Blood Lies

BLOOD LIES is a complex story constructed around a seemingly impossible situation: DNA analysis reveals that the blood found at the murder scene of a woman is that of her former fiancé, a doctor with no alibi, but he says he didn't do it. So, who did? And how did his blood end up at the crime scene? Anthony Heald moves the story along with a performance that captures the tension of the work. Heald has the tough job of making his hero, Dr. Ben Dafoe, seem as mystified as the listener. Yet Dafoe is clearly keeping something from the police and the listener. This is an interesting look into a world in which right and wrong are not so easily distinguished. M.S. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

Starred review from April 23, 2007
F
ans of intelligent contemporary whodunits who enjoyed Scott Turow’s debut, Presumed Innocent
, will find welcome echoes of that modern classic in the fourth novel from Canadian author Kalla (Rage Therapy
), who’s also an ER physician. When drug addict Emily Kenmore is found with her neck slashed in her Seattle condo, Ben Dafoe, a doctor at a local hospital who’s worked as a police consultant, chooses not to tell the cops that he was once secretly engaged to Emily or that he had threatened the unidentified dead man found with her for supplying her habit. The discovery of Dafoe’s rare blood type at the scene of the double homicide prompts him to flee to Canada, in search of his twin brother, Aaron, a chronic drug user who shares the same blood type. Dafoe had believed Aaron had been dead for two years, but now suspects he’s still alive. The twists are well done, and Kalla has a gift rare in the thriller field for creating sympathetic characters.

Starred review from July 30, 2007
Kalla and Heald make a winning pair. Kalla is an ER doctor in his native Canada by day and a gifted thriller writer by night. Heald boasts an impressive résumé, reinforced here in the invaluable contribution he makes to this audio's excellence. Heald is best remembered as Hannibal Lector's worst nightmare in the film Silence of the Lambs
and his recurring judicial role on TV's Boston Legal
, but he also has more than 60 audio books to his credit. Heald's most impressive quality is the cool edge he gives his voice to differentiate between all the characters. Not to spoil the fun for any prospective listener, the blood and lies of the plot have to do with identical twins, someone coming back from the dead, a rare blood type being found at the scene of a double homicide and enough drugs to keep an ER running for a long time. Thriller fans are in for a smart, fast-moving and surprising ride. Simultaneous release with the Forge hardcover (Reviews, Apr. 23).