Review: Bad Blood

Bad Blood by Dana Stabenow
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Was My Book Missing Pages?


---------------->SPOILER ALERT AHEAD SORRY!<-------------------------------

I have never really disliked any of Ms. Stabenow's books except after she killed off Jack. Even then, after a while, I picked up the series again. I even ended up loving the series more after I got used to Jack not being around. Then we recently lost Old Sam. You expect many beloved characters to die in a series of this length, especially when most of them are quite old. But I just finished this one and feel like I can't be sure what the hell has happened.

We have Jim investigating a possible murder at the site between two feuding villages, then another murder and another murder, an elopement of two young adults, each from opposing villages, just like Romeo and Juliet. As a matter of fact, if you think about it, this whole book is just a modern version of Romeo and Juliet, what with feuding families, politics, and deaths. You just don't have the kids dying like in the original, and you need to throw in bootlegging and massive amounts of drugs.

So both of the main characters (sort of) have been shot, and one was even shot in the chest. They were not wearing Kevlar either, or we wouldn't see blood, right? Then we hear a "golden crested bird singing a mournful song,"...so one or both of these main characters must be dead. Right? The End. Find out what happened in the next episode! IF there is going to be a next episode! Boo.

---------------------->END SPOILER ALERT<-----------------

Throughout this book, I had been thinking that it was odd that the author would add so much backstory yet not give us anything of some of the more beloved and usual characters. The only one we see in this book is Bobby, not even Dinah or Katya, no Aunties, no Bernie. I thought to myself that perhaps this was Ms. Stabenow's way of getting ready to take us in a new direction. Because this book seems so different from what she normally gives us. And as pointed out, it was significantly shorter than any but her first books. But with this ending, could it be the series has ended with us being none-the-wiser?

There is one main plot, but with several limbs off of it, and that is sometimes the norm for these books, but this one just didn't feel right; there was too much going on about politics and not enough going on about what was happening with the plot.

This can't be the last book, no matter what it feels like, since there are too many huge plot lines left open...but even still, it still feels like the end.

No matter, this is the first of her books that I found myself nibbling at instead of devouring in one huge gulp, and it still ended up giving me indigestion.

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