Hughes, Declan – THE WRONG KIND OF BLOOD

[LJ Roberts]

THE WRONG KIND OF BLOOD (Amateur Sleuth-Ireland-Cont) – VG Hughes,
Declan – 1st book
William Morrow, 2006- Hardcover

Private Investigator Ed Loy left his native Ireland 20 years ago. Now he is back to bury his mother and still wonders what happened to his father, who had disappeared many years before. Ed is asked by one former classmate to find her missing husband and another childhood friend turns up on Ed’s doorstep with a recently fired gun, given into his care by a local mobster, he asks Ed to hide it. Soon Ed is immersed in bodies and a determination to unravel the secrets which started many years ago.

Definitely noir with lots of brutality and a few too many threads, but a very good debut nonetheless. I appreciated that Hughes tied up all the threads in a very satisfying way. Ed is an interesting character who was fleshed out quite well. The story was well paced but what stuck me most was the underlying that sometimes family is more than blood. It’s not a perfect book, but good enough that I am looking forward to Hughes’ next book.