In Their Blood

Starred review from July 20, 2009
At the start of Potts's debut, a red-hot suspense novel, a midnight intruder murders D.C. Stroeb, an economics professor at Miami Intercontinental University, and his CPA wife, Rachel, in their exclusive Lotus Island, Fla., estate. Oddly, the killer takes only the couple's laptops. Their 16-year-old daughter, Elise, who was home at the time, suffers emotional trauma in the aftermath. Their 22-year-old son, Jeremy, who can't believe anyone could kill his parents, returns from backpacking abroad to assume the guardianship of Elise, against the wishes of his lawyer uncle, Dwight Stroeb. Jeremy connects with a sympathetic Miami detective, gets a job at his mother's CPA firm and enrolls at his father's university, where he becomes involved with his father's female graduate assistant, a Peruvian-French sexpot. The clue hunt sizzles in a plot driven largely by shifty accounting. By the end, the dangers of creative number crunching are all too apparent.

August 1, 2009
Directionless and constantly at odds with his parents, twentysomething Jeremy Stroeb elects to remain in Europe when his parents and sister return home to Florida. Hes hardly said goodbye when hes told that his parents have been murdered, his sister narrowly avoiding the killer. In shock, Jeremy returns home to find his sister distraught, his predatory uncle poised to become her guardian, and the police investigation at a standstill. In an burst of selflessness, Jeremy steps up: he enrolls in the college where his father taught, takes a job at his mothers accounting firm, moves back with his sisterand determines to solve the crime. Unfortunately, his resolve falters when he begins to uncover uncomfortable truths about his parents, about the sexy coed hes fallen in love with, and about himself. The youthful protagonist, unusual in a genre that cleaves to older characters, is a refreshing surprise; the action unfolds in a crisply paced, unpretentious narrative; and an abundance of red herrings gives readers plenty to chew on as they try to figure out whodunit. A satisfying debut.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)