Blood Lines
A
Sarah Armstrong Mystery
Kathryn
Casey
St.
Martin's Minotaur (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 0-312-37951-X (031237951X)
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-37951-3 (9780312379513)
Publication Date: July 2009
List Price: $24.99
Synopsis (from
the publisher): Sarah Armstrong has her hands full with two cases at
once: A persistent and potentially lethal stalker pursues pop mega-star
Cassidy Collins, and a high-energy Houston businesswoman is found dead
in her house.
Though the businesswoman’s death is being called a suicide,
when Sarah is shown photographs of the scene, something seems off. It
looks too perfect, almost staged, and Billie Cox apparently had every
reason to live. The victim’s sister is convinced Billie was
murdered and urges Sarah to take a closer look. During her
investigation, Sarah uncovers a multimillion-dollar scam and traces a
trail of greed to Billie’s murderer.
Meanwhile, teenage idol Cassidy receives threatening e-mails and text
messages and hears creepy whispers over her headset at performances.
Cassie’s next performance is at a Houston rodeo, for which
her handlers request extra security. Sarah once again teams up with FBI
agent David Garrity, and together they plot to outwit and capture the
stalker, but at the concert the unthinkable happens.
Review:
Kathryn Casey interweaves what are essentially three stand-alone
novellas, each of which could assume the book's title, into one volume,
Bloodlines,
the second in her series featuring Texas Ranger Sarah Armstrong.
Two of the storylines are mysteries in the sense they involve Sarah
professionally. The more interesting of these is the suicide of a
Houston oil company executive, Elizabeth "Billie" Cox. Sarah visits the
scene of the woman's death, and is immediately suspicious: it looks
staged, too perfect. But there is no obvious evidence to support her
suspicions. Her investigation into Billie's death leads to a complex
business deal that she was involved with, and information that she had
been having an affair, though with whom is unknown. Then there's
Billie's sister, Faith, who insists her sister's spirit is
communicating with her. The forensic evidence that is uncovered,
together with Sarah's insightful questioning of the suspects, and even
the "ghostly" happenings in Billie's office, all make for an enjoyable,
credible and satisfying procedural investigation.
The second mystery involves a pop singer, Cassidy Collins, who is being
targeted by an obsessive fan, one capable of intercepting live audio
feeds, replacing the singer's headphone music with words along the
lines of "I'm here, and I've come for you." Cassidy's tour is bringing
her to Dallas and Houston, and her manager wants assurances that
Cassidy can be protected while in the state. Furthermore, a prime
suspect is a student at Rice University in Houston. Sarah is assigned
the task of doing background checks, and securing the venues prior to
Cassidy's arrival. While this storyline has potential, there's really
little suspense, the relationship that develops
between Sarah and Cassidy is not believable, and the outcome is just a
little too pat.
Finally, there's the non-mystery storyline involving Sarah, her mother
and daughter, and the difficult birth of a foal on Sarah's ranch. Most
mysteries have a personal backstory for the lead characters, but here
it is written almost as a stand-alone narrative. It's touching,
poignant, and
quite rewarding in and of itself.
Taken together, Bloodlines
reads like three days in the life of a multi-processing Sarah
Armstrong. It's certainly not the typical approach to a mystery novel,
and while it generally works, in the end it's also slightly
disappointing that there was nothing to link the stories together ...
other than the book's title.
Special thanks to St. Martin's Minotaur for providing a copy of Blood Lines for this review.
Review Copyright © 2009 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Have you read Blood Lines? How would you rate it?
Mysteries in this series ...
Singularity
St. Martin's Minotaur (Hardcover), June 2008
ISBN-10: 0-312-37950-1 (0312379501)
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-37950-6 (9780312379506)
Blood Lines
St. Martin's Minotaur (Hardcover), July 2009
ISBN-10: 0-312-37951-X (031237951X)
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-37951-3 (9780312379513)
Omnimystery
keywords for Blood Lines
...
Location(s) referenced: Houston,
Texas.
