Blood Trail [Hardcover]

Gary J. R. Cook (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Ben Tails (aka "Mr. Slide") leaves a bloody trail indeed in Cook's gripping tale of a modern warrior's journeys from Montana to Vietnam and other parts of Asia, always returning home, always searching. His skills as hunter and marksman turn him into a deadly sniper, while his Vietnam War experiences leave him disillusioned and aware that he has been manipulated for evil purposes. He stays for years in Asia, where he learns Mandarin and does his best to suppress the violent side of himself he calls Mr. Slide. Tails's core values make him far more interesting than the run-of-the-mill action hero, and when one of the rare people he trusts lures him from Montana to Japan for a simple job selling motorcycles—and sussing out bad guys—Mr. Slide may have to reappear. Tails soon discovers that he's being used as a pawn in a deadly and vicious high stakes game. Graphic violence, penetrating, incisive analysis of complex cultural and historical events and one man's heroic defiance make Cook's long overdue second novel (after 1988's Graveyard Rules) an event to celebrate. This is a writer with something to say and immense skills with which to say it. (May)
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From Booklist

This novel's outline--a haunted Vietnam vet returns to the Far East to work for a paramilitary, extragovernmental organization--sounds like standard thriller fare, but Blood Trail is anything but standard. Call it a "ruminative thriller": as ex-marine sniper Ben Tails is manipulated by shadowy forces fighting for power, he spends more time in thought and in conversation than in battle. Cook's real mission is to explore the effects of war, the motives of those who start it and those who fight it, whether war makes us evil or brings out evil that was there already, and human nature in the natural world. That's not to say this is a philosophical treatise. When Tails does fight, Cook hooks us with clean, dispassionate prose that puts us right in the middle of the fray. He can be poetic, too, evoking the beauty of Tails' western Montana home with both love and skill. It will take some readers a while to adjust to this book's pace, but the adjustment is well worth it. A unique and compelling novel. Keir Graff
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 465 pages
• Publisher: Dennis Mcmillan Pubns; 1 edition (March 30, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0939767538
• ISBN-13: 978-0939767533
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,248,874 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hunter wit ha Vengence, July 6, 2006

By 

CD Chamberlin "CD Chamberlin" (Parsonsfield, Maine USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blood Trail (Hardcover)

What a great read! This book has it all for those who enjoy real action scenes of war and professional killers. The hero is a sniper from Viet Nam who becomes a professional after the war for the government. He has to kill again to protect himself and his friends, hence the title. Another great find of Dennis McMillan.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Competition for Stephen Hunter, December 4, 2006

By 

broiderqueen "army mama" (Southern Oregon) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Blood Trail (Hardcover)

I happened to pick this book up at the library and am so glad that I did. Reminded me of Stephen Hunter, who is probably my favorite author. I did not normally read this type of book before Hunter but both Hunter and Cook are such exceptional writers that I was engrossed by the time I finished the first page. A limited edition printing but would hope that more would be printed to spread this author around. Shows the dark side that all of us are probably capable of but don't want to admit, given the right provocation, and how do we stay human once we go over the line.

Edited January 4, 2011 Time to pay the piper, grim the reaper:
Well, I just reread "Blood Trail" (after purchasing my own copy this time) and the second time through was even better. I had found a copy of a book that Cook wrote many years previous to this one called Graveyard Rules. It has the same character, Ben Tails, as "Blood Trail" and much of the same story. It felt like maybe a first draft of "Blood Trail" but very good in its own right. I read it and then reread "Blood Trail" again to reacquaint myself.

Dennis McMillan Publications did a limited edition printing of this book, as they have done others. It is a quality printing except for a couple of editing mistakes I noticed. But I wish a large publisher would take note and print Cook's next installment so there are more than 1,104 total copies of the book out there. Cook is an accomplished author and I hope he doesn't take almost 20 years to get the next book out to his waiting readers.

I especially liked his analogy comparing a grove of ancient cedars to the ruins of an alien civilization. I have felt that way myself at times walking through old growth forests, especially some of the redwood groves in northern California.

"Gray light and the silence and the huge, dark cedars rising from white ground like giant pillars made him feel as if he was walking through the ruins of an ancient temple. As a young boy he had imagined a huge hallway created by beings other than men-the ruins of an alien civilization overgrown and eroded by the passage of time and the encroachment of mountain and forest."

5.0 out of 5 stars Life after the adrenaline rush..., March 13, 2008

By 

Jyairuzu (Umbria) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blood Trail (Hardcover)

A cracking story. Blood Trail covers a lot of ground, threatens conventions but provides rewards. Ex-Vietnam USMC sniper Ben Tails drifts from 1970s South East Asia back to his hometown in Montana, then to colorful Japan, doing work that governments can't do. Along the way we experience the enveloping decay of the Green Machine jungle in Vietnam and see the disturbing challenges in late 20th century Japanese culture. The subsequent action is subtly developed then explosive. It was an adrenaline rush.
Ben Tails is developed as much by the warm, dry humor between fellow Montanans as by his introspections. Very nearly an entirely sympathetic guy, Cook leaves enough space in Tails' character to make you question why he doesn't just get off the blood trail. The intimations aren't nice.
Some characters here really deserve their own stories in the future: How did Huang, the Hmong veteran survive lost years in South East Asia? What did Robert Lee and Manfred do on the Street with No Name? Why did urbane black patrician Peter become such a ghoul?
Cook has a couple of messages to deliver. For me the most startling was that the blood trail really exists. Some individuals and governments know it is there, the rest of us don't. All in all I enjoyed Blood Trail so much I read it twice within six weeks. I'm looking forward to another great story that develops these people more.