Blood Trust
A Jack McClure Mystery by Eric Van Lustbader
Review: When Alli Carson, a former President's daughter, is accused of murder at a special operations institute for FBI agents, National Security Advisor Jack McClure steps in to determine the truth in Blood Trust, the third mystery in this series by Eric Van Lustbader.
President Carson is dead from a tragic automobile accident that also critically injured his wife. But now she, too, has died following complications from surgery. Alli, who is attending an elite training facility, has always looked up to McClure, the man who has given her guidance and support over the years, and now she needs him more than ever when her boyfriend Billy Warren, who she was seen arguing with just days earlier, is murdered. Two powerful forces are soon at odds here: Alli's wealthy and politically connected uncle, who claims to have her best interests at heart but is really trying to protect his own; and McClure, who has the resources of the Federal government at his disposal in his effort to identify Warren's killer and why he was killed.
Blood Trust is more than simply an action-packed thriller — which, indeed it is — in that there's an underlying message that drives the plot: we may think we're choosing out paths in life, but there are often vast and hidden forces that compel us into situations, sometimes against our will. Truths are frequently hidden and when exposed — if exposed — it may be more far complicated and conflicted than we can imagine. It is how this message is applied that gives this multi-layered novel depth and interest beyond the characters and their individual deeds. Too, there is much going on here, with the action swiftly moving and involving terrorists and human trafficking and corruption at the highest levels of government. Standard fare, but made so much better by the presence of McClure and Alli, who bring their own complementary strengths to the story and elevate it as a result.
Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Blood Trust.
Acknowledgment: Authors on the Web provided a copy of Blood Trust for this review.
Review Copyright © 2011 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Selected reviews of other mysteries by this author …
Last Snow
Forge (Hardcover), February 2010
ISBN-13: 9780765325150; ISBN-10: 0765325152
Location(s) referenced in Blood Trust: Washington DC
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Blood Trust by Eric Van Lustbader
Publisher: Forge
Format: Hardcover
ISBN-10: 0-765-32974-3
ISBN-13: 978-0-765-32974-5
Publication Date: May 2011
List Price: $25.99
Synopsis (from the publisher): Alli Carson has been through her own personal hell. With her father, the President of the United States, recently dead and her mother in a coma from a terrible accident, she has poured herself into her training to become one of the best FBI agents at the Fearington Institute. Her inspiration and solace comes from the one man with whom she has ever felt a kinship, National Security Adviser, Jack McClure. But when Alli becomes the prime suspect in a murder at Fearington, a wide ranging investigation is triggered, involving local homicide detectives, the secret service, the FBI itself, and Alli’s own uncle, the billionaire lobbyist Henry Carson. And yet nothing is what it seems.
What follows is a treacherous journey that leads Jack and Alli into a complex web of lies and deceit. Using Jack’s unique gifts to see the through the labyrinth of manipulation, their investigation leads them into the dark heart of the international slave trade, tied to a powerful Albanian crime lord whose ability and influence in global terrorism grows with each day.
The two find themselves in the crosshairs of vast global enterprise, one that lurks in the shadows of power and has infiltrated Washington and their lives in ways neither of them could ever have imagined. And hidden deep among it all sits a terrifying criminal mastermind, someone fueled by a hatred that can never be quenched, and a mind that knows neither feeling nor mercy.