Thin Blood

General Fiction, Mystery & Thrillers

By Vicki Tyley

Publisher : Patmay Press

ABOUT Vicki Tyley

Vicki Tyley
Born in New Zealand, Vicki Tyley emigrated with her husband to Australia in 1982.

Vicki has travelled extensively, spending a year touring the world before terrorism was an influencing factor. She has lived in the central business districts of large cities, suburbia, idyllic sea More...

Description

Craig Edmonds, a successful stockbroker, reports the disappearance of his wife, Kirsty. What starts as a typical missing person's case soon evolves into a full-blown homicide investigation when forensics uncover blood traces and dark-blonde hairs in the boot of the missing woman's car. Added to this, is Craig's adulterous affair with the victim's younger sister, Narelle Croswell, compounded further by a recently acquired $1,000,000 insurance policy on his wife's life. He is charged with murder but, with no body and only circumstantial evidence, he walks free when two trials resulting in hung juries fail to convict him.

Ten years later, Jacinta Deller, a newspaper journalist is retrenched. Working on a freelance story about missing persons, she comes across the all but forgotten Edmonds case. When she discovers her boyfriend, Brett Rhodes, works with Narelle Croswell, who is not only the victim's sister but is now married to the prime suspect, her sister's husband, she thinks she has found the perfect angle for her article. Instead, her life is turned upside down, as befriending the woman, she becomes embroiled in a warped game of delusion and murder.

Every once in awhile a reader comes across a book that takes over their life, captures their thoughts and forces them to contemplate nothing else but the characters and actions occurring upon a page.

 

“Thin Blood”, the debut novel by Vicki Tyley is one of those incredible, thrilling reads. I came across this book almost by accident and I am so thankful for chance circumstance.

 

Discovering Ms. Tyley on www.goodreads.com, I looked at her website and took a quick glance at her book. The prologue was captivating; I couldn’t wait to read more. I turned the pages (online, because it’s an e-book) quicker than I have turned pages in quite some time.

 

Obsessed with an old murder case, the book’s main character Jacinta is clueless, yet incredibly smart. She is intriguing and simply put, good. She is a character I can imagine an entire series created around because she is that great. As a journalist, Jacinta finds herself jobless due to company cutbacks. Determined to do freelance work, she digs into crimes of the past and finds herself absorbed in the murder of Kirsty Edmonds. The young wife had gone missing, many years ago and her husband was the only plausible suspect. Her dead body had never been found and two juries failed to find Craig Edmonds guilty therefore leaving the case cold. Jacinta’s sudden interest however, seemed to change it all.

 

Page after page of twists make this novel a smashing success. The characters are multi-faceted and complex and the reader never knows whom to trust. It wasn’t until I read the very last page of “Thin Blood” that I exhaled. I was stunned and you will be too.

 

–Suspense Magazine, April 2010