Blood Island by H. Terrell Griffin, a Mysterious Review.

Review: Matt Royal follows the trail of his ex-wife's missing stepdaughter Peggy to a mysterious island in the south Florida keys in Blood Island, the third mystery in this series by H. Terrell Griffin.

Matt's initial inquiries into the girl's disappearance are met with a surprising response: someone tries to kill him. Rather than being a deterrent, it prompts the opposite response from Matt. Nothing short of putting him six feet under is going to stop him now. Everything he learns seems to point to Key West as the key (as it were) to solving the mystery. He heads there undercover and soon locates Peggy on an isolated private island with a storied history, Blood Island. But before he can get her to safety, she tells him of a mysterious plot to blow people up, and that the island's owner is behind it. In a race against time, Matt uses every resource available to stop what may be start of the next world war.

Readers who seek fast and furious action in their mysteries need look no further than Blood Island. A cozy it most certainly is not. Matt is a fearless protagonist, but also strategic. He knows when he needs help and his buddies are willing and able to be there when he calls. Somewhat ironically, though, the plot is at its strongest when Matt is on his own in Key West searching for Peggy. It's here that the disparate pieces to the puzzle start to come together and the narrative is more foreboding and atmospheric. Still, the relentless pace and ever increasing body count don't quite disguise the occasional lapse in logic, but that's almost certainly not the primary objective of Blood Island. For a mystery that means to entertain its reader, it does that and more in spades.

Acknowledgment: Oceanview Publishing provided a copy of Blood Island for this review.

Wyatt's Revenge
Oceanview Publishing (Hardcover), November 2009
ISBN-13: 9781933515533; ISBN-10: 1933515538

Blood Island

A Matt Royal Mystery by H. Terrell Griffin