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Blood World
Publisher: Berkley Books

Blood World by Chris Mooney takes place in a near future where certain people called "carriers" have blood in their veins that, when coupled with certain drug cocktails, can become the fountain of youth. It can restore vitality and muscle tone, heal disease and injury quickly, and erase the signs of time. Naturally, a dangerous illegal blood market has arisen and only the wealthiest can partake. The downside is, those unfortunate carriers are prime targets for kidnapping, leading to either a "drain and dump" of their bloodless bodies, or being placed in a blood farm, where they are milked of their precious blood over time, depending upon which blood cartel kidnaps them. Pandora is a special carrier blend that is the cream of the crop, so elusive that law enforcement has never actually found physical proof of its existence, but it is the stuff of legends. Sebastian Kane is the head of the cartel that procures Pandora.

Ellie Batista is a Los Angeles cop who wants nothing more than to join the Blood Crimes Unit. She spends all of her free time studying the victims and the elusive blood trade. When she and her partner happen upon a transfusion taking place in an upscale Beverly Hills home, tragedy ensues, but Ellie gets the opportunity to display her knowledge to the BCU head when she identifies two victims on the fly, and can also describe the primary gunman in the deadly shootout. It's not long before she is recruited to do undercover work in the field she has dreamed of for all these years... ever since her little brother, a carrier named J.C., was kidnapped and never seen again.

Meanwhile, Sebastian Kane has his hands full since his deceased girlfriend's unstable son, Paul, is the not only involved in the shootout above, but he's also discovered a formula that summarily outperforms Pandora and he has decided to challenge Sebastian's position in the blood world with it. To make matters worse, Sebastian's former love, Ava, has come to him because her daughter, Grace, has been kidnapped, because she is a carrier.

Sebastian is flanked on all sides by events destined to destroy him, while Ellie, now known as Faye Simpson, has become immersed in the blood trade as a "stick man" finding prospective carriers in the public. Her goal is to get close to Anton, the Armenian she works for, and eventually make her way into the organization and hopefully discover the location of a blood farm. When she embarked on this undercover gig, she had no idea how far down the rabbit hole she'd travel. And that's about all I am going to say about this book's storyline because it's too good not to discover it yourself.

Blood World is a thrilling ride into the dark underbelly of the (fictional, thank God) Los Angeles blood trade. The characters are interesting and layered and, at times, I found myself rooting for people I typically wouldn't. It's a very well-written and engaging book and readers who enjoy a good crime novel will want to check it out.



-Psibabe, GameVortex Communications
AKA Ashley Perkins
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