrative won’t be to every taste.

November 1, 2013
In 1968, it was just the two of them, bored out of their minds at Greenbank Sixth Form College: Laurence, who created the projects, and his devoted, unimaginative disciple, Russell. For their first project, they killed a dog. Then along came like-minded Alex, and a blood exchange bonded the thrill-kill trio. Eventually, they killed a man. The teens became men leading separate lives, but once a year, with Laurence orchestrating the details, they met for an excursion of delight: they would pick a victim who wouldn't be missed and do the deed. But in 1984 things changedAlex was brutally gang raped, and the brothers changed the rules of their annual game. They went out for revengeand things went awry. Enter Detective Superintendent Paul Snow, who soon realizes he has come across a crime that might end his career, whether he catches the killers or not. Davies, the author of the Johnny Hawke detective novels, set in London during the Blitz, spreads his wings here and casts an impressive shadow. Unfolding in relentless increments, this dark, disturbing British thriller will be hard to put down.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)