Customer Reviews

Red Blooded Murder (Izzy McNeil Mysteries)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Basically, there's a whole lot to like in these first two novels. I especially enjoyed the continued conflict with Detective Vaughn and the detective subplot with John Mayburn. However, the on and off relationship with Sam and the other two guys were a bit of a turnoff to me...just too many romantic scenes slowing down the action. Both of the first two books are good reads though, and I'm looking forward to the 3rd.

Like the first book in the series, this was another that was impossible to put down -- I read it in a single day, which is amazing considering how long the book is.

While I enjoyed it almost as much as the first, I had to go with a four-star rating because of all the Sam stuff, which got boring and repetitive halfway through the book. I understand the author wanting to keep some semblence of a relationship going for the series, but it was too much of the same thing over and over again -- Sam and Izzy can't decide where they stand, they go on a date, they rekindle old feelings, something happens that gets one of them angry or upset, they fight, lather, rinse, repeat. A few times would've been fine...but this seemed to be happening every chapter or two and it got old real fast.

Looking forward to starting the third book of the series!

Readers were introduced to sassy and sophisticated Izzy McNeil in June with RED HOT LIES. Izzy has a knack for being in the middle of scandalous situations, and in RED BLOODED MURDER --- the second novel in a summer trilogy by rising star Laura Caldwell --- our redheaded, "red hot" heroine once again finds herself a suspect in a police investigation.

On the verge of turning 30, the former entertainment lawyer is invited to lunch by past client and TV host Jane Augustine. Jane renews her relationship with Izzy, offering her a job on Trial TV as a reporter followed by a night on the town to celebrate. Things are looking up for Izzy, especially when young, sexy, hot Theo can't keep his eyes and hands off of her. Newly single, Izzy succumbs to the allure of temptation.

The picture quickly becomes cloudy when Izzy learns of Jane's sex addictions and frequent infidelities. Jane's house is broken into, and her signature red scarf is left tied in a noose on her bed. The lens of the TV camera is blind to the skeletons that lurk in Jane's closet and the deep stain left upon her marriage to Zac. Jane is addicted to "the rush of someone new...the feeling of instant intimacy with a stranger." She explains to Izzy, "When I am with them, I get to see myself in a different way..." "There isn't just one person who can be everything to me." Bed-hopping had become intoxicating for Jane --- intoxicating enough to get her killed by one of her obsessive lovers.

The silver lining in Caldwell's novels is her ability to lead the reader methodically with smart dialogue, captivating images, realistic settings and sexy characters. There is no mistaking the dominance of the color red on all three of her book covers. These images convey unbridled passion and a penchant for living life to the fullest --- a red rose, red stilettos, spilled red wine.

When we learn that the opening scene is a preview of the death of Jane Augustine, we are stunned, especially when we are also alongside Izzy when she finds Jane's blood-soaked body looking like a "piece of art from the gallery." The press loves a good sex triangle, and Izzy finds herself stalked relentlessly by the media and none other than Detective Vaughn, who suspected Izzy in RED HOT LIES. Named a "person of interest," Izzy frantically searches for the killer with help from her private eye friend Mayburn, her friends and her family. As a favor, our gutsy heroine fearlessly helps Mayburn investigate ruthless criminals by posing as an employee in a lingerie store. Ladies, the perks of working retail begin with pearl thongs!

The pieces of the puzzle come together to reveal the secrets between the sheets that lead Izzy to realize who the killer is. The revelation is so well written by Caldwell that I guessed who it was at the very same time and rode the roller coaster with Izzy to a climactic finality.

Izzy's lovelife undergoes a revealing metamorphosis in RED BLOODED MURDER. Free and single again, she takes advantage of the mantra "something old" (Sam, Izzy's former fiancé), "something new" (Theo, a twenty-something man who ignites her sex life and licks the juice of blood oranges from her wrist while preparing screwdrivers), "something borrowed" (adoring Grady, whom Izzy calls when she needs someone reliable to lean on) and "something blue" (a blue-eyed man is the preferred accessory for any woman, including Izzy).

