Written in Blood – Chris Carter
A serial killer will stop at nothing…
The Killer
His most valuable possession has been stolen.
Now he must retrieve it, at any cost.
The Girl
Angela Wood wanted to teach the man a lesson. It was a bag, just like all the others.
But when she opens it, the worst nightmare of her life begins.
The Detective
A journal ends up at Robert Hunter’s desk. It soon becomes clear that there is a serial killer on the loose. And if he can’t stop him in time, more people will die.
If you have read it
You must die
My thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to join the Written in Blood tour. I recieved a review copy from the publisher.
I have always been a wee bit annoyed with myself that I let the first few Chris Carter books slip by when they first came out. Crime fiction has always been my favourite reading material and serial killer thrillers even more so. I love the cat and mouse element of a detective (usually) hunting down a prey. Carter’s Robert Hunter series are all dark tales consistently featuring some of the most grim crime scenes you can expect to read about. Despite being late to the series I swept up the early books and quickly caught up – over the last few years I now seek out the new Robert Hunter book as it is released…I don’t like the thought of there being a Chris Carter book I haven’t read.
When an author is assured of an immediate boost to the front of my teetering TBR pile it is a clear sign of the regard their books are held in. I read Written in Blood in two sittings over two evenings and it was everything I had hoped it would be.
Angela Wood is a pickpocket. One of the best in LA. THE best if you were to ask Angela. After a successful pre-Christmas afternoon she is over $600 to the good and decides to stop into a bar for a drink before she heads home. In the bar she overhears a big guy being extremely rude towards another patron so she decides to teach him a lesson by stealing his holdall. Angela is sucessful in securing the holdall but she has taken more than she bargained for – inside the bag is a notebook. Not the electronic kind – a large leather-bound book in which a killer has documented a number of murders he has committed. There are photographs attached to the pages to evidence his labours. Angela panics and delivers the book to the police where it soon reaches the attention of Robert Hunter.
Hunter and his partner, Carlos Garcia, determine the authenticity of the deaths described in the killers notebook and the hunt for a sadistic murderer begins. It appears he has committed multiple crimes over a prolonged period of time yet not drawn attention to himself. The manner of each murder varies and the documenation the cops are reviewing suggests the killer is being guided by voices he hears who then tell him what to do. Hunter thinks they are likely seeking someone with sever mental health issues but the more he reads into the notebook the less likely this appears.
Both Hunter and Angela have a problem though. The killer is not happy to have lost his notebook and he wants it back. He is clearly a resourceful individual as within a very short space of time he has identified the thief and established that the police have the notebook. He engages with both Angela and Hunter and demands his book be returned – there is no doubt in his mind that this is what is going to happen. A confrontation beckons and it is not clear how many lives may be lost before the killer gets his way.
Fast paced, clinical writing style and utterly engrossing. Written in Blood is easily one of my favourite books in the Robert Hunter series and without doubt one of the most enjoyable reads in 2020.
Written in Blood is published by Simon & Schuster and is available in Hardback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07XCRN85H/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0
