Blood Lies [Mass Market Paperback]

Daniel Kalla (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 4, 2008

Ben Dafoe, a young emergency-room doctor and part-time crime-scene consultant for the Seattle Police Department, is haunted by addiction. Two years earlier, a cocaine and crystal-meth habit claimed the life of his identical twin, Aaron. Now Ben walks onto the scene of a savage stabbing to find that the victim is his former fiancée, Emily Kenmore—another loved one who fell prey to drugs. Part of the carnage in Emily’s bedroom is a single streak of blood caked on the wall.

 

When the DNA from that sample matches Ben’s, he becomes the prime suspect.

 

Convinced his identical twin is still alive and somehow involved in Emily’s death, Ben goes on the run, aiming to find Aaron. Working under an assumed identity at an inner-city clinic, Ben desperately searches for Aaron while playing cat-and-mouse with the authorities.

 

But someone is determined to thwart his hunt at any cost. In the story’s final twist, the truth hits closer to home and more lethally than Ben ever imagined.
 
Set against the backdrop of the ER, Blood Lies is a medical thriller and a Fugitive-style suspense novel with a major twist. As Ben struggles to solve a tragic mystery from his past and clear his name, he might just learn that, sometimes, blood lies. . . .

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Fans of intelligent contemporary whodunits who enjoyed Scott Turow's debut, Presumed Innocent, will find welcome echoes of that modern classic in the fourth novel from Canadian author Kalla (Rage Therapy), who's also an ER physician. When drug addict Emily Kenmore is found with her neck slashed in her Seattle condo, Ben Dafoe, a doctor at a local hospital who's worked as a police consultant, chooses not to tell the cops that he was once secretly engaged to Emily or that he had threatened the unidentified dead man found with her for supplying her habit. The discovery of Dafoe's rare blood type at the scene of the double homicide prompts him to flee to Canada, in search of his twin brother, Aaron, a chronic drug user who shares the same blood type. Dafoe had believed Aaron had been dead for two years, but now suspects he's still alive. The twists are well done, and Kalla has a gift rare in the thriller field for creating sympathetic characters. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Kalla, an emergency-room physician who started writing novels only recently, has quickly matured into a force to be reckoned with. His latest effort is his best yet, fast paced and smartly written. Ben Dafoe, an ER doctor, is shocked to find out that his former fiancee has been murdered. The killer got away but left behind blood evidence--it's a rare blood type that matches Ben's own. Suddenly he's the prime suspect, but Ben has another idea: maybe his twin brother, a drug addict who disappeared two years ago, isn't dead after all. To buy time to find his brother, Ben goes under the radar, taking a false name and staying one step ahead of the police while he tries to find a man everyone believes is dead. While similar in theme to The Fugitive, the novel springs several fresh surprises on the reader (including one whopping great shocker). Fans of the medically themed thrillers of Michael Palmer, Tess Gerritsen, or Leonard Goldberg will want to add Kalla to their list of must-read authors. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books; 1st edition (March 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765357925
• ISBN-13: 978-0765357922
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #833,956 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #70 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Mystery & Thrillers > Thrillers > Medical

More About the Author

Born, raised, and still residing in Vancouver, Kalla spends his days (and sometimes nights) working as an ER Physician in an urban teaching hospital.

The idea for his first medical thriller, PANDEMIC, sprang from his clinical experience in facing the SARS crisis of 2003. He has written five science thrillers and or medical mysteries, delving into themes and topics as diverse as superbugs, drug addiction, prions, DNA evidence, pandemics and patient abuse.

Kalla's sixth book, OF FLESH AND BLOOD, is a departure from the medical thriller genre. Featuring two multi-generational families, a major West Coast medical center and interwoven storylines, he tackles the human condition through the loves, lives and struggles of characters connected by lineage and bound by family secrets.

His books have been translated into ten languages, and Pandemic and Resistance have been optioned for feature films.

