Cutting Blades [Hardcover]

Victoria Blake (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 17, 2005

The year hasn't got off to the best of starts for PI Sam Falconer. London is frozen in a January blizzard, and everywhere she goes, Sam has the creeping feeling of being watched. When she's asked to investigate the disappearance of a talented young rower from Oxford University, she hopes it will take her mind off her increasing paranoia. Harry was a stunning athlete, one of the most naturally gifted rowers the Oxford coach had ever seen. Then, just as the trials for the Boat Race were beginning, Harry literally vanished into the snow. Following the treacherous, icy waters of the Thames from Putney to Oxford, Sam begins to pick at the seams of the ruthlessly competitive world of rowing. Beneath the apparent camaraderie, there's a simmering current of jealousy and resentment. Harry haunts her - an elusive figure just beyond reach. Then a body surfaces in the water - and it's not Harry's. In discovering the truth about his disappearance, Sam must open a Pandora's Box of secrets, with deadly consequences...CUTTING BLADES is the second novel to feature Sam Falconer, one of the most fascinating private investigators in contemporary crime fiction.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'[A] pacy whodunnnit... Gutsy female detectives are nothing new, but Blake's heroine is an attractive edition to what seems a growing series. Some nicely deadpan humour and crisply detailed descriptions of place offset the obligatory punch-ups.' THE TIMES --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Victoria Blake was born in Oxford and read history at Lady Margaret Hall. Having qualified as a solicitor, she began working for the publisher, Gerald Duckworth. She took a year out to concentrate on her writing and began working part-time as bookseller at the Silver Moon bookshop.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Orion Publishing (March 17, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0752860585
• ISBN-13: 978-0752860589
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.9 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,804,296 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Good.. But missing something..., July 6, 2009

By 

Rhiannon Myst "Rhiannon of the Myst" (Watertown, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cutting Blades (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is good. Unfortunately its only that, good. Don't get me wrong, I just couldn't put it down at one point. But you just get to a point and you realize that Ms. Blake will not be able to finish as well as she's ran throughout the book. Its missing something, I just can't quite put my finger on what. This book holds in its bounds great literature, something rare in books today. The pictures Ms. Blake paints are startlingly clear. She doesn't just take you on a flight of fancy, though you are along for the ride, she carries you through Pandora's Box without completely miring you in her character's misery. Her attempts at humor, because it is British humor, is a little hard for American's at least to decipher and the book suffers from the loss of that lightening aspect. I think really its the ending, the climax that suffers the most flaws. She worked so hard on the rest of the story that it looks like she ran through the climax in a hurry just to get it over with really. Like I said the book is good. But just that. Good. Great character though. Ms. Blake just needs to work at her art just a little bit more and she'll be a great writer.

4.0 out of 5 stars 3.5 Stars - Too much personal story, May 6, 2007

By 

L. J. Roberts (Oakland, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cutting Blades (Mass Market Paperback)

First Sentence: "In the grey morning light, he looks like a giant standing on Putney Bridge in softly falling snow."

At four-years old, PI Sam Falconer had been told her father had died a hero. Now she finds not only that he is alive but had been part of an assassination squad for the British Government. His return has caused a major upheaval in her family, great anger in Sam and put them all in danger. But she needs to keep working having been hired to find a young man who may be the best stoke ever for the Blue Team in the historic Boat Race, and as a bodyguard by an estate jewelry dealer who lives upstairs and is being threatened.

While there were multiple cases to be solved, this was almost more a personal story for Sam. It was a good story; I liked it but I can't say it was a good as her first book. I'll hope for better from her third try.