Review: Quinn Takes Leading Role in Blood Game!

Blood Game
By Iris Johansen
Johansen Publishing
ISBN: 9780312368128
338 Pages


Iris Johansen is one of my favorite authors, so I was pleased to have an opportunity to read and review Blood Game, her next Eve Duncan Forensics Thriller due out in October! We get to continue enjoying Eve’s activities, but a new exciting twist has been added and it’s a “doozy!” If you are already a Johansen fan, you should be sure to get her latest! If you are not a fan, but enjoy forensics suspense at its finest, Blood Game will ensure you immediately place Johansen on your must-read author list!

Kevin Jelak is playing a game—a Blood Game. If he drinks a sufficient amount of high-quality blood of strong women, he will become invisible, immortal and all-powerful! Jelak plans for Eve Duncan’s blood to close out the game soon! And to prepare her to look for him, he places a small gold container of blood in her home refrigerator!

Nancy Jo Norris had been just 19 when Jelak had killed her. While she had been selected quite randomly, it turned out that she was the very intelligent, strong daughter of a Senator who demanded that they put the best man on tracking her murderer. That man was Joe Quinn, Eve’s long-time friend and lover.

But Eve notices that there is something wrong—Joe is avoiding her and refuses to share that anything is wrong. He escapes from the house quickly when he is called out to go where they had found Nancy Jo. They found a small gold container of blood near her body! As Joe goes through his routine, he meets a young girl who is able to help him, explaining that Nancy Jo had been in the parking garage at the Perimeter Mall when she had been attacked! Soon he discovers that the tip is a good one and his investigation moves steadily forward. Did I mention that the young girl was Nancy’s ghost?

And then Seth Caleb arrives in town. He has learned of the gold containers; he has been searching for this monster for many years, since Jelak first killed a dearly loved relative of his. Caleb has the ability to help Joe and Eve in many ways that are not normally available. But, he is “hunting;” and Joe is not quite sure that he can agree to Caleb’s plan!

Blood Game by Iris Johansen has much more magic and mystery. It is a new and exciting expansion of the Eve Duncan series that should bring Joe Quinn into the story even more than in the past. I, for one, hope this change continues! It has the potential to lead toward many alternative paths down which this loving couple can travel. In fact, I’d also like to see Seth Caleb stay as a permanent character as well.

I’m already looking forward to Johansen’s next book. In the meantime, if you haven’t read Blood Game, get it soon for a weekend of thrilling drama!


G. A. Bixler