Customer Reviews

Blood Work

5 star:		(100)
4 star:		(71)
3 star:		(21)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Terry McCaleb, ex-FBI profiler and serial killer point man in Los Angeles, is spending his days recuperating after a heart transplant by restoring the boat he lives on. Life consists of long daily walks, checking vital signs and taking anti-rejection medications. That is, until he looks up one day to see Graciela Rivers coming aboard with a request. She's read about his career and new heart in the paper and wants him to privately take on the murder case of her sister, Glory, who was shot in the head and killed during a convenience store robbery. At first, McCaleb says no, he's not in the business anymore, doesn't need the stress and has to take care of himself. But when she reveals that his new heart belonged to Glory, she was an organ donor, he rethinks his answer and decides to look into the case. As he starts to look at the LAPD paperwork and crime scene tape, one thing becomes very clear, things are not as they seem. The detectives working the case, missed some important clues and it appears that Glory wasn't just at the wrong place at the wrong time, but the actual target. And as McCaleb digs deeper, he knows his new heart will never rest easy, unless he solves the crime and finds the killer..... Michael Connelly has done it again. He's written a great mystery/thriller with enough twists, turns and false starts to keep you turning pages to the very end. This is a book that has it all...a great, fast paced, suspenseful plot, well drawn, original characters and riveting scenes that come alive on the page. This is a novel you'll definitely want to read in one sitting. So turn off the phone and lock the door, Blood Work is about to keep you up all night!

I have enjoyed all the Michael Connelly books I've read lately, and Blood Work is even better than I have come to expect. While this isn't part of Connelly's Harry Bosch series, the protagonist, Terry McCaleb, has appeared in other books (including a Bosch).

Terry McCaleb is a retired FBI agent whose specialty was criminal profiling. His retirement was brought on when his heart was attacked by a virus, and he eventually had a heart transplant two years later. McCaleb is a mere two months past surgery and still recovering when a beautiful woman shows up on his boat. Graciela Rivers is seeking his help. Her sister was brutally murdered in a convenience store robbery. The LAPD are not much interested and think it was a random shooting. He begs off, saying that he can't physically perform an investigation. He can't even drive for another seven months. But then Graciela plays her trump card: McCaleb received her sister's heart. McCaleb reluctantly decides to look into the case, and finds himself pitted against the LAPD and the FBI. McCaleb also discovers that this isn't a random shooting and that the killer is in fact a serial killer.

In solving the crime, McCaleb also learns a lot about himself. He discovers that he misses the chase and the work. He's still got it despite his physical limitations. This case also helps to heal more than his heart.

Connelly is so convincing because he writes like a cop (thanks to his years as a crime reporter). Suspects are "in the wind" (they have disappeared without a trace). Or McCaleb does the "hard tango" with other officers to get information (when they aren't willing to share). Last summer I was on a James Lee Burke kick (Dave Robicheaux) and Connelly is also a fan. It was fun to find McCaleb wearing a Robicheaux Dock and Baitshop t-shirt in one chapter.

For any Connelly fan or even a lover of mysteries, it doesn't get much better than Blood Work.

This was the first Michael Connolly book I read, and because of it I have since bought five others. The plot is engaging from the very start. Ex-FBI agent Terry McCaleb, whose speciality was profiling serial killers, has retired from the Bureau after a heart transplant and is living on his boat in LA harbour. Having turned his back on fighting crime, he has no intentions of helping Graciela Rivers, a woman whose sister has been murdered, until he finds out that the transplanted heart that saved his life belonged to her. With this knowledge, he feels obliged to investigate Gloria's death, against the express wishes of his doctor and knowing it could have serious consequences for his health.

All McCaleb has to go on is a video tape from a convenience store showing a masked man hold up the owner and then shoot the two witnesses. Add to this the hostility he receives from the two LAPD detectives assigned the case, and it seems like McCaleb isn't going to get far. However, it soon becomes clear that the crime is not as random as it seems, and McCaleb is on the trail of someone a lot more sinister than an opportunistic thief.

