Book Review - Blood Ties

Blood Ties

By

Lori Armstrong

I happened up First Offenders blog while exploring sites for writing advice.I loved the site, then lost it. Yes, I forgot to bookmark it, plus my history was only set up for one day. I tried finding it and due to pure stubbornness found it a week later. I made sure to bookmark it with a note to myself to “never never delete.” I have a habit of going through my bookmarks and doing a huge housecleaning. Then I regret it later, because of course, something will come up and I will mourn and hit myself on the side of the head, because I can’t find it again. I digress.

First Offenders is a blog site for 4 mystery writers who got together and started in 2005: Lori Armstrong, Karen Olson, Jeff Shelby and Alisin Gaylin. They are amusing and informative and their books look pretty interesting. Lori’s first book, Blood Ties intrigued me due to the cover.

I read through the reviews, Amazon and her website and even though the book looked good, I almost passed because I have one pet peeve. I can’t stand books written in first person. Well, I decided to be open minded because her book looked really really interesting

The story is about Julie Collins who works as a secretary for the Bear Butte County Sheriffs office. There are a series of murders and she gets involved in trying to solve the murders. In the process, she gets herself into several ugly situations. She is a likable character who is tough, yet compassionate who likes to smoke, drink and yes, have sex. I have to give the story an R rating because it contains some graphic violent scenes, violence against women, and profanity. Lori Armstrong is a good writer and pulls you into the story with its intensity and mystery.

I actually enjoyed the heck out of the book and plan on reading the other two in the series: Hallowed Ground #2 and Shallow Grave #3. If you like mainstream mystery fiction with heart pumping, gut wrenching action, then check out the Blood Ties at Amazon.com.