A historical suspense novel that you will for sure have trouble putting down, THE BUSINESS OF BLOOD is one I truly enjoyed. Written by Kerrigan Byrne, this novel is not like your every day Jack the Ripper tale. The characters are very likable, and you are finding yourself in tune with the main character’s emotions. I usually do not read many historical mysteries because I find some plain, dry, and hard to connect with the characters, but Byrne hooked me on this first of a series that I cannot wait for the rest.
It is 1890 in London, and just when they think they have heard the last of Jack the Ripper, another body turns up two years later. Fiona Mahoney lost her best friend since childhood, Mary, as she was Ripper’s last victim. Now not far from where Mary lived, another body is found. Fiona’s job is to clean the areas after the corpse is taken away, so when she is called to this latest crime scene, it brings back old and disturbing memories.
She meets the handsome Inspector Grayson Croft, who tells her to keep out of the investigation. However, she finds something that she does not share at the scene and tries to piece clues together to find the one responsible for the murders. Is it Ripper back? Or someone else copying his murder style? She then receives a note, is it a warning? Has she put herself in danger? You will have to read it to find out!
If you love historical suspense and even if you don’t usually read them, you will love THE BUSINESS OF BLOOD written by Kerrigan Byrne. I cannot wait for the next one in the series as the end leaves you wanting more; a great beginning to a series that really caught my interest. Warning, some may think it is graphic, I have read worse, so take that into consideration. If we gave stars, it would be a five-star novel!
London, 1890. Blood and death are Fiona Mahoney’s trade, and business, as they say, is booming.
Dying is the only thing people do with any regularity, and Fiona makes her indecorous living cleaning up after the corpses are carted away. Her childhood best friend, Mary, was the last known victim of Jack the Ripper. It’s been two years since Fiona scrubbed Mary’s blood from the floorboards, and London is no longer buzzing about the Ripper, but Fiona hasn’t forgotten.
And she hasn’t stopped searching for Jack.
When she’s called to a murder in the middle of the night, Fiona finds a victim mutilated in an eerily similar fashion to those of the Ripper, and only a few doors down from Mary’s old home. The relentless, overbearing, and irritatingly handsome Inspector Grayson Croft warns her away from the case. She might have listened, if she hadn’t found a clue in the blood. A clue that will lead her down a path from which there is no return.As a killer cuts a devastating swath through London, a letter written in blood arrives at her door, and it is only then that Fiona realizes just how perilous her endeavor is. For she has drawn the attention of an obsessive evil, and is no longer the hunter, but the prey. Fiona Mahoney is in the business of blood.