A dark and murderous tale to chill the blood…

Bad Blood by Max Power is the third book from this author I’ll have read and reviewed, the previous two being Darkly Wood and Larry Flynn. Having originally come to my attention via the Indie Author Support & Discussion Fb group and IASD website I’m involved with, along with growing attention on twitter and various other social media and the ever increasing number of positive reviews he is accumulating with is books, Max Power has quickly established himself as one of my favourite Indie Authors.

Max Power has written several books including Darkly Wood, Bad Blood, and Little Big Boy. Originally from Dublin he currently resides in Maynooth in Kildare Ireland with his family, and following the huge success of Darkly Wood, is currently working on its sequel. More recently, he has also had a short story featured in Ian D Moore (And Friends)’ Youre Not alone: An Indie Author Anthology, an IASD anthology bringing together a multitude of international Indie Authors in aid of the cancer care and support charity Macmillan Nurses.

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Click on above thumbnails for links to said book & website

As well as being an author, Max Power is a prolific book reviewer, blogger, and regular contributor to a number of Indie Author Support Fb groups, the IASD website, Goodreads, and other assorted social media, and is fast establishing himself as a major name in Indie publishing.

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Further information on Max Power and links to his writing can be found at:

http://maxpowerbooks.wordpress.com/

Max Power’s Amazon Author page:

www.facebook.com/maxpowerbooks

www.twitter.com/maxpowerbooks1

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Note:  As you will see from the following review I’ve prefaced it with the author’s own Amazon blurb; it’s often a dilemma as to how much plot detail to include in a review without giving too much away or simply repeating what the author has already said. In the case of an Amazon review, not to include such detail doesn’t present a problem generally as anyone reading the reviews are already likely to have read the the said blurb, but with a blog review it’s likely this will be the first time the reader has even heard of the featured book hence my inclusion of the blurb here…

Amazon Description:

When lawyer Carol Berkley visits a man on death row, who has not spoken one word from the time of his arrest and right through his trial, she is shocked by his first spoken words. James Delaney is a man sentenced for one murder, but it turns out that he may be the most prolific serial killer the world has ever known. When James despatches Carol to find a priest, a priest with a secret, she becomes tangled in a web of murder, blackmail and revenge, as her life spirals out of control. Father Martin Doyle thought he had left a terrible secret behind him in Ireland, but when Carol turns up at his church in a poor Miami neighbourhood, he is forced to travel back home to confront the demons of his past and discover even more sinister new ones. With a hurricane looming large off the Florida coast, James knows that there is a far more dangerous storm brewing. The arrival of new prison officer Elias Wainwright means that James will never make it to his official execution date, without the help of Carol Berkley and the priest with a very particular secret. Time is running out for James and he has a secret of his own that may change everything. But some secrets should be kept in the family.

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Bad Blood 

By Max Power

(Available from Amazon in eBook & Paperback)

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This book really hooks the reader from the opening page, raising questions right from the start that keeps the reader turning the page in the hope of answers. For the most part this is a thriller of the first order, but one that skates around the fringes of horror and the paranormal. None of the characters are quite what they seem, least of all James Delaney, the mysterious figure who at the start finds himself on Death Row for unintentionally killing a police woman, and for most definitely trying to kill another man; and yet, for a man facing years of incarceration and a death sentence at the end of it he seems remarkably unconcerned by his situation, and as the story progresses we learn he may be responsible for many more deaths, a serial killer of unimaginable proportion. But he is in good company here; with just a few exceptions, virtually every character has at one time had blood on their hands. I won’t say in what way but there are several clues early on and throughout that there’s something ‘different,’ something ‘more,’ about James Delaney and his enemy Elias Wainwright that sets them apart from ordinary men. And the other characters too, an ambitious young female lawyer, a priest with a less than angelic past, and Jamal, a street wise young man from the ‘less than affluent’ side of town, all command the reader’s attention. Max Power expertly lays the foundations of a blood and corpse filled thriller, providing the reader with a jigsaw of literary elements that slowly come together from which an intriguing story of an age old battle and blood feud emerges.

Although written in the third person, Max Power delves in to the minds of the most prominent characters in such a way as to make the reader think and almost believe that the story is being told from the perspective of each one at any given time. Another of the great strengths of this author’s writing is also to create a real sense of atmosphere, usually somewhat dark and brooding, and characters that defy all the usual stereotypes, ones that hover and glide between being the hero and the villain, being liked and loathed in equal measure. Some of the narrative is a little graphic at times but always in keeping with the context and tone of the story. One area I would have liked to see explored more was the history between James Delaney and Elias Wainwright and their respective families, and perhaps a little more explanation about the alluded to mythology about them.

I almost feel guilty for not awarding this book five stars, and perhaps if this had been the first of the author’s books I had read then I might well have done so, but having previously read Darky Wood and Larry Flynn by the same author, this one didn’t quite work as well (for me) as the previous two but it still remains a thoroughly well-written, enjoyable and blood curdling read nonetheless. Soon after finishing this review I shall be moving onto Max Power’s latest book, Little Big Boy… If Edgar Allan Poe was writing in the modern era then Bad Blood and Darkly Wood would be the sort of books I would be expecting from him…

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Max Power books: Click on thumbnails for Amazon links

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