Review – Blood Lines

Commander Will Coburn’s NCIS team is investigating the carjacking and assault of a young Marine and his wife. All evidence points to Bobby Lee Gant, the son of notorious criminal ?Victor Gant. When NCIS agent Shel McHenry is wounded during the botched arrest, the team rallies around Shel even as Victor threatens retribution.

This series relies heavily on the perspectives of multiple characters, and this book is no different. While the story is ultimately Shel’s, if you’ve read the other two books and want to know what’s happened to the other characters, you won’t be disappointed. In some ways though the start of the book ambled as the reader learns about Shel’s issues and the characters are set up. Then it rockets through the initial confrontation, before slowing again as the next series of chess moves are made.

In many ways, though, this is a fitting since the book is classified as general fiction rather than suspense. The emphasis is on the characters and plot, with the suspense being almost an after thought. Even so, the book slowly pulled me in, and I reached a point about midway in where I wondered how on earth the author would pull all the plotlines together.

There is also a strong spiritual thread to this plot. Shel has to wrestle with his relationship with his father, while his father wrestles with demons from forty years ago. There’s also a strong contract in how Shel and his brother respond to their issues with their father. This thread ran throughout the book, and I wanted to see if Shel and his father would resolve their relationship.

The investigative aspects of this book reminded me of Tim Down’s Bugman books and Brandilyn Collins’ Hidden Faces series. If you enjoyed those books, you will enjoy Blood Lines.