Connolly writes "Blood Work" with an unrelenting pace and a real flair for knowing exactly how to string the reader along. You'll be as hooked as one of the fish in the harbour!

I started reading Michael Connelly about 3 months ago and have made my way chronologically through his books to Blood Work. This is my least favorite book of the 7 Connelly books I've read so far. He introduces a new main character, Terry McCaleb, who is a former FBI agent that specialized in serial killings. McCaleb is on permanent hiatus due to a recent heart transplant. The sister of his heart donor discovers his identity (and prior profession) and asks for his help in solving her sister's murder. McCaleb takes on the challenge much to his doctor's displeasure.

Blood Works starts out a little slow and then picks up nicely about midway at which point I had trouble putting it down. It only rates 3 stars with me because Connelly never really made McCaleb feel like a real person...not the way he does with Harry Bosch (the main character in the majority of his books). Also, the romantic angle was a little too unbelievable. And, although the plot had its share of twists and turns, things worked out just a little too easily. Plus, there were some loose ends left behind...not typical of Connelly.

NO ONE crafts hard-boiled crime novels as masterfully as Michael Connelly. Considering the hundreds of mystery writers out there toiling at this very moment over their word processors, that's quite an extravagant statement--but it's true all the same. He has mastered the art of weaving mysteries that are superbly complex and which keep readers on the edge of their seats. A seemingly unimportant utterance or action early in the novel can later on become magnified into an all-important clue as more is revealed about the crimes and the their perpetrator. Connelly's ability to lead his readers in one direction only to have a sudden revelation change the entire complexion of the story is nothing short of breathtaking at times.

*Blood Work* is a particularly fine mystery in terms of these kinds of "twists and turns." It's also refreshing to see Connelly take a vacation from the Harry Bosch series through his creation of a new protagonist, retired FBI man Terrell McCaleb. Interestingly, McCaleb AND Harry Bosch are featured in a subsequent Connelly novel, *A Darkness More Than Night*.

Is the book perfect? It's close, but no. The ending is somewhat Hollywood theatrical, almost as though Connelly grew tired of brainstorming further subtleties and unexpected revelations. Also, although Connelly is very attentive to empirical details in his descriptions of places and institutions, he slips up in chapter ten when he describes a character's employment as an engineer in charge of inspecting an aqueduct with a "Lone Pine segment." He writes, "He was an engineer with a private firm contracted by the state..." The Los Angeles Aqueduct is, of course, operated and maintained by the City of Los Angeles' Department of Water and Power. This is a trivial error, of course, but those who know California water resources cannot help but raise their eyebrows upon reading this passage.

Michael Connelly is unique. His writing is similar to PatriciaCornwell's, but he's much, much better. When I read THE POET, some years ago, I said to myself: Such an very well-written book! But when I read BLOOD WORK, I found a book that it's so good as the other one. Things are always happening in a kaleidoscopical speed. Things just happen so fast! And the plot is also so cool!

In order not to spoil the plot, in a few words, BLOOD WORK tells the story of policeman who's going to retire because of a heart surgeon. In fact, he's in a leave because of his heart problem. But before he is able to do so, a case "calls" him and he finds himself involved in a story that you will love to read.

Michael Connelly's favorite books are ANGEL'S FLIGHT and THE LAST COYOTE. I don't have AF, and personally, THE LAST COYOTE is far behind THE POET and BLOOD WORK, my favorite ones. Anyway, I prefer the ones 'without' his famous detective Harry Bosch. If you like detective stories full of twists and action, you won't be disappointed with that one. The whole book is incredible and you never get tired of the reading. Try it and see exactly what I mean.

Marco Aurelio

"Blood Work" is the second of Michael Connelly's novels that do not involve his usual protagonist, Harry Bosch. This time, the main character is Terry McCaleb, a former FBI agent forced to retire because of a heart disease that almost killed him and necessitated a heart transplant.

After the L.A. Times prints a "Where are they now?" column about him, McCaleb gets deluged with requests from the public to solve individual tragic mysteries. He turns all of them down except one: the sister of the person whose heart he received. A person who was murdered in what appears to be a random crime. Only as McCaleb investigates more, he finds that the profile of the killer fits . . . himself.

