Blood Will Have Blood [Mass Market Paperback]

Linda Barnes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 12, 1986

A Michael Spraggue Mystery.

Famed theater director Arthur Darien's production of "Dracula" is in trouble. Strange and macabre jokes -- including a batch of literally mixed Bloody Marys -- are unnerving the cast and threatening to close the play before opening night.

Michael Spraggue enters the cast, but in a dual role unknown to most of them -- Arthur Darien has asked him to solve the mystery of the jokes before the jokes turn deadly. But Spraggue finds that he is not the only actor playing a dual role. Nobody is sticking to the script -- and a killer is bent on giving the performance of a lifetime!

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

A Michael Spraggue Mystery.

Famed theater director Arthur Darien's production of "Dracula" is in trouble. Strange and macabre jokes -- including a batch of literally mixed Bloody Marys -- are unnerving the cast and threatening to close the play before opening night.

Michael Spraggue enters the cast, but in a dual role unknown to most of them -- Arthur Darien has asked him to solve the mystery of the jokes before the jokes turn deadly. But Spraggue finds that he is not the only actor playing a dual role. Nobody is sticking to the script -- and a killer is bent on giving the performance of a lifetime!

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Fawcett (January 12, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0449209016
• ISBN-13: 978-0449209011
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,040,254 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born in Detroit; I always say that's where I learned about crime, but I mean no disrespect to a great city. It's also where I learned to love Motown music and do the Stroll. Came to Boston to go to college, and like so many, stayed, awed by the Atlantic Ocean and accessible public transportation. I still love walking Boston's cobbled streets, riding the T, breathing the history.
I started writing while teaching high school theater. Required by my principal to enter a one-act play festival sponsored by the Boston Globe, I cast the play before I actually found it. I had such great students that year, and 12 of them certainly deserved to be in the festival cast. When I couldn't find a one-act with 12 roles (duh), I had to write one myself. The festival was a competition, and darned if we didn't keep on winning, right up to the state finals, where a man came up to me and asked whether he might publish that play. I said yes, wrote more plays, and then segued into crime fiction.
My first Carlotta Carlyle short story was nominated for just about every mystery award going, and the first Carlyle novel, A TROUBLE OF FOOLS, was nominated for an Edgar and a Shamus, and won the American Mystery Award. I've got a new book, the eleventh in the Carlyle series, coming out in May. It's called HEART OF THE WORLD. Check my website for upcoming tour details. For the rest, I'm married, mother of a teenage son, and currently proud to be president of Private Eye Writers of America.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not bad for first novel from now famous author, June 16, 2002

By 

Gerald M. Bull "Jerry Bull" (Fairview, TN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blood Will Have Blood (Mass Market Paperback)

Linda Barnes is no doubt better known for her tall, redheaded private eye, Carlotta Carlyle (8 books in all, with a ninth due out soon) than her earlier Boston-based "playboy" Michael Spraggue. His set of four stories often revolves around the theater since Spraggue is a part-time actor, a part-time former sleuth, and a full-time, wealthy, man about town.

In this first book of the set, and presumably Barnes' first full-length novel, Michael is hired to sub for an actor who quit an upcoming version of the stage play "Dracula" due to a number of serious pranks being pulled on cast members. Director Arthur Darien wanted Michael not only to fill the missing role, but of course to track down the prankster before there was more trouble. The plot winds along through nearly a dozen more episodes, some in the nuisance category, some quite dangerous, until one of the stars is murdered right on stage. At that point, the police get involved, but Spraggue is close enough to a solution to stage a trap. Throughout we get close looks at theater relationships and politics.

For a first novel, now 21 years old, we were reasonably well entertained throughout, especially by the surprises at the end and the eventual unraveling of the culprits. Some of the malarkey in the middle of the book got a little tiring, but we suspect editors were pushing plot complexity harder than characterizations in Barnes' earlier work. Interesting that as soon as she dropped Spraggue for Carlyle, he was a goner -- and in general we suspect that is just as well.

The Barnes' fan club won't want to skip these Spraggue stories, but more casual readers will probably enjoy the zany Carlotta escapades a good deal more.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars over priced/poor condition, December 21, 2010

By 

Gregory S. Johnson "BOOKWORM" (GORHAM, ME) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Blood Will Have Blood (Paperback)

I received the paperback book, the pages were yellowed, small print. It looked like it had gotten sunlight. The spine was not the greatest. They charged me more than the original price.

Greg