Blood Memory: A Novel (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "When does murder begin?..." (more)
Key Phrases: crime signature, bull nettle, parish prison, New Orleans, Nathan Malik, Billy Neal (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Iles's previous thriller, 2003's provocative The Footprints of God, featured an omnipotent supercomputer and an on-the-run duo racing around the globe from North Carolina to Jerusalem. This time, Iles returns to more familiar ground: Natchez, Miss.; New Orleans; and the Mississippi delta, where a serial predator has been killing middle-aged men. Forensic odontologist Cat Ferry, an expert on teeth and the damage they can inflict, is called in by the New Orleans PD to explain the bite marks found on the bodies. Cat, the alcoholic granddaughter of Dr. William Kirkland, owner of the sprawling Malmaison estate and the richest, most powerful man in Natchez, has solved previous murders with her married detective lover, Sean Regan. This time, though, she's pregnant with Sean's baby, and this plus the discovery of old bloody footprints hidden in the carpet fibers of her Malmaison childhood bedroom threaten to plummet her into the depression that's plagued her since she was 15. She thinks one footprint might be hers, made on the night her father died of an ill-explained gunshot wound. Iles weaves in dark strains of child sexual abuse and the resulting repressed memories as Cat searches for the serial killer and for answers about her father's death. This overlong novel lacks the scintillating originality that made Iles's last outing so memorable, but he ties up all the loose ends in an exciting climax.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

In his ninth book, Iles returns to the Deep South, an old Natchez mansion to be exact, where 31-year-old Catherine Ferry, a forensic specialist, retreats after panic attacks interfere with her work on what appears to be a string of serial killings. No sooner does she arrive than she discovers that the facts of her privileged if troubled youth in the house, where black servants still cater to the whims of Cat's racist, iron-willed grandfather, are an elaborate fiction. In her quest for the truth, especially about the brutal death of her father, she opens the door to a disturbing family history that puts her at both physical and emotional risk--and, eventually, leads her to the doorstep of an unusual serial killer. Iles' dialogue leaves something to be desired this time around ("I have to keep digging until I uncover the truth. If I don't, I'll go mad"), and a heavy dose of melodrama (Cat, a longtime alcoholic with bipolar disease, goes cold turkey when she discovers she's pregnant) gets in the way of the mystery. Still, this provocative tale of twisted lives and dark, agonizing secrets delivers enough atmospheric suspense to keep Iles' many fans entertained till the last page. Stephanie Zvirin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; First Edition/First Printing edition (February 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743234707
• ISBN-13: 978-0743234702
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (139 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #381,621 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

106 of 127 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bloody Great Book!, February 20, 2005

By	ellen "ellen in atlanta" (Atlanta, Georgia USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

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This reviewer is not one who like a child in class tells you the plot of a novel - you are mature enough to read the plot line when you are contemplating the book to buy.
What I want to tell you is why you should choose this book, or any Greg Iles books.
He not only chooses diverse subjects for each books, but almost all of his books have a lyric quality in his writing, that makes layers upon layers as you read - there is beauty in his style that is magic. I can quote passages from his earlier works, and not many can say they do that with other authors. I sent a 'fan letter' to Iles and he was gracious and I was impressed.
I call him our generation's Faulkner, because he not only knows the South, but knows how to portray it not in black and white, but how it weaves its spell into the plot of the novel.
If you have not read Mortal Fear and The Quiet Game, they are definite must haves. The others are excellent, but have varying impact on the reader. Blood Memory stands out among his excellent works - and is worth the wait we fans had to endure.
Usually his works come out in September, and we had some time to wait this time, but it is worth it.
This is a man who has a gift. Read the plot above, or others' reviews that read like a book review in school, although the book's subject is serious. What I am here to tell you is WHY to buy a book. It hits you on many levels and makes you think as well as experience. And that makes the difference between a good writer and a great one.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one of Iles' best books, February 21, 2005

By	mackattack9988 "mackattack9988" (United States) - See all my reviews

Blood Memory ranks right up there with the best of Greg Iles' novels to date, such as The Quiet Game and Mortal Fear. He is really talented at weaving complicated suspense with interesting characters, and in this book he returns to the Mississippi setting he knows so well. There are even appearances from characters and a storyline from two of his previous books, so that's a little extra fun for readers familiar with his work. What makes Iles' books even more appealing is the range of topics that he explores. Each book is a well-written suspense tale, and Blood Memory is no exception. I think it's his best book by far since The Quiet Game. The topical subject matter of Blood Memory is a troubling reality. While the basic plot idea of vengeance in this arena has been tried by other authors, Iles tells a more powerful story across the spectrum of predator and prey. This book really has a lot going for it: classic Iles suspense, detailed forensics, strong female characters, and vivid storytelling. Not only is it a hard book to put down, it's also one that will be hard to forget.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dark Blood, Deep Memory, March 5, 2005

By	T. Slaven (Phoenix, AZ) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

At age 31, Cat Ferry has it all going for her: brains, beauty, family wealth, and an accomplished career in a branch of the dental sciences that puts her into frequent contact with police officers solving intriguing crimes. But Cat Ferry is a mess: dental school was a refuge from the medical school she was asked to leave, she has a string of broken relationships with older men, alcoholism is a likely diagnosis, and her current relationship with a married police officer is quickly reaching its crisis point. The good and the bad converge as Cat is drawn into the solution of two mysteries. One involves a series of bizarre related homicides in her adopted city of New Orleans. The other involves the unsolved murder of her own father decades earlier in her home city of Natchez. Is there a relationship between these two series of events so removed in time? It begins to seem so as Cat becomes the Clarice Starling to a (fortunately) non-cannibalistic psychiatrist who both figures obscurely in her own past and emerges as a link among the New Orleans homicide victims. Cat's journey toward the solution of these mysteries has as many twists and turns as the river that connects the two central points in the story, and it takes place against a menacing background of power, passion, violence and repressed memory that is just as raw and threatening as the bayous that predominate the landscape between her two homes, then and now.

This book is very good reading for several reasons. First, it is very different from much popular mystery fiction today, which tends to be formulaic and abbreviated. So many of today's mystery novels, with their one-dimensional characters, trite plots, and brief chapters seem to be slightly pumped-up versions of screenplays that their popular authors hope to option to the movies as soon as the books ascend to their inevitable places on the best-seller lists (or perhaps even before). Indeed, many of the characters appear to be modeled to attract the A-list stars most likely to turn the story into big box office. As literature, these books are produced for people on the go, and are designed to be read between subway stops or umbrella drinks on the beach. They are breezy, they use short sentences and small words, and the sexual deviancy that seems always to be an inextricable element of the plot is inevitably crude and salacious. I confess to having indulged in the guilty pleasure of spending time with these novels.

Blood Memory is a different "read". The only formula it follows is having a beginning, a middle, and an end. While the characters have their various virtues and vices that are important to the context of the story and the flow of its plot, they also tend to be multidimensional and interesting. While it partakes of elements of both, this book is far less a police procedural than it is an exploration of psychopathology. The story goes in some unexpected places, and the author is skilled in foreshadowing his plot developments in a subtle way that lets the reader anticipate the turning points just slightly ahead of the characters. This is both difficult to accomplish and very satisfying for the reader.

Another bright attribute is the use of language. The author is skilled both in description and in the development of the interior monologue that contributes to the reader's appreciation of the conflicts and complexity of its central character.

I recommend this book for those who want to experience the joys of reading without the guilt that accompanies the expenditure of time on so much of what passes for popular fiction these days.