(I received a free copy of this book, through NetGalley, in exchange for a review).
(This review may contain spoilers).
I thought this book had a really interesting plot. It was fairly short and easy to read and I found Ellen to be a really intriguing character. I was a bit confused about what her job actually was for a while, I have to say. I got confused when it mentioned she was working in the lab.
I liked seeing Ellen’s relationship with her father, though I would have liked to see more of how she interacted with other members of her colleagues. There were certain elements I felt weren’t foreshadowed correctly, since there wasn’t enough time spent detailing certain characters.
I did think that there was a bit too much personal drama included. While the characters were well-rounded to an extent, I didn’t see anything past Sanchez being violent towards Ellen. I didn’t know what their working relationship was like before then… and although it was nice to see Ellen was attracted to her fellow police officer, I was left wondering why that didn’t crop up before, when she presumably has worked with him in the past.
The scenes with the murderers started off really well, but by the time I was seeing Joannie, I felt that their motivations were lost. I liked seeing Joannie as a character who was struggling to survive and how she tried to say what she thought was needed in order to escape. While I couldn’t help feeling a small amount of sympathy for Donovan, I found it very difficult to understand the motivations… and it would have been good to see more foreshadowing throughout the book.
There wasn’t a lot in the way of graphic scenes in this book, which I think worked better. I did find myself drawn really easily into this book and felt able to connect emotionally with Ellen in particular. It would have been good to see some of the characters expanded upon and more interactions on a whole. I had no idea who Big Harv was reaming out, for instance.
While I probably won’t read a sequel to this book as it stands, if the characters are expanded upon and the twists make sense, I’d be happy to give it a try in the future.
Ink of Blood 