Blood Like Mine by Stuart Neville

 

FBI agent Marc Donner's role on the Cybercrimes task force is to track down groomers and pedophiles. Rebecca Carter is also tracking them down but for a completely different reason. This puts them on a collision course.

Blood Like Mine by Stuart Neville sat on the periphery of my interest for quite a while but didn't quite have the pull to leap to the front. Suddenly, there seemed to be a lot of chatter on Twitter praising the book, including from people I know have very similar tastes to my own. Hence, the book made its way to my wish list. I was then very fortunate to win a competition on Twitter run by @Tr4cyFent0n and Simon & Schuster for a copy of the book, a book I devoured in a couple of days.

I know quite a few of the reviews of the book have said that you're better off going in blind as far as the story is concerned and I completely agree with them. If you enjoy thrillers featuring the FBI and police hunting a fugitive then this book is right up your street.

Rebecca Carter and her daughter are on the run, they live in a van, eking out an existence in any way they can. Rebecca has two aims in life. Firstly, to keep her daughter safe. Secondly, to track down groomers and pedophiles and kill them. It's a bleak existence, obviously not something a person would choose to do lightly. Through a series of letters and journal entries, we learn about Rebecca's background and the events that led to her current situation.

On the trail of Rebecca is Special Agent Marc Donner. Donner works in the Cybercrimes unit of the FBI, also tracking down groomers and pedophiles. Through his investigation he has noticed an increase in the killing and mutilation of animals close to the murders of a number of pedophiles. Through this, he manages to put himself on a trajectory with Rebecca. A battle of wills ensues between the pair; it's a case of an immovable object meeting an irresistible force and you begin to wonder if either will survive.

Both Rebecca and Donner are deeply flawed characters. Rebecca is blinkered in her devotion to her daughter. Donner's erratic behaviour has already lost him his family and is likely to lead to him losing his job as he is driven by his obsession to catch Rebecca. As a reader, you just know that things are not going to end well.

Author Details

Stuart Neville's debut novel, The Twelve (published in the USA as The Ghosts of Belfast), won the Mystery/Thriller category of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and was picked as one of the top crime novels of 2009 by both the New York Times and the LA Times. He has since published ten more critically acclaimed books, two of which were under the pen name Haylen Beck, and a collection of short stories. He has been shortlisted for several awards, including the MWA Edgar Award for Best Novel, the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, the Barry, Macavity, and Dilys awards, and the Irish Book Awards Crime Novel of the Year.