Book Review - Blood Ties by Kay Hooper

Synopsis:  The elite Special Crimes Unit, the FBI’s most controversial and effective team, is a group of mavericks and misfits trained to use their unique psyc...more The elite Special Crimes Unit, the FBI’s most controversial and effective team, is a group of mavericks and misfits trained to use their unique psychic abilities to hunt the worst monsters imaginable – human ones. Led by the enigmatic Noah Bishop, the SCU team has earned a reputation for pitting their skills and cunning against killers that other cops fear. But this time Bishop and his agents face an enemy who has them in his sights, a trained sniper with a deadly plan — and more than one ace up his sleeve.

It starts with an unspeakable series of grisly murders across three states, a trail of blood leading, finally, to the small Tennessee town of Serenade. There, two more brutal murders lure the SCU into what may be the ultimate trap.

One of the first investigators on the scene, Special Agent Hollis Templeton is willing to push herself as hard and as far as necessary. Risking more than her life to help and protect her fellow SCU members, Hollis is coping with psychic abilities that are evolving in unprecedented ways, an attraction to the most complex man she’s ever known, and a serial murder investigation that has just turned very, very personal.

In her time with the SCU, Hollis has shown an uncanny ability to survive even the most deadly attacks. But what she doesn’t count on is that this killer intends to destroy the team from within.

The clock is ticking. The body count is rising. And as Bishop and his agents race to uncover the identity of their true enemy, not even their special senses can warn them just how bloody, and how terrifyingly close, the truth will be.

First Line:  "Listen."

Random Quote:  "Maybe it was the case itself, twisted and depressing as serial-murder investigations tended to be.  With little evidence and few leads, she had the hollow feeling they were pretty much chasing their own tails, waiting for a break in the case that might never happen, while viciously murdered and tortured victims were being cast aside like garbage and contemptuously left for them to find."

Review:  Kay Hooper's Special Crimes Unit books have always been reliable escapist fiction in the romantic thriller category with paranormal elements thrown in for good measure.  They pretty much all work on the same premise - our vulnerable heroine is just trying to grow into her psychic abilities, our hero is closed off and dangerous, and there's a serial killer they're both trying to put away.  This isn't Literature, but that's okay - sometimes you want a hamburger and sometimes you want prime rib.

FBI Badge - Image via Wikipedia

 I haven't read one of these in awhile and I could tell - there is enough stuff referring to events in previous novels that I haven't read that actual footnotes are included - I guess so readers can go back and get the ones they haven't read.

Overall these have always been great junk fiction reads, but with this one I suspect that Ms. Hooper is preparing to jump the shark (if she hasn't done so already).  She's just got far too many balls in the air right now and she isn't juggling them all that well.  It's clear that she's trying to bring all her characters together, but the stage is pretty crowded right now.  I hope she thins the herd and narrows her focus back down to the basics - romance novel formulaic though the basics may be, that is what she excels at.

FTC Disclosure:  San Leandro Public Library

Rating:  Green