THE COLOR OF BLOOD Declan Hughes April 2007 William Morrow

Declan Hughes introduced himself to the Crime reading community in last year’s THE WRONG KIND OF BLOOD. That book was a great read about an Irish ex-pat returning home 25 years later to an unfamiliar and prosperous country to bury his mother. Ed Loy had left Ireland and come to the U.S. where he worked as a P.I. Divorced and mourning the loss of a child in BLOOD he found keys to his past and a glimmer of a future. Hughes has found a way to tell the “Irish Story” with an American friendly voice. THE COLOR OF BLOOD is proof that his concept was a good one.

Home now and welding his past with NEW Ireland, Loy has decided to stay and work in his profession despite the fact that there is no licensing for private investigators. He has little personal support in his corner and the cases are of the low-brow variety. Finding cheating spouses and run-a-way children is providing an income, just, but self-appreciation is hard to come by. When Shane Howard, a respected Dublin Dentist comes to Loy for help finding a blackmailer and his missing daughter Hughes takes off with a tale that roots in the past and threatens the future. Within hours of the initial interview both Howard’s estranged wife his daughter’s ex boyfriend are dead and Shane is in prison. Here is where Hughes begins his story of an Ireland that has changed faster than its people. Researching the Howard family and its secrets allows Hughes, Loy and their readers to unravel an eerie mystery. Hughes makes it more than that. A cast of damaged souls runs rampant upon these pages. The decidedly Irish Hughes allows us a glimpse of country whose new-found prosperity cannot erase the sins of the often self righteous and blind religious fanaticism that was its past.

Following doctrine on the personal level often holds consequences. For the Howard family the tragedy was one of Grecian prophecy. For those who read THE COLOR OF BLOOD it’s an opportunity to look at where we’ve come and where we’re going. Wrapped in satisfying crime fiction and a well told fable.

Ruth Jordan