Customer Reviews

Blood Brother

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Carson Ryder is back and he is in pursuit of his most dangerous adversary yet - his own brother.

Alabama homicide detective, Carson Ryder has been summoned to New York. An old friend has been viciously murdered and only Ryder has the skill and insight to solve the crime. As Ryder investigates, his worst fears are realised as he discovers that his brother has escaped from the mental institution that has kept him secreted away for almost decade. As the investigation gathers momentum, the threat of danger escalates and Ryder has to battle the clock to solve the crime, save the girl, and catch an escaped lunatic. This book is a feast for fans of the thriller.

Blood Brother, the fifth of the Carson Ryder novels, is a thriller by the numbers--you have a damsel in distress, a main character with a dark past, and a few intriguing, if somewhat predictable, twists. J.A. Kerley, the author, combines elements of Silence of the Lambs with the fear factor of the Kay Scarpetta novels written by Patricia Cornwell. If Kerley's book has one flaw, it is that New York never really comes alive in the pages of this book. The setting could be anywhere and if you are going to set a novel in somewhere like New York City you should at the very least allude to the atmosphere or grandeur inherent in such a celebrated city.

Blood Brother is an easy read and offers its readers thrills and chills in equal measure. It is a must read for anyone who likes the Hannibal books, although the characterisation is not up to Thomas Harris' standard. But for those of you who just want a quick holiday read that won't tax the old brain cells too much, this is the book for you.

So sit back and relax as Carson Ryder steps into action once more. Expect grisly murders and killer twists - enjoy!

Mobile, Alabama police detective Carson Ryder and his partner Harry Nautilus work a special detail that investigates homicides with possible psychiatric motives, i.e. serial killers. He is surprised and confused when he is immediately summoned to New York City, with no time to pack or make other arrangements for his trip, and no explanation. When he arrives, he quickly learns that his friend and colleague Evangeline Prowse was the victim of a brutal murder, and before her death requested Carson personally investigate the crime.

Dr. Prowse was the director of a mental institution in Alabama that housed many violently insane criminals, included Carson's brother, Jeremy Ridgecliff. Carson had gone to great lengths to conceal the fact that he is Jeremy's brother, including changing his name and erasing a lot of his family history, including the extremely violent death of his abusive father, killed by Jeremy. Very few people knew his secret, and Dr. Prowse and Harry were two of them.

Carson was not warmly welcomed by the NYPD, who suspect his is nothing more than a hick detective, and treated him accordingly. Carson soon discovers he has a huge secret to keep: the suspected killer of Dr. Prowse is Jeremy, and he seems to be tormenting the citizens of New York.

As the investigation continues, the NYPD detectives warm up to Carson, slowly, but begin to trust him and his advice. However, when NY detective and Caron's new love interest Alice Folger goes missing, presumably taken by Jeremy, Carson has to protect Jeremy to keep Alice alive. He soon discovers a way to contact Jeremy to learn more than he could have imagined: Jeremy is not guilty of killing Dr. Prowse, nor did he kill the many people he was accused of killing many years ago. Instead, it was another man, a former police officer who investigated the death of Carson's and Jeremy's father, and now he is hunting Alice.

This is a great story by Jack Kerley. Although it is his fifth completed book featuring Carson Ryder, it is only the fourth published. It tells a great story, and sets the stage for the possibility of Carson moving to New York City. Carson is a wonderfully developed character, with uncertainty, charm, secrets to keep, and very likeable. In this book Jeremy takes a different turn, not guilty of the killing of the many people he was accused of killing, disgusted by murder, not able to stomach it. However, in at least one of the previous novels, Jeremy took great pleasure in causing Carson pain, seemingly in conflict to who he was in this book. That said, Jack Kerley has become one of my favorite authors in this genre and I look forward to reading his Carson Ryder series for many years.

