Bloodline by Pamela Murray
A man’s body is lying in a doorway, but people pass him by believing he is homeless. DI Burton and DS Fielding are called to the scene and are shocked to discover his true identity.
Burton and Fielding find themselves looking into another unsolved murder when DNA from the man is linked to a cold case. DNA testing is a wonderful tool in the detection of crime, but identifying DNA also has unforeseen consequences as the detectives find out, when the case becomes a tangled web of lies, deceit and personal tragedy.
Sometimes I have a craving to just put my feet up with a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and enjoy a good yarn – and as a fan of crime fiction a few good twists and turns in the mix are a must. Bloodline does the job perfectly whilst also being very contemporary dealing with current issues such as homelessness and drugs and the involvement now of very professional policewomen at all levels of a modern police service.
It shows how crimes can be solved by modern technology that could never have been in the past – but that the technology at our disposal brings problems too, sometimes with disastrous consequences. But it also deals with the personal tragedies that take place in families hidden behind respectable but closed front doors – fatal misunderstandings and wild emotions – underneath people have not changed.
I would have liked to know a little more about the main protagonists so that I could develop a clearer picture of them in my mind but Bloodline is the second in Pamela Murray’s Manchester Murder Seriesand I think I shall find out more in the third book of this series Duplicity. The first book, Pamela Murray’s debut novel, is called Murderland. Although the books form a trilogy, it is perfectly possible to read them as standalone stories.