Blood Line

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.