Like all of Connelly's works, "Blood Work" has a number of surprising twists that kept me guessing. In that regard, it's one of his more successful works. ("The Concrete Blonde" ranks as his best, in my opinion, though I haven't read "Void Moon," "Trunk Music," or the new McCaleb-Bosch crossover "A Darkness More than Night" yet.)

But what I found ultimately a little disappointing about "Blood Work" was that there didn't seem to be much difference between McCaleb and Bosch. McCaleb has Bosch's tough, sarcastic sense of humor and even uses some of Bosch's tricks for dealing with bureaucracies.

I don't write these reviews often, but this book impressed me so much that I had to put in a few good words for it.

I have read several of Connelly's Harry Bosch novels and had enjoyed them very much, but this one stands out from the rest.

Why? First of all, Terry McCaleb is the hero of this. An ex-FBI serial killer specialist, he has a newly transplanted heart in him as the book opens. He isn't the classic pulp hero, and it makes life interesting.

Second, and I won't ruin the plot by saying anything, this is extremely intelligent, a creation of lots of good reporting and crafting of a great plot. Connelly, a former LA Times reporter, shows his background when he weavees together a plot that is fascinating, believable, and full of surprises. This is among the best constructed mysteries I've ever read.

So do yourself a favor and spend the few bucks -- or few cents -- it takes to purchase this book. You'll be intrigued and amazed by it.

Terry McCaleb is a retired FBI Agent. His departure from the Bureau was forced. He needed a heart transplant. Having given up any hope of being saved because of his rare blood type, he has resigned himself to dying. Then, at the last moment, a heart became available. All of this happens before "Blood Work" begins.

Having become a minor celebrity due to a pair of newspaper articles, Terry has turned down several requests by people to solve crimes on their behalf. Then Graciella Rivers tells him he has to solve the murder of her sister, Gloria. When he asks why, she tells him that he has Gloria's heart.

"Blood Work" provides a fascinating study into how a professional works a murder case. Picking up where the police left off, and incurring their wrath in the process, Terry develops new leads, makes use of old evidence, and soon is on the trail of Gloria's killer. However, in a strange plot twist, Terry realizes that someone killed Gloria for one of her organs, making him a prime suspect.

At this point, the plot could have turned in on itself and lost its way. Other writers would have left us with a very smart Terry up against a very stupid everyone else. However, Connelly provides plot twist after plot twist until the surprise revelation of the killer's identity. Even then, he's not finished with the story or Terry's search for justice.

As a former resident of Los Angeles, I enjoyed reliving visits to various places around that city. As a reader of fiction, I appreciated a well-written, intelligent thriller.

Blood work by Michael Connelly Little Brown 1998

Retired FBI profiler Terry McCaleb has just received a heart transplant and is slowly recovering when Graciela Rivers steps onto his boat and asks him to find her sister's murderer. Only when Terry discovers that Graciela's sister is Gloria Torres, the donor of his new heart, does he find himself inexorably drawn in to the search for Gloria's murderer. The investigation is at a standstill until Terry ties Gloria's murder to another local murder and through meticulous searching to a third murder committed with the same gun. Puzzled by the coincidences in these three cases McCaleb again goes over the police reports and videos again and again until he stumbles on the thread that ties all three murders together and also staggeringly, to him.

Meanwhile Terry finds himself drawn to Graciela and her dead sister's son, 6 year-old Raymond and feels himself opening up to feelings that he have been dormant for many years. When Graciela and Raymond are kidnaped and held hostage Terry's search leads him to abandon all reasonable care for himself and his new heart and finally track down this cold blooded murder.

This is and amazingly well written book chock full of information on heart transplant care and the psychological abyss facing the transplant recipient. Terry McCaleb is a very sympathetic protagonist and the characters of Graciela and Jaye Winston, his policewoman accomplice are well drawn with a good sense of reality. This is the first mystery I have read in quite a while that leaves me with a sense of satisfaction and enjoyment. I recommend it to all mystery fans.