Precious Blood [Hardcover]

Jonathan Hayes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 6, 2007

'They found her in the East Village, nailed to the wall of a railroad flat'. Dr. Edward Jenner is a New York forensic pathologist: he has attended countless murder scenes and performed thousands of autopsies but the killing of 21 year old Andie Delore is different. The naked body is marked with an indecipherable ancient script and is arranged in the shape of a ritual sacrifice. The murderer poses as a cop. The sole eye witness is Andie's flatmate, Ana da Jong. She can't trust the police anymore. Instead she turns to Jenner for help. But then a second victim is found in rural Pennsylvania. Her head has been placed in a puddle of milk. And then the third. Another decapitation: her naked torso is decorated with exotic bird feathers...Both corpses have the same mysterious script. The killer is leading Jenner and Ana into his own private nightmare. A place for which there will be no escape.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

New York City medical examiner Hayes provides plenty of authentic forensic atmosphere in his grisly debut. But his tale of a maniacal serial killer loose on the streets of Manhattan dwells too much on the carnage with insufficient focus on his protagonist's emotional state. Dr. Edward Jenner, an occasional private consultant who resigned from his post as a New York City forensic pathologist after the trauma of 9/11, is positive the gruesome crucifixion murder of a young college student is the handiwork of a burgeoning serial killer. When Ana de Jong, the murdered girl's roommate, appears in his loft, desperate for help, Jenner is plunged deep into a world of cruelty and death, a world he tried so desperately to leave behind. As more bodies pile up and the killer's methods become increasingly sadistic, Jenner races to identify the ancient text engraved in the victims' flesh, hoping it will lead him to the truth behind the murders. The somewhat creepy relationship that develops between Jenner and Ana distracts, while fans familiar with the conventions of the serial killer genre will find much of the action predictable. Hopefully, Hayes will combine his impressive forensics knowledge with a fresher plot and deeper characterization in his next thriller. (Nov.)
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Review

“An impressive debut . . . The murders are grisly and striking, and Jenner is a likable lead.” (Romantic Times )

“Fans of CSI and the like would definitely like this one.” (Library Journal )

“An intelligent thriller that takes you down the meanest streets . . . This reader was scared to death.” (Linda Fairstein )

“Taut and chilling… a fast-paced thriller written by a real player in the game of forensic sleuthing.” (Kathy Reichs, author of the bestseller BONES TO ASHES )

“Even hard-core lovers of the thriller genre may find parts of PRECIOUS BLOOD as shocking as the goriest contemporary slasher films.” (USA Today )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Harper; 1 edition (November 6, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060736666
• ISBN-13: 978-0060736668
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,545,474 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

British author and forensic pathologist Jonathan Hayes is a senior New York City medical examiner. A former contributing editor at Martha Stewart Living, Hayes's food and travel writing has appeared in the New York Times, New York magazine, GQ, Food & Wine and Gourmet and many other magazines and newspapers. His well-received debut novel, the international bestseller PRECIOUS BLOOD ("a nail-biting masterpiece" - USA Today), will be followed in April 2011 by A HARD DEATH. He collects Mid-Century modern Scandinavian ceramics and Victorian taxidermy, and has a tiny apartment in Paris that he never gets to visit.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not "Silence of the Lambs", but a solid debut for Hayes, November 12, 2007

By 

Brian Baker (Santa Clarita, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Precious Blood (Hardcover)

Putting his considerable knowledge and experience as a forensic pathologist to work in his debut novel, Hayes has given us a very enjoyable read.

I found his central character, Jenner, well developed and likeable, human and multi-faceted, contrary to the publishing reviews.

The "whodunit" aspects were well written and nicely played, interesting, and engaging.

The story moves along smartly, without getting bogged down in trivia and minutiae, and my only quibble there is that I'd have liked to have seen a final chapter or epilogue tying up a couple of the loose ends, particularly as applies to Whittaker; that story thread was left dangling.

The bad guy is truly a monster, the kind of guy you love to hate. Not quite as scary as Hannibal Lechter and Buffalo Bill from "Silence", but not too far off, either.

A couple of the peripheral characters had a lot of unrealized potential, I think; one priest in particular comes to mind, and I can't be more specific without creating a spoiler. But I feel a real opportunity was missed in his case.

But overall, a very solid four stars.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars solid serial killer investigation, October 30, 2007

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Precious Blood (Hardcover)

Following the 9/11 tragedy, Manhattan forensic pathologist Dr. Edward Jenner retires from the medical examiner's office unable to cope after having witnessed for weeks afterward the results of the calamity. Edward conducts occasional consulting work.

The uncle of East Village resident Ana de Jong pleads with his close friend Edward to help her for she fears for her life. As she explains to him someone brutally murdered her roommate Andrea nailing the Hutchins College law student to a crucifix. Reluctantly Edward takes on the case even while he fears that a ritual serial killer is surfacing and that he mentally may not be able to deal with the horrific deaths that he expects to see. Still more for Ana's sake than his morbid curiosity, he digs deeper into the investigation and realizes the killings follow a pattern with each new ritual homicide crueler than the previous ones occur.

Fans of serial killer investigations that emphasize forensic science will appreciate Jonathan Hayes' fine entry as the whodunit inquiries dominate the tale. Jenner is a fabulous protagonist as he suffers from post traumatic fatigue syndrome caused by the 9/11 nightmare; however Mr. Hayes fails to dig deep into the demons eating at his soul. Still PRECIOUS BLOOD is a fine mystery that sub-genre readers will welcome.

Harriet Klausner

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If You LOVE Forensics, This Thriller is For You, July 3, 2008

By 

C. Clift (Jersey City, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Precious Blood (Hardcover)

Jonathan Hayes, a forensic pathologist himself for the city of New York, writes his first thriller PRECIOUS BLOOD from a place of pure authenticity. Though Publisher's Weekly complained of the lack of "...insufficient focus on his protagonist's emotional state...", I found that the essence of that emotional state permeates every fiber of Dr. Jenner's being as he is dragged into the dark, sickness of the killer's escalation into mind-bending cruelty. The book may seem to some slow to build but I found as the serial killer mounted his campaign of carnage, the author used clinical detatchment brilliantly to imbue his characterizations: They are not so much gross-out moments of blood lust as they are a sensory, visceral, tactile explosion of a killer on a mission that parallels Jenner's coming to terms with his own demons in the aftermath of 9/11's senseless horror. Jenner is as human as Hayes himself while remaining a fictional character.

This may be Hayes first attempt at writing a serial killer thriller, but something tells me Jenner's story isn't finished and we can only hope for a series that continues to explore his journey with many more page-turning, realistic stories.