Ebook380 pages5 hours
Blood Sunset
By Jarad Henry
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
()
About this ebook
When a young runaway is found dead one morning, a syringe hanging out of his arm, no one is terribly shocked. A known junkie, even local detective Rubens McCauley is quick to conclude that Dallas Boyd died of an accidental overdose. But anomalies in the boy's death—and the haunting memory of a childhood friend—continue to nag at McCauley. Unable to shake his unease, he soon digs deeper into the case and finds himself enmeshed in a secret network of pedophiles, child abusers, and underage prostitutes. Forced to look evil in the eye, McCauley must conquer his own demons as he battles to find justice for a young boy he never even met.
Related to Blood Sunset
Related ebooks
Blood Sunset Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pit and the Princess Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAppeal Denied: A Cliff Hardy Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pulp Fiction Chronicle: Crime, Adventure and Weird Stories. Vol. 6 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDark Union: A Mike Angel Mystery Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRook Takes Knight Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSydney Under Siege: As It Happened 15 December 2014 Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Path of Silence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Bad Day's Work: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Canadian Bomber Contract Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLuke Rules Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDarling, Ohio Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDead in the Water Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Scene: Dylan Hart, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPolice With a Dog Stop! Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Daemoniac (A Gaslamp Gothic Victorian Paranormal Mystery) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tainted Evidence: A Lieutenant Beaudry Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAce Carroway Around the World: The Adventures of Ace Carroway, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhatever Happened to Molly Bloom Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTo Bring My Shadow Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Killing of the Tinkers: A Jack Taylor Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hold Back the Night: A jaw-dropping crime thriller Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Centaur Classics) [The 100 greatest novels of all time - #84] Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWitching Hour Dead: A Westwick Witches Cozy Mystery Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Leash a Thief: Sleuthin' in Boots, #1 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Hot Summer, Cold Murder Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Dylan Thomas Murders Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBring him to my Altar: Big Boys Games, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Hard-boiled Mystery For You
Death Stalks Door County Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWelcome to the Game Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fourth Monkey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Don’t Know Jack: The Hunt for Jack Reacher, #1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Girl in the Window: A Short Thriller Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Last Wife: The completely addictive psychological thriller from the bestselling author of Local Girl Missing, J.A. Baker Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHollow World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hunter: A Parker Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hard Fall: A Gripping Mystery Thriller: Thomas Blume, #1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Get Back Jack: The Hunt for Jack Reacher, #4 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch Series Reading Order Updated 2019: Compiled by Albie Berk Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Bullet for Cinderella (Thriller) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Librarian: The unforgettable, completely addictive psychological thriller from bestseller Valerie Keogh Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Fistful of Nothing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Los Angeles Noir 2: The Classics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gone, Baby, Gone: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Promised Land Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Queenpin: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Braineater Jones Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All Shot Up: The Classic Crime Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Girl With the Deep Blue Eyes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Man with the Getaway Face: A Parker Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Working Stiff Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5New Orleans Noir: The Classics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nest Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Yiddish Policemen's Union: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Neon Rain: A Dave Robicheaux Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil's Necktie Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Return of the Thin Man Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related categories
Reviews for Blood Sunset
Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
10 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It’s summer in Melbourne, Australia and with the city choking on the smoke from bushfires the body of a young runaway, Dallas Boyd, is discovered. At first Detective Rubens McCauley, newly back to work after recovering from a gunshot wound, registers the death as having no suspicious circumstances. However as he thinks about it more he becomes convinced the boy was murdered though it’s difficult for him to convince his superiors of this. He works alone on the case while suspended from duty but when a second teenager’s body is found his boss reluctantly allows him to return to work.
Ostensibly about the case of a murdered boy, Blood Sunset really seemed to me to be more about inner-city Melbourne. McCauley meets a series of people as he investigates the case and each one is used to show some aspect of life in the city. Sometimes these vignettes have little to do with the case, such as the scene which had me in tears where McCauley’s elderly neighbour describes the fear and helplessness he feels over one of his friends who was assaulted while withdrawing money from an ATM. At other times they’re more directly involved with the investigation such as when McCauley meets the social worker who has been assigned to the case of Dallas Boyd’s six-year-old sister who lives with the same step father who abused Boyd. Even McCauley’s personal life presents opportunities to display different sides of city life including his niece’s use of recreational drugs and his own search for the perfect pub gig. All of these threads are pulled deftly together to present a portrait of the gritty side of life in a modern city.
There is a very sound police procedural too, with McCauley doggedly tracking down leads and involving anyone he can find to help him uncover what happened to Dallas Boyd. At the very end of the book Henry did introduce one over-used crime fiction cliché, particularly unnecessary when the book is wonderfully suspense-filled without it, but overall it didn’t detract too much from the otherwise excellent story.
McCauley is a nicely complex character: sharing some of the foibles of other lone detectives in crime fiction but never becoming unbelievably dysfunctional. His struggle with some personal issues throughout the book is woven into the story well, providing interesting insight into his character without allowing the story to become angst-ridden. None of the other characters had much opportunity to be terribly well-developed and that, for me, was the only other slightly disappointing element to the book. Still, we did get some fascinating glimpses of both the city and McCauley’s personal history through meeting his estranged wife, his brother and some of his police colleagues.
I bought this book purely because it was buy an Australian author and hadn’t read a single thing about it before embarking on it. I sometimes wish I could approach all books with such a lack of expectations because it offers the potential for a reading surprise which, at least on this occasion, was an entirely pleasant one.
Book preview
Blood Sunset - Jarad Henry
,h1^ book_preview_excerpt.html }[FV;f"-Ҍ4dDD6izR
!$oɬ;BAuWy\so~tkO;T1twm뜦P*jǪ\ݘ6T8~jO4C]>$Cs8W:n+I,d*H~Gc:XoOU/]Int)
N<3Ŏdm
}{o?^>/}gwO^yL>onypJ鰛P5q9Tqܻ>$סuxC_F-U^ˏ#cjc3_ԅi׃ 7ڞk[_DҡDdc܀HVeF^TDZ1B$1&^uІj?AnBJMVyaswcUnׯdgcᗇ*t+G^܇{AcU-'xFVY!9G8nNBL $62x? (i&I ~!&a'9{jyc WF$T(,)VٯH+ ^Ql/$BxD^_ƫn~,JUO&ԍ"rvJWu_G9I/ǭ[ԋ*#NT8 M??G>E܇_G9z~CXU-LfooǫO].*laڼl͉2YXAyBooBn5")~v}W_W|՟/}^ðc!24xQm){pOaoea{fV gT
b\wlL"wMAdA?> 0o(bܩWWs^a4!6uUJT}Q=
CEse?ۄUZ!2N4N߈n az'z"+ :":]2QN