Daniel received his MD from the University of British Columbia. He is married and the proud father of two girls in a home predominated by the XX chromosome (even his beloved Labrador retriever, Lola, is female.)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "It just keeps getting more complicated.", July 3, 2007

By 

E. Bukowsky "booklover10" (NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Blood Lies (Hardcover)

In Daniel Kalla's "Blood Lies," a Seattle-based emergency room doctor named Ben Dafoe is suspected of butchering his ex-girlfriend, Emily Kenmore, and her drug dealer, Jason DiAngelo. Blood evidence at the scene ties Ben to the killings, even though he insists that he has done nothing wrong. Ben fears that his friend in the Seattle Police Department, Detective Helen Riddell, and her cynical partner, Richard Sutcliffe, are planning to place him under arrest for a crime that he did not commit. Another horrifying thought is that these killings are somehow related to the fate of Ben's identical twin brother, Aaron, who was an addict trying to kick the habit when he disappeared two years earlier. Aaron's body was never found, but everyone assumes that he is dead. Could Aaron have survived or even faked his own death in order to escape from his unsavory acquaintances? Since Aaron knew Emily, and both of them were involved with narcotics, Ben believes that their deaths must be connected. His only chance to clear his name and learn the truth is to conduct his own investigation.

Assisting Ben are his cousin, Kyle Dafoe, and his beautiful colleague, Dr. Alex Lindquist, who is unhappily married and secretly attracted to Ben. Kyle and Alex act as Ben's sounding board, confidantes, and support system. Part of Ben's motivation for playing detective and risking his life is guilt, since he was the one who encouraged Aaron to get high in the first place. In addition, although he loved Emily very much, Ben called off their engagement, fearing that she would never be able to break free of her addictions.

This novel adheres closely to the typical conventions of the genre: a hunky hero hustles to prove himself blameless by finding a criminal mastermind without the help of the authorities; a number of red herrings are thrown in to confuse the reader; the protagonist finds the love of his life, but inevitably obstacles arise that prevent the couple from being together. Finally, there is the surprise conclusion with its unexpected revelations (some of which are not terribly shocking). Kalla's writing is uneven and often heavy-handed, but the hospital scenes are exciting and the medical details have an air of authenticity. Although "Blood Lies" is far from an outstanding thriller, it has enough energy to provide a few hours of escapist entertainment.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Forensics and Details, September 4, 2007

By 

Charlean Souligne (Port St. Lucie, Fl. USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blood Lies (Hardcover)

BLOOD LIES
Daniel Kalla
9780765318329
Tom Doherty, 2007.


This is a twisted book of clues and non-clues, of more than one perpetrator, and lots of misinformation.

Dr. Benjamin Dafoe is sometimes called upon to assist the Seattle PD with suspicious deaths involving poisons. He is an ER doctor that would rather ride his bicycle 25 miles at a time than sit in a bar or in front of the TV.

In the first part of the book, he is called to a former girlfriend's home where she and a man have been brutally murdered. As we follow the investigation, we can see how the Seattle police begin to suspect Dr. Ben. He lies, he omits information, and he is scared.

His twin, Aaron had been killed two years before, but the body had never been recovered. So after finding Dr. Ben's blood type at the scene, investigators conclude he is guilty, but he suspects his brother is still alive and somehow killed these two people. Dr. Ben goes on the run to try to prove his brother is still alive; he escapes to Canada where Aaron had last been known to live.

Throw in Alex, a female doctor friend, nothing romantic here, who only wants to help Ben, and a cousin dying of leukemia, a lawyer who may or may not have Ben's best interests in mind, drug dealers, a free clinic with some good people working there to help Ben, midnight whispered calls, relentless detectives, a smattering of clues, a jealous husband, and you have a page-turner that leaves you guessing up to the end.

This was a fast-paced book and the combination of forensics, and gumshoe detecting as well, as the likeable hero make this a good read.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Read, August 12, 2007

By 

John Taylor (Beverly, Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Blood Lies (Hardcover)

I am a stressed out 40-year old accountant who lives on the East Coast - far from the medical world of Daniel Kalla's Pacific Northwest. When I selected a book to read after the conclusion of a huge quarterly close, it was Blood Lies by Daniel Kalla. It took me two weeks to read, some reading during workouts, and lots just glued to the book. PROs: It's short, quick, fast, and doesn't take a long time to get to the point. CONs: It's short.