Review: ‘Blood List’, by Ali Carter

BLURB

Think the Lake District is a lovely place to visit? Think again. A Psychological & Chilling Thriller set in and around the fictional town of Kirkdale in Cumbria. One by one the young women of Kirkdale are being found grotesquely murdered, with no clues as to why.

Lying between the great lake Kirkwater and the base of Kirkby Pike, although beautiful, Kirkdale isn’t exactly the most exciting place on the planet. But after young reporter Jenny Flood moves into the relaxed Cumbrian town, it sets a catalogue of events in motion that brings this comfortable community to its knees.

When middle aged G.P. Charlotte Peterson discovers Jenny has followed her from Bradenthorpe, six years after a fling with her philandering doctor husband Miles, it stirs deeply buried mental health issues from her youth. In the run up to the Kirkdale country show, the arrival of this third and most recent adversary triggers the already edgy and emotionally scarred Charlotte into finally stepping over the edge. Her longing to destroy Jenny has been on a slow and very resentful burn for years, now the reality of achieving that presents itself as a genuine possibility.

Can journalist Andrew Gale protect new colleague Jenny, girlfriend Gina and her best friend Molly from the psychotic GP’s insane agenda? How will sarcastic ex Met. Officer Harry Longbridge deal with Andrew’s continued interference?

Then there’s the unexpected arrival of an American mystery woman. And just who is on the Blood List?

My Review

Thanks, to Matador, Ali and Anne for sending me a copy of this book and for organising the blog tour.

This book has an unusual structure for a crime novel in that th3 reader knows from the beginning who the murderer is and their motivations for killing. The mystery comes in following the investigations of both the professional detectives – DCI Harry Longbridge and his team, and the amateur detectives – journalist Andrew, doctor’s receptionist Gina, and barmaid/psychic Molly. These main characters are deceptively ordinary people in an extraordinary situation.

The setting, a fictional town n the Lake District, will be almost familiar to anyone who’s spent time in Cumbria – not many locals, lots of blow-ins looking for their rural idyll and completely ignoring the lack of work, while the historical buildings are turned into cafes and gift shops.

The plot is, as I said, unusual in giving us the who and why from the start; it’s the how that’s missing, although there are clues which finally fit together. The dual investigations, the surfeit of potential killers – from interfering Andrew to Jason, the schizophrenic brother of the trigger/potential victim, Jenny, to the philandering doctor – all mask the true killer and cause tension in the plot.

---

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Ali Carter was born in Surrey in 1958 and moved to East Anglia in 2003, settling just outside King’s Lynn 4 years later where she currently lives with her husband, 5 dogs and 6 cats. (Yes she knows the dog/cat thing is a bit mad!)

She originally found some success in writing poetry in the 80’s and 90’s, but inspiration for her debut novel ‘Blood List’ came after the Shipman case hit the headlines – a few years later the dark and deeply psychotic G.P. ‘Charlotte’ was born. The full story took its time in completion however as there was a very long period of writer’s block about three quarters of the way through the book. It was an author friend who finally persuaded her to pull it out of the laptop and finish it, for which she will be eternally grateful. At the time of writing, a sequel is in its infancy which she sincerely hopes won’t take another 12 years to come to fruition!

Ali is also a proud mum to two grown up sons, and an extra proud nanny to her adorable granddaughter, although at only 5 she won’t be reading ‘Blood List’ anytime soon!

She hopes you will enjoy her first long awaited thriller, and you can follow Ali on Twitter @alicrimewriter and on her website at alicarterauthor.com