When Gordon Reeve gets the phone call from the States about his brother, Jim, supposedly committing suicide, he's shocked. Why, he wonders, would a journalist working on a big story (and possibly the biggest in his career) decide to off himself? The answer -- he wouldn't.

Reeve served time in the Special Forces and now runs a weekend survivalist camp with his wife, Joan, in the farm community of South Uist on the Scottish Borders. His small son, Allan, and his wife are his constant companions. Upon hearing of Jim's death, Reeve travels to San Diego to identify the body and prepare to bring it back to Scotland.

Instead, Reeve begins discovering just how big the story was that his brother was working on, what Co-World Chemicals is up to, and why and who was out to murder his brother for the information he was compiling. In the process of discovering serious cover-ups on a corporate and global level, Reeve meets up with an old Special Forces "buddy" named Jay, who's now working for the very people who had his brother murdered and covered it up to make it look like suicide. Reeve's anger management issues become apparent.

BLOOD HUNT is an excellent example of the suspense genre. It has a predictable ending, but enough detail and plot- winding to keep a reader interested and entertained. Longtime readers of Rankin's work will wonder at the lack of series, as this is a standalone book, but well-worth the time.