This book features Jeremy, Carson Ryder's psychotic brother, escaping from the insane asylum and leading police (and Carson) on a dangerous chase. Many of the secrets in the "Ryder" family are revealed and Carson learns more about his big brother. He also learns about himself and what he's capable of. Jeremy comes across as a more likable character here. I thoroughly enjoyed reading more in depth about how Carson and Jeremy came to be who they are and why their relationship is as it is. The possibility of their future cat-and-mouse relationship (with Jeremy as the cat) is hinted at and something I look forward to seeing developed.

Where to start?

Lets begin with what Blood Brother is not: Blood Brother is not Silence of the Lambs, despite trying so hard I'm surprised there wasn't a copyright lawsuit.

The plot of course, tries to be twisty but is somewhat predictable, most of it is given away in the blurb, and if anyone is genuinely surprised by any development in this book (I mean surprised as in "I didn't expect that" NOT "I didn't expect this to be so BAD") I would be amused to hear from them.

The protaganist of this piece is identicle to Claurice Starling (Hello Claurice) which is unfortunate given that he is supposed to be a dude. After the first half of the book apologising to the local cops whose jurisiction he has entered Ryder suddenly smacks around a colleague for being sexist, and starts telling guys to PULL IT TOGETHER his raw manlyness shown with CAPITAL LETTERS.

About the only thing of worth in this book is the relationship between the brothers (if you haven't clicked the detective and the villian are brothers) which doesn't get much page-time and is quickly soured but the absolute disgusting treatment of mental illness in this book.

Now, I'm very much used to serial killer thrillers misusing mental illness and psychopathology to pen a good tale. Perhaps because he fails to write a good story, Kerley's representation of schizophrenia verges on Nazism, and the final scene of the story leaves acceptable suspension of disbelief about 5 leagues behind.

The worst thing about Blood Brother is while reading it, one can't help but be aware of what the book is trying to be, it's trying to be politcally relevant. it's trying to be psychological, its trying to have a compelling (probably hoping for a reusable) main character, and in case you haven't been paying attention to this review Blood Brother fails on all counts.

Rant over.

Blood Brother, by J.A. Kerley, is a pretty decent book. It's the story of an Alabama policeman who's asked to fly to New York to help with the murder of a psychiatrist from his state. She isn't your average psychiatrist either. She ran the state's asylum for the criminally insane.

It turns out that it's actually the policeman's brother (and patient at the asylum) who's involved in the murder (and a number of other particularly gross murders that occur in the book). The NYPD naturally isn't that bothered if they catch dead or alive. Carson Ryder, the cop, isn't so keen on the dead idea, so tries to catch his brother before the police do. The Alabaman then sets off to do just that.

On the face of it, the book is daft. Who's ever heard of a genius mass murderer being related to a bright cop for example? But that having been said, the pace of the story helps you forget its' basic daftness.

If you can accept the basic silliness of the story, you'll enjoy this book.

Carson Ryder is summoned to New York because Dr. Evangeline Prowse has been murdered and there was a very mysterious videotape left at the scene simply insisting that he be allowed to help the NYPD. So Ryder hightails it to the Big Apple only to find out that not only is Vangie dead, but his brother Jeremy is also missing or missing from the Institute that Dr. Prowse was the head of back in Mobile for all of the dangerous "crazies" and that he had apparently come to New York with Dr. Prowse. Things continue to disintegrate but Carson, ever resourceful manages to utilize his "special skills" and help NYPD.

Ok, I realize this book was supposed to be a thriller but it was like watching the most cheesy, campy and cliched horror movie in the world and laughing out loud when the girl runs upstairs or falls because you always know what is coming. There is a complete suspension of reality in this book, which I found absurd, and just outright annoying. No one would ever be just considered an expert because of a psych degree or welcomed onto a case because of a weird video left at a crime scene, questioned maybe, asked to help with an entire investigation, no. This entire novel was an exercise in futility because it was too many take offs on other much more successful (good) books and I just wonder if anything could have been done to put this poor thing out of it's misery.