La trace du sang (urspr publ 2008; utgåvan 2015)

This is the third book in the Enzo files series by Peter May. I thought it was a little weaker than the first two so I hope this is just a momentary glitch. I have the next book in the series on the TBR pile so I can make a decision on the series after reading it.

In the last book, The Critic Enzo Macleod, biology professor at a university in Cahors, France and an expert in forensic science, was the target of two murder attempts. In this book it seems the murderer has branched out to other members of Enzo's family. The daughter from his first marriage, Kirsty, is an interpreter in Strasbourg. She was supposed to be interpreting at a press conference an Italian industrialist was holding but her taxi was late and then further held up in traffic. Kirsty called her friend and fellow interpreter Sylvie to step in for her. When she finally made it to the hall where the press conference was in session a bomb exploded just as she stepped in the door. She was knocked to the floor but was otherwise unhurt; her friend Sylvie was killed by the bomb which went off right under her chair. It seems Kirsty was the actual target. Intensely frightened and upset Kirsty reaches out to her father. Enzo had just received another piece of bad news. His family doctor had sent him to an oncologist who had told Enzo he had a rare form of leukemia which would probably be fatal in three months if he didn't take any treatment or six months if he did. Still stunned by this news Enzo hurries off to Strasbourg to be with Kirsty but as he is bringing her back he is arrested for murdering a female acquaintance in Cahors. Naturally he is innocent but there is enough circumstantial evidence to put him in jail. Enzo's other daughter, Sophie, also appears to be at risk as her boyfriend's gym was burned to the ground while Enzo was in Strasbourg. Enzo's family and friends (including his college friend, Simon, who is now a prominent barrister in London) manage to discount the evidence and Enzo is released from jail. It becomes apparent that the cancer diagnosis is a fake and that Enzo and his entire family are being targeted. One of the unsolved cases in journalist Roger Raffin's book is probably the motivation for the attempts on Enzo and his family as Enzo has successfully solved two of the cases. When Enzo learns how the woman he was charged with killing was murdered he knows which one of the six remaining cases is the catalyst. He sets about solving that case but first of all he has to place his family and friends in some secure spot that the assassin does not associate with him. Coincidentally Enzo had a one-night liaison with a woman he met in the bar at the Strasbourg hotel where he and Kirsty had spent the night had given him the address where she would be staying for the next few weeks and told him he was welcome to join her anytime. So Enzo and gang head off to the house where Anna is staying in south-west France. Enzo's daughters are a little nonplussed to be staying with a women with whom their father had a one night stand but they see nothing wrong with doubling up with their own boyfriends while staying there. Ah, youth!

Eventually Enzo solves the first case which leads him to solving the murder of the woman in Cahors but in the process he realizes that there is more than one assassin on his tail. I'm sure we'll see more attempts on his life in the next book.

Enzo's love life has not gotten any less complicated. Charlotte from the first book didn't make an appearance in this book but her name was mentioned several time. The Cahors Director of Public Security, Helene Taillard, may be a new love interest since Enzo has been proven innocent. And then there's Anna--you'll have to read the book to see what happens with Anna. ( )

I read the first in this series recently but skipped the second one as the reviews were a bit negative. Really enjoyed this third one though. Great pace, complex, suspenseful plot with some unexpected twists near the end. I didn't care for the start though. Enzo is on a mission to solve 5 cold cases that had been written about in a book - that occurred some 20 years previously. Having solved the first two in the first two installments in this series, the perpetrator of the 3rd murder is worried that his crime is next so he sets Enzo up to fail before he even starts. The awful things that happened to him at the beginning of the book were a bit of a turn off for me and I almost put it aside as a result, but I'm glad I persisted because he got past those early setbacks quite quickly. I have now half way through the 4th in this series. Peter May is not to be missed. I loved his Lewis trilogy and the standalone novel: Runaway. All excellent. ( )

My previous awareness of Peter May as a crime novelist rested solely on having read 'The Blackhouse' (the first of his trilogy set on the island of Lewis and Harris) and then run aground on its successor, 'The Lewis Man' (though that was more a consequence of alarming personal resonances within the plot
than any reflection on its standing as a novel).

He had, however, written a clutch of other novels including the series known as 'The China Thriilers' and a sequence featuring retired forensic expert Enzo Macleod. This particular book is the third of the Enzo Macleod novels, and it soon became evident that it followed on fairly closely from its predecessors, though this didn't pose any problem.

As the novel opens, we met Enzo Macleod on his way to an appointment with an oncological expert, from whom he receives a particularly gave prognosis. Almost immediately after this blow he learns that someone has attempted to murder his daughter. As if his week is not going poorly enough already, he soon finds himself arrested as prime suspect in the murder of a female acquaintance.

This may all sound rather implausible, but May carries it all off superbly. The novel fairly fizzes along, and the reader's attention never wanes. He doesn't expend much energy on developing his characters' personalities, but they are all perfectly credible.

I shall definitely be going back to read the earlier episodes in the sequence. ( )

My previous awareness of Peter May as a crime novelist rested solely on having read 'The Blackhouse' (the first of his trilogy set on the island of Lewis and Harris) and then run aground on its successor, 'The Lewis Man' (though that was more a consequence of alarming personal resonances within the plot
than any reflection on its standing as a novel).

He had, however, written a clutch of other novels including the series known as 'The China Thriilers' and a sequence featuring retired forensic expert Enzo Macleod. This particular book is the third of the Enzo Macleod novels, and it soon became evident that it followed on fairly closely from its predecessors, though this didn't pose any problem.

As the novel opens, we met Enzo Macleod on his way to an appointment with an oncological expert, from whom he receives a particularly gave prognosis. Almost immediately after this blow he learns that someone has attempted to murder his daughter. As if his week is not going poorly enough already, he soon finds himself arrested as prime suspect in the murder of a female acquaintance.

This may all sound rather implausible, but May carries it all off superbly. The novel fairly fizzes along, and the reader's attention never wanes. He doesn't expend much energy on developing his characters' personalities, but they are all perfectly credible.

I shall definitely be going back to read the earlier episodes in the sequence. ( )

a bit contrived ( )