Book Review: Written in Blood by Layton Green

Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this book free of charge,from Prometheus Books via Edelweiss, for review purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it,  all opinions are my own.

Since we're on the topic of Irish history, the U2 song comes to mind, "Sunday Bloody Sunday", so why not a couple of 'bloody' book reviews? LOL

Here's number one!

It doesn't come out until November, but I would highly recommend pre-ordering -
it's just THAT good!

Synopsis:

Detective Joe “Preach” Everson, a prison chaplain turned police officer, is coming home. After a decade tracking down killers in Atlanta, and with a reputation as one of the finest homicide detectives in the city, his career derailed when he suffered a mental breakdown during the investigation of a serial killer who was targeting children.

No sooner does Preach arrive at home in Creekville, North Carolina—a bohemian community near Chapel Hill—than a local bookstore owner is brutally killed, the first murder in a decade. The only officer with homicide experience, Preach is assigned to the case and makes a shocking discovery: the bookstore owner has been murdered in exactly the same manner as the pawnbroker in Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment.

With the help of Ariana Hale, a law student and bibliophile who knew the victim, Preach investigates the local writer’s community. As their questions increase, a second body is found, this time eerily resembling the crime scene in a famous Edgar Allan Poe novella. Preach and Ariana realize that their adversary is an intelligent, literate killer with a mind as devious as it is disturbed. And one or both of them may be his next target.

Review:

This was the first of Green's books that I had read, but it won't be the last! Preach is a flawed character, but it is in his flaws that he becomes such an interesting character! He is an 'old school' lawman, without realizing, or trying to be. Yet he is willing to seek out alternative detective methods, if it means solving the case. This book is like a police procedural for literary lovers. As the reader deduces with Preach, we attempt to figure out what the literary nuances mean, and why the killer used them. Full of fast pacing and fast dialogue, this is a book that is a true page turner until literally the last page! Don't say I didn't warn you, when you get addicted to the series! 

About the Author:

Layton Green is a mystery, suspense, and thriller writer and the author of the Dominic Grey series, as well as other works of fiction. His novels have been optioned for film, nominated for multiple awards—including a finalist for an International Thriller Writers award—and have topped numerous genre lists in the United States, the UK, and Germany. In addition to writing, Green attended law school in New Orleans and was a practicing attorney for the better part of a decade. He has also been an intern for the United Nations, an ESL teacher in Central America, a bartender in London, a seller of cheap knives on the streets of Brixton, a door to door phone book deliverer in Florida, and the list goes downhill from there. He now lives in Durham, NC. You can also visit him on Facebook, Goodreads, or on his website .