Blood Money (Bev Morriss Mysteries) [Paperback]

Maureen Carter (Author)

Book Description

Series: Bev Morriss Mysteries | Publication Date: January 11, 2010

Detective Sergeant Bev Morriss is in a very dark place, as personal tragedy pushes her close to self-destruction. Both colleagues and friends have started to give her a wide berth. Although battling her demons, Bev is still a cop, and there are villains to battle as well. Enter the Sandman, a vicious serial burglar who wears a clown mask and plays mind-games with his victims. As the violence spirals into abduction, blackmail and murder, the bad guys soon discover Bev is in no mood to play. ""Carter's well-crafted sixth mystery set in Birmingham.... A stong narrative voice and easy to understand slang make this more accessible to U.S. readers than a lot of contemporary British police novels.""-Publishers Weekly ""No shrinking violet is our Bev. The detection and characterization are also very good.""-Deadly Pleasures ""What a dazzling complex plot this is and the patter is a scream.""-I Love a Mystery

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A sadistic criminal dubbed the Sandman, who wears a clown mask while robbing and assaulting his victims, also leaves sand in their eyes and carves a pound sign in their flesh in Carter's well-crafted sixth mystery set in Birmingham, England (after 2008's Bad Press). As the Sandman's crimes increase in frequency and intensity, Det. Sgt. Bev Morriss feels extra pressure to nab him, but she's still grieving over the loss of her unborn twins and recovering from a failed romance. The stakes rise after the Sandman stabs a well-known London solicitor to death. The suicide of one of the Sandman's earlier victims provides another push for feisty Bev to catch the creepy clown. A strong narrative voice and easy to understand slang make this more accessible to U.S. readers than a lot of contemporary British police novels. (Jan.)
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From Booklist

Detective Sergeant Bev Morriss is quickly becoming one of the most interesting characters in British crime fiction. In a handful of novels (this is the sixth), Carter has established Morriss as a strong, likably abrasive woman with deep psychological scars. In every novel, her life is in a bit more disarray; each time we see her, she has taken another few steps toward a psychological cliff. As this novel opens, Bev wakes in a drunken semi-stupor, lying beside a man whose name she can’t remember: business as usual these days for a woman trying to come to terms with the latest assault on her mental well-being, the deaths of her unborn twins (see Bad Press, 2009). As we watch her trying to solve her latest case—a serial burglar has escalated to murder—we see a woman teetering on the edge of total self-destruction, and as usual, it is Bev’s downward spiral, not the mystery she is investigating, that captures our imagination. Fans of Carol O’Connell and Denise Mina should immediately check out the lesser-known but equally talented Maureen Carter. --David Pitt

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Product Details

• Paperback: 271 pages
• Publisher: Creme de La Crime (January 11, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0955707870
• ISBN-13: 978-0955707872
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,548,809 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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