Reviews

Blood Memory by Greg Iles

faerlyrainny's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

lindajo's review against another edition

4.0

This is another great book of Iles. He's very good at weaving complex suspense with interesting characters. I like that we get to see a couple of the characters from his previous books. Overall, a great suspense book with detailed forensics (which I love) and a strong female character.

alykat_reads's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

My first novel from Greg Iles and it won't be my last. This was a slow burn 🔥 but kept me engaged to want to know what happened and how everything was connected. Not to say I think the book was slow-paced, but more that the pace was steady throughout. There were a lot of dark subjects in this book - child sexual assault, rape, PTSD, and suicide - so something to be aware of if those things are triggering. 
I had mixed feelings about Cat throughout the book too. We find out early on that she's pregnant (by a guy who's married, no less) and there are parts where she is so adamant about not drinking or taking anything to harm the fetus, but then 3 pages later she's downed half a bottle of vodka 😒 I wish Iles had picked a lane instead of the back and forth with that. 

dryhands's review

failed the show-don't-tell challenge so hard i couldn't survive the overexpositional beginning to make it to where i imagine there might be actual plot

jensen1's review

3.0

Really dark

nursenell's review against another edition

5.0

This was a much better book than the first Greg Iles book I read. This book is about how childhood sexual abuse, even when not consciously remembered, affects the way the survivors live their adult lives. The story is set in Natchez, MS. A good read.

aloudy16's review against another edition

5.0

first time reading this author and i recommend!!! going to look for more of his books. very good !!!

judyward's review against another edition

4.0

"Cat" Ferry is fired from a task force investigating a series of murders in New Orleans despite being a world-class odontologist because of panic attacks and apparent blackouts. But when she leaves New Orleans and goes back home to Natchez, Mississippi, her problems seem to multiply. What is going on here? Good job, Greg Iles. I checked this audio book out of the library prior to a week-long trip thinking that it would be interesting even though it has 16 discs. Soon, however, I was hooked--hooked to the point that I was making up excuses to get back into the car and drive around "doing errands" so that I could get back into the story and find out what was going on.

lafate's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I don't usually give trigger warnings to books, but there is child sexual abuse in this story. I just want to put that out there right away. 

Now my no-spoiler review. This book is long, which is typical for Greg Iles. In fact he needs a lot of room so he can make our heads spin multiple times. I'm pretty bad at figuring out mysteries and Greg Iles weaves together what seems like disparate tangents into a cohesive tale. 

The heroine of this story, "Cat" Ferry is flawed, brilliant, alcoholic, in love with a married man, and pregnant. She is a forensic odontologist who helps figure out crimes through dentistry. There's a serial murderer out there and Cat gets taken off the case, partly due to a panic attack at a crime scene. But this is a Greg Iles book so we fans of Greg Iles know this is not the end. In fact her personal life is going to come crashing down and she's going to be more determined to solve the case. 

If you can deal with the disturbing aspect of the book as I described in the trigger warning then you will be rewarded. If not, this is not the book for you. There are others out there. 

I loved the narration by Joyce Bean except what the heck accent did the main homicide detective have? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Murder, and Child abuse

afoy22's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0