Customer Reviews

Blood Trail

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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.

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."

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.

Get this book if you can find a copy! Cook's writing has great cadence, an original and often hypnotic voice, memorable characters, poetic passages, truly unforgettable scenes, and a story line that intrigues and troubles. Cook deserves a wider audience. I will keep a keen lookout for his next book.