Cutting Blades by
Victoria Blake
pbk out April 05
(Orion)
at £10.99
Second outing for Sam Falconer, a private eye and former Judo World
Champion, trying to escape her Oxford upbringing but lured back there from
London when a talented young rower goes missing. Harry Cameron is
expected to make the team for the Boat Race; he has been totally committed
to training until he disappears. Harry is not the only problem in Sam's life.
Someone, possibly her estranged father who she is frightened of, is stalking
her; the minding job she's doing for her neighbour turns out to be dangerous;
and Sam is reluctantly seeing a therapist in a desperate attempt to sort out
her fraught emotional life. While connections and coincidences multiply in the
various cases, it is the story of Sam's struggles with her family relationships
that are most engaging and pack the biggest punch. Blake has created a
convincing and original central character, a strong, independent (and
physically powerful) woman who nevertheless remains vulnerable as her
sense of identity is continually undermined by the drip feed of truths about her
family's past.
(
Cath Staincliffe
author of the popular Sal Kilkenny mysteries and the series creator of TV Blue Murder)
Cutting Blades by
Victoria Blake
