Ok, so I am starting to read A Darkness More Than Night and realize that Blood Work is no longer a stand alone and now I need to read it first. If you're going to read all of Connelly's series I suggest you do read it first, but if you're not interested in the Harry Bosch series you can read this one whenever. Also, in the first pages there is a mention of the Poet case and of course I then had to stop right there and read Connelly's The Poet before I went any further with this book. Trust me--you don't have to because that is the only mention, so save that series for another time :)

Connelly chose a very interesting subject to deal with while introducing Terry McCaleb to us. I won't give it away, but this was one well written and interesting thriller. A bit of Michael Palmer and Robin Cook thrown in with the Connelly we all like. This has some great dective work in it. ( )

The story was interesting but the writing struck me as a bit dry. Worth the read, in my opinion, but not one of my favorites. ( )

That last part was a little extreme. I don’t think it’s the most horrible thing he’s ever seen but it’s close. The upshot is this; he figures that Graciela’s sister’s death is tied to two others. They were caught on surveillance tape and a HK P7 was found to be on both tapes. A weird gun to be used as a stick-up gun. So a few more clues come together and Terry figures out that they all had the same blood type; his type. The killer was killing people for their blood type and presumably for their organs since they were all organ donors. The first two killings were botched because the victim died before getting to life-support and the organs were wasted. But Gloria’s death was found in time and her organs were saved – the heart for Terry himself.

So was the killer hoping for organs himself or for someone else or was he just trying to move up on the list? Terry gets his doctor to help him find out who the other recipients were. In the mean time, the cops are getting nasty. While he’s out, they toss his boat with a warrant and discover the missing personal items from two of the three killings. But they do not find the gun. They were supposed to but Terry surprised someone in the night and ran him off the boat. But the carpet was wet. Why was that? What were they doing? He sends his next door neighbor down to investigate and what he finds is the P7 in a dive bag tied to Terry’s boat. Good thing he finds it first.

Then he figures out that the eye witness to the 2nd killing was faking his hypnotic state during their last round of questioning. From that he determines that the Good Samaritan on Gloria’s killing was the same man. The shooter needed the victim found right away so they wouldn’t die & the organs could be used. He was doing for Terry specifically. He was a serial killer called the Code Killer that Terry’s FBI Task Force failed to capture. He wanted Terry to know that he killed Gloria for him and him alone.

But it backfired. They got prints from him in the interrogation room and found out who he was. They tossed his warehouse room to find that he set up Terry to take the fall and disappeared. But Terry remembered the vivid description of a place that the killer mentioned in his "hypnotic” state. He tracked him there and killed him. It was taken to be a suicide – wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

It wasn’t bad. Some of the clues were pretty thin but it’s fiction. The relationship between Terry & Graciela was ok – not forced, not sexually gratuitous. Cautious. Of course they are together in the end. On the boat. Romantically sailing to Catalina.

BLOOD WORK is not a boring book, but it lacks a convincing characterization and some situations are predictable. You have a man approached by a women for help. This man, an ex-FBI agent Terrell McCaleb has serious health problems (having a transplanted heart). So, in real life he is not likely to be a candidate to lead a murder investigation. However, the story is different...Next, why this woman (Graciella) has to be young and beautiful....Why not old and average looking ? Why should this private detective get emotionally involved with Graciella ? If so, is it likely that Graciella would fall in love with this man in real life considering his poor health? And Graciella, she appears to me as stiff as a a wooden figure - no life, no real emotions, doubts or weaknesses on her part... In short, she is just a decoration, a necessary character which helps move the plot along, but without real blood and flesh. The same could be said for all supporting characters...As soon as the book is over, they are all forgotten.

In short, this is a decent crime (mystery) novel, but this is not exceptional literature which makes you wonder, cry, think and ask for more. ( )

A too elaborate premise for my tastes. ( )