Life Blood
A Rachel Chavez Mystery
Penny Rudolph
Poisoned Pen Press (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-59058-346-9 (1590583469)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-346-3 (9781590583463)
Publication Date: September 2007
List Price: $24.95
Synopsis (from
the publisher): Rachel Chavez, a recovering alcoholic, owns and lives
in an apartment on the top floor of a parking garage in downtown Los
Angeles. She leases parking space and the use of the rooftop helicopter
pad to nearby businesses. Tough but vulnerable, she is struggling to
stay sober and keep her business afloat.
Rachel is horrified when she discovers two young Mexican boys locked in
an apparently abandoned van in the garage. She rushes them to the
emergency room. Doctors declare one dead on arrival. The other,
dehydrated but alive, is admitted to the hospital. But when Rachel
checks back the next day, the Medical Center has no record of either
child.
Wary of the police because her own checkered past includes a DWI and
arrest for drug possession, Rachel is obsessed with finding an
explanation. Meanwhile, Hank, a workaholic water quality engineer,
wants to marry her when his divorce is final. But now Rachel, enmeshed
in her search for answers and her own Mexican roots, isn't certain
marriage is for her.
When the hospital leases parking space in her garage for staff, she
believes her life is finally on track. But instead it's just becoming
more complicated ... and dangerous.
Review: Los Angeles parking garage owner Rachel Chavez finds herself involved in the activities of a mysterious hospital in Life Blood, the second entry in this series by Penny Rudolph.
Life Blood starts out
with an intriguing premise. Rachel finds two children in an apparently
abandoned van in her garage. Rushing them to the nearest hospital,
she's informed that one is dead and the other alive in critical
condition. Returning the next day to follow up on the one that
survived, she's told there is no record of two children having ever
been there the day before, dead or alive. When she continues to
investigate on her own, she's accused of stealing a controlled
substance from the hospital and arrested. Later, an attempt is made on
her life. She's convinced that the two missing children are the key to
understanding why someone wants, at a minimum, to see her in jail or
worse, dead.
Following a strong opening, however, Life Blood
rapidly loses its way. Part of the problem is in the shifting points of
view that add no real value and have the unfortunate effect of
specifically lessening any mystery associated with the hospital and its
staff. In addition, there are oddly placed and completely irrelevant
side stories dealing with Rachel's father. There are also attempts at
injecting elements of a medical suspense thriller here and there but
none are successful.
Rudolph challenges the reader of Life Blood
with a couple of fundamental questions. Does the end result justify the
means? Is there a greater good? There is never an easy answer to either
one, but in the case as presented in this book, it should be an
unequivocal and resounding no. It is shocking, therefore, that in the
end Rachel not only calmly accepts the situation, but makes a seriously
flawed decision that not only makes her complicit in the crimes being
committed but a moral hypocrite as well.
It is rare that a book starts so promisingly yet ends so poorly. Life Blood is a disappointment in every sense of the word.
Special thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for providing an ARC of Life Blood for this review.
Review Copyright © 2007 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.
Mysteries in this series ...
Thicker Than Blood
Poisoned Pen Press (Hardcover), 2005
ISBN-10: 1-59058-148-2 (1590581482)
Life Blood
Poisoned Pen Press (Hardcover), 2007
ISBN-10: 1-59058-346-9 (1590583469)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-346-3 (9781590583463)
Omnimystery keywords for Life Blood ...
Location(s) referenced: Los Angeles.