Customer Reviews

Fresh Blood III (Bloodlines) (No. 3)

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Fifteen more stories comprise this third instalment in editors Ripley and Jakubowski's effort to promote the best of "new" British crime writers. Three of the authors (the two editors plus Paul Charles) have appeared in earlier "Fresh Blood" anthologies, and the other twelve have all published at least one novel. The stories almost seem to come in pairs, Minette Walters and Denise Mina's stories both concern abuse of the elderly, and both end with justice served. Two of the stories are constructed as confessionals, Maxim Jakubowski's subpar (for him) "The Day I Killed Tony Blair," and HR MacGregor's "The Confession." Mike Ripley's "Angel Eyes" and Paul Johnson's "Frankie and Johnny Were Lovers?" are both kind of funny, bawdy, and harmless tales. Martin Waites and Manda Scott both feature genuine psychopaths, the first story being a rather predictable tale of a frustrated actor, the second, a stunningly nasty encounter with a vile dog owner. Scott's tale is even more foul considering it's entirely based on either personal experience or first-hand accounts from trusted sources. Two rather conventional stories contain last paragraph twists that undo their criminal protagonists Paul Johnson's throwaway "Crime Fest" and Peter Guttridge's somewhat out of place and cutely titled "The Postman Only Rings When He Can Be Bothered." For once, all three stories set in the US are believable and don't bear the mark of an outsider. Rob Ryan's "S**t Happens" is a fairly basic story of a couple of minor hoods messing up bad along the Jersey Turnpike. Adam Lloyd Baker's "Atlantic City" is a rather banal quickie about a falling out between two hoods. Lee Child's "James Penney's New Identity" is a very good fugitive story" set in the southwest and California, and he is the one writer in this anthology I definitely intend to keep an eye out for.

This is a very interesting colletion of the "New Wave" of English crime fiction. Don't expect a re-hash of the "Pulp Fiction" craze that has permeated the American crime fiction lately. This stories focus more on the odd and strange personalitites of criminals. I would recommend this book for fans of Ian Ranklin.