Caldwell explores infidelity and whether we ever really know the people we get involved with romantically. Someone Jane trusted killed her. When relationships go terribly wrong, can we go back? Izzy and Sam feel "it's not right between us." When a guy says, "I'm into you," is that always enough? Timing and fate, along with a poor choice in men, leaves Izzy confused and wondering why "I didn't know this guy." Why do the complexities of a secret relationship make us feel alive?

Izzy's life is a roller coaster ride that hasn't ended. Caldwell's final novel in the series, RED, WHITE & DEAD, is set to be released in August. The heat is on. Summer isn't summer without a good beach read filled with romantic liaisons and exotic locales. Indulge in a little wicked dalliance of your own. Izzy McNeil is paving the way for the modern woman to rise to the occasion, adorned in red stilettos, merlot in hand, navigating the sea of men.

--- Reviewed by Hillary Wagy

The reviews here don't come close to doing this book justice.

Reading this story, I forgot these were characters and started thinking of them as people I knew. And I really wanted to find out what happened to them.

Which wasn't hard, because the writer really knows how to move the action along. That Lee Child wrote the blurb is not a surprise.

This is also not a "woman's book"--an impression that the marketing and cover could leave. This is, instead, a really good book.

The unspoken star of this book is Chicago. If you live here, as I do, you'll know immediately that this is not like one of those movies pretending to be Chicago when it was really shot in Toronto. This is Chicago at the heart. I once lived exactly where some of this book was set, and this author got the setting perfectly. If you don't live in Chicago and would like to know what it's like but can't afford the trip----buy this book instead. It will bring you here. Terrific book that is also a lot of fun.

The second Izzy McNeil mystery measures up to the first. The (double) plot is complicated but well managed; though long, the book is crisply written and very enjoyable. I'm looking forward to the third installment, and hoping for more.

I agree with other reviewers here that the romantic subplot (especially with Sam) grows tiresome. I also find it a bit strange that Izzy preens herself on her fidelity all the while concealing from Sam that she is sleeping with another guy and contemplating a relationship with a third. Still, I don't think Laura Caldwell was aiming for dramatic irony here -- nor in Izzy's puerile paean to passion in the book's final pages.

Caldwell is great, though, (as in the first book in the series) at revealing her heroine's insecurities. Isabel is clearly a great beauty, but she can break out in a major and embarrassing attack of perspiration. Her hi jinx in the lingerie shop where she agrees to spy for the PI John Mayburn are also quite enjoyable. Once again, she barely gets away with murder.

Great thriller. Laura Caldwell has done it again. Couldn't put the book down.

Six months ago the embezzlement scandal left thirtyish entertainment attorney Isabel McNeil unemployed and no longer engaged to Sam Hollings. That is until Trial TV hires her and she is seeing younger hunk Theo Jameson. In other words, Izzy is moving on past that dizzy spell.

That is until her friend Jane Augustine, who got her the Trial TV job, is murdered. Izzy finds her corpse and as happened with the missing $30 million, Chicago police considers her the prime suspect especially since she replaced Jane on a TV show. Izzy has learned the hard way not to trust anyone particularly pigheaded police so she investigates who would want Jane dead; unprepared to learn what she does about her late friend.

The return of Izzy (See RED HOT LIES) as a prime suspect again will elate Laura Caldwell fans as the lawyer who learned the hard way not to trust cops sets out to prove her innocence by uncovering the identity of the killer. The amateur sleuth investigation into the whodunit is well written. However, what makes the tale enjoyable is Izzy's first person dialogue that turns RED BLOOD MURDER into an amusing anti-noir.

Harriet Klausner

I couldn't finish this book. Did the author write it with a Chicago streetmap in her lap? I'm all for authentic settings, but even as a Chicagoan myself the overly detailed descriptions were aggravating. Get to the point already! Oh, and there isn't much of a point. The victim is still very much alive on page 150. And the alledged heroine (boring, not likable) is so repetitive about her lost love(s). I was looking for something new, something fresh. This wasn't it for me. I couldn't connect with any of the characters, the plot was thin and the seemingly endless indecisions on behalf of the heroine made this a wallbanger for me.