Blood Matters by Ian McFadyen

Blood Matters

by Ian McFadyen

My thanks to Ian for sending me copy to review and to 

Rachel for inviting me onto the tour.

Synopsis

When the body of Doug Pritchard, an aging music journalist with a history of sensational scoops, is found face down in a dark roadside ditch, DCI Carmichael and his team embark on an investigation that takes them in several directions.
What did Pritchard uncover?
Did that secret bring about his violent demise?
And do the tragic deaths of two local pop idols, twenty years before, have any relevance to his murder?  
As DCI Carmichael delves deeper into the case it becomes clear that, despite the outwardly close connections of the residents of the small hamlet of High Maudsey, neither long term friendships nor family ties should be taken at face value.
This the tenth in his series of well-honed detective novels by Ian McFadyen featuring DCI Carmichael, leads the detective and his team through as many twists and turns as the quiet country lane where Doug Pritchard's body was discovered
As with all McFadyen's Carmichael novels, this book is packed with a host of intriguing characters and an expertly crafted plot; and once again the author displays his skill as a writer in the great tradition of English crime novels.

My Review

Gosh where to start !!!!!!!
This book gripped me from the very beginning with its easy descriptive text that set the scene right from the very first paragraph. DCI Carmichael and his team have their work cut out as they work hard to uncover the links between everyone and try and fathom out who would want to harm someone and why.
Page after page I kept analysing what I knew,along with DCI Carmichael at the end of each shift when he updates the bulletin board. My brain kept constantly questioning who I thought was responsible at the time and then as I read a few more pages changing my mind yet again.
Some aspects I thought were easy to work out, others not so and it is this that keeps you reading page after page  while the world carries on around you. As I said previously it is an easy book to read and consequently I read it in two sittings to the detriment of everything else that I should have been doing that weekend !!!!
Ian McFadyen is an author I had not come across before, however, even though this is the tenth book in the DCI Carmichael series it does read well as a standalone and I did not feel that I had missed anything by not having read the other books previously. That said I will however be acquiring more of Ian’s books to read over the cold winter night ahead.

About Ian

Ian McFadyen was born in Liverpool and enjoyed a successful career in marketing before becoming a writer. He lives in Hertfordshire with his wife but spends a great deal of his time writing in his bolthole retreat on the Norfolk / Suffolk border. Blood Matters is the tenth in a series featuring DCI Carmichael.