Blood Money by James Grippando Edition: Hardcover Price: $17.81
Action, Suspence, Mystery and More, January 9, 2013 This review is from: Blood Money (Hardcover) Blood Money - James Grippando Take the horror of the Casey Anthony trial and acquittal, mix in a good dose of the O.J. Simpson trial then toss in some outrageous social media and a huge dose of sensationalistic TV and you have the basis for this astonishing book. Mr. Grippando has written 20 books to date and this is the first one I have ever read. It will not be my last one. The author has written this book as part of a series, but I guarantee you that you will not have had to read any of the other ones to follow this story. It has been written as if it were a stand-alone and it gives you just enough back story for many of the characters so that you will immediately feel like you have grown up with them. A brief summary of this book -- Jack Swyteck has defended one of the most seemingly despicable women that this country has seen in a while and he expects that her release from prison is not going to go well. However, nobody could have predicted just what exactly did happen that morning. Celeste Laramore who has a striking resemblance to Sydney Bennett (also known as Shot Mom) shows up at the jailhouse on the morning of Sydney's release. The crowd has be driven to a frenzy by a certain TV reporter (who bears a startling resemblance to one of my least favorite TV personality/Attorney) from the BNN network - Breaking News Network. While this crowd is essentially, rioting, someone is trying to strangle the Sydney look-alike. To make a long story short, because of illegal technical maneuvering/tampering by BNN, crucial medical information does not get to the ambulance in time and Celeste slips into a coma. Not only all of that is going on, but also at the same time there is a murderer loose that is threatening all of the people that Jack loves...a real brilliant nut-job is doing his best to get to Sydney. Initially you think it is to exact some sort of retribution for her acquittal, but you would be wrong. Can Jack find a way to prosecute an entire TV station? Did Sydney really kill and hide the body of her own daughter? Was there extenuating circumstances to this murder? Is ANYTHING as it seems? This novel is filled with wonderfully tight writing. There is nothing extraneous in this novel. Nothing that will make you roll your eyes in frustration, because we all know that truth is stranger than fiction. The characters are interesting, dislikable, sympathetic, hateful, loveable and interesting. I could go on but I will not bore you with the characters attributes. The plot was so believable, that at times I had a difficult time separating fact from fiction. This is a fast-paced book and one that I could not out down until I finished it. Many thanks go out to the publisher for allowing me to read and review this book. I had a fantastic time with it and rest assured I will be buying this authors back-list.