Blood Relation
Yet another part of my Quest for the Ultimate English Mystery Novel. I actually realized when I was on page 15 or so that I'd read it some years ago, but could only remember one scene - not a good sign. Not that the book is at all bad, just not memorable.
- Author: Andrew Taylor
- Title: Blood Relation
- Published by: Victor Gollancz, London
- Year: 1990
It turns out that this isn't Andrew Taylor's first novel by far, and that he's even written some more books with the same protagonist. I'd probably pick them up in the library or buy them second-hand for one euro or less as a nice undemanding read when tired or miserable.
There's nothing actually wrong with the book. The plot is interesting, the background well thought out (and means more to me than the previous time I read it, because large parts of it are set in the publishing world; I hadn't started writing seriously then), the good guys are likeable, the bad guys are hateable, the in-between guys are ambiguous, just as it should be. It's not even so predictable that it becomes boring: the ending has a nice unexpected twist that makes everything fit.
It's set comfortably in England (and partly in Wales), without the foreign local colour that seems to be fashionable but tends to put me off when I pick up a book. The conversations are natural. There's human interest.
But it doesn't have "a certain je ne sais quoi" and, frankly, je ne sais quoi.
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