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Mar192010
GUEST REVIEW: A Matter of Blood by Sarah Pinborough
by Guest Reviewer • Posted in 4.5 Star Reviews
Title: A Matter of Blood
Author: Sarah Pinborough
Publisher: Gollancz
Publication Date: 25 March 2010
Hardback: 432 pages
Genre: Horror
Guest Review by Amanda
RATING: 9/10
BOOK DEPOSITORY SUMMARY:
The recession that grips the world has left it exhausted. Crime is rising in every major city. Financial institutions across the world have collapsed, and most governments are now in debt to The Bank, a company created by the world’s wealthiest men. But Detective Inspector Cass Jones has enough on his plate without worrying about the world at large. His marriage is crumbling, he’s haunted by the deeds of his past, and he’s got the high-profile shooting of two schoolboys to solve – not to mention tracking down a serial killer who calls himself the Man of Flies. Then Cass Jones’ personal world is thrown into disarray when his brother shoots his own wife and child before committing suicide – leaving Cass implicated in their deaths. And when he starts seeing silent visions of his dead brother, it’s time for the suspended DI to go on the hunt himself – only to discover that all three cases are linked …As Jones is forced to examine his own family history, three questions keep reappearing: what disturbed his brother so badly in his final few weeks? Who are the shadowy people behind The Bank? And, most importantly, what do they want with DI Cass Jones?
REVIEW:
This is the first novel in The Dog-Faced Gods trilogy, and rather defies classification by genre. It could fit quite comfortably in the crime section of a bookstore, or the horror section, and the dystopian near-future setting where The Bank controls governments places it squarely on the sci-fi shelves. The result is a novel that scares and thrills in equal measure. Sarah Pinborough acknowledges the influences of Michael Marshall Smith in his crime thriller guise as Michael Marshall, and I could definitely see echoes of his sparse yet pulse-pounding style in the way Pinborough sets out the events in ‘A Matter of Blood‘.
The novel concerns Cass Jones, a rather difficult character to like but one you can’t help sympathise with. He follows in the footsteps of all those police characters in detective novels – slightly maverick, working in shades of grey rather than idealistic black and white, always the best person to get into the psyche of the killer they’re chasing. He could be accused of being rather cliche, and does come across as such while the novel works within the boundaries of being a straight up crime novel – as soon as the dark supernatural events start sliding onto the pages he escapes this accusation, and becomes a character we can really identify with.
The plot is not too complicated, with a nice linear structure; and Pinborough’s use of chapter end cliffhangers ensures you feel a constant need to just turn the next page. I stayed up [far too] late reading this book, with a complete inability to put it down because I wanted to find out why Cass is being set up, who the Man of Flies is, and whether all three police cases are linked to the mystery of Bright and Solomon. I enjoyed the lean prose, which fleshed out the setting and the secondary characters with broad brush-strokes but didn’t dwell lovingly on all the little details.
The characters are intriguing and some of them definitely leap off the page. I particularly liked DI Ramsey, another police officer who lends Cass a quiet hand, and Dr Tim Hask, the profiler brought in to try and work out who is committing the brutal murders of seemingly random women. Both of these characters had small parts in the novel overall, but really came to life with some excellent dialogue.
There are a few issues with the novel – at times the foreshadowing was extremely clumsy, and I felt as though I was being signposted too strongly away from the meat of the case. Pinborough’s misdirection definitely wasn’t as smooth as it could be. The supernatural elements are also added in a distinctly self-conscious manner – although I like the mystery of Bright and Solomon, I felt as though this novel would not have suffered from being non-genre rather than introducing ghosts and Gods.
The main thrust of the novel’s events are wrapped up in a decent resolution, but there is definitely enough material for the remaining books in this trilogy – and I, for one, cannot wait to read them! ‘A Matter of Blood‘ is a cracking read, never less than thoroughly entertaining and genuinely creepy.
You can find out more about the author here:
4 Comments
Sounds really good. I will definitely put it on my TBR list.
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Thanks for the review. I'm a fan of Pinborough's other books, so when I heard she was releasing another I was excited. Looks like this book is being released in the UK first, so I'll have to be a bit patient before I can get my hands on it!
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Good one for when you really want something creepy to read. Thanks!
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Sounds like a good one I'll have to check out this one!
Thanks for the review..
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