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    Precious Blood
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    Precious Blood
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    Precious Blood
    Ebook450 pages7 hours

    Precious Blood

    By Jonathan Hayes

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    The nightmare of 9/11 left New York City medical examiner Edward Jenner shattered and emotionally scarred. He thought he'd turned away from forensics—and life—for good, but the mutilation murder of a college student is pulling him back. The body of a young woman, nailed to the wall of her East Village apartment, has Jenner convinced that there's a serial killer prowling the city—and a second horrific murder only confirms his most terrible fears. The desperate hunt for a psychopath—and Jenner's troubling obsession with a beautiful, frightened woman who could be the maniac's next victim—is pushing the forensic expert to the limits of his physical and mental endurance.

    But as the shadows deepen it gets harder to tell who is the hunter and who is the prey. And which one will live . . . and who will die.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 6, 2009
    ISBN9780061980633
    Unavailable
    Precious Blood
    Author

    Jonathan Hayes

    Jonathan Hayes, a veteran forensic pathologist, has been a New York City medical examiner, performing autopsies and testifying in murder trials, since 1990. A former contributing editor at Martha Stewart Living, Hayes has written for the New York Times, New York magazine, GQ, and Food & Wine. He is also the author of Precious Blood.

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    Reviews for Precious Blood

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      Well, this did very much appeal to me. Be advised that it would not be for the faint of heart because there are some very graphic descriptions. However, if you are a fan of CSI then you are used to graphic details. Dr. Edward Jenner (the choice of name can't be a co-incidence because Edward Jenner was the person who first used vaccination as a preventative for disease) is a forensic pathologist in New York City but he had a melt-down after 9/11 and has been doing consultations for a while. However when the roommate of a girl who is his best friend's niece is brutally murdered and the niece, Ana de Jong, barely escapes the murderer his friend asks Jenner to become involved. This means that Jenner has to go back to the department headed by the man whose girlfriend left him for Jenner and who despises Jenner. When Jenner finds clues the chief overlooked he is even more of a persona non grata. These clues lead Jenner and two homicide detectives on a trail that involves ancient manuscripts and religious symbology. At one point they are so close to the murderer they end up at a murder scene just after he has finished. Ana, who has been staying with Jenner, is spiralling down into depression and drug dependency and Jenner is very worried about her. Then Ana is kidnapped from Jenner's apartment and Jenner knows he has to solve the mystery in order to save her. Very gripping reading. I'm looking forward to more by Dr. Hayes.
    • 3/5
      Jonathan Hayes' Precious Blood touches on NYC during the time of 9/11. The hero is NYC medical examiner Edward Jenner who worked throughout the horrifying days after 9/11. The aftermath left Jenner emotionally scarred and he'd left the field of pathology. But when one of his closest friends calls for his help, Jenner is forced back to help in the forensic investigation of the brutal mutilation of a young woman.The victim is found naked and nailed to the wall. Jenner is certain that there is a serial killer prowling NYC. Jenner has taken it upon himself to help his friend's niece, the victim's roommate and a witness to the crime. The young woman's stay brings about all sorts of complications for Jenner - in his personal life and professional - and draws the attention of the dangerous and unstable killer.While I enjoy a certain amount of violence and action in my thrillers, my threshold for gore is quite low. As far as graphic violence goes, Precious Blood is quite explicit. That was something that kept me from fully enjoying the novel. On the other hand, the plot is complex and the lead characters are well fleshed out. If you enjoy the grittier, violent, thrillers, then Precious Blood will give deliver both in excitement and thrills. It has the added bonus of giving us an inside view of what NYC was like during the frantic days after 9/11 from the point of view of someone who truly lived it.
    • 5/5
      Brutal in the extreme, but exceptionally clever. I was kept on the edge of my seat and could not put it down until I'd read the entire book. I liked that the "hero" was flawed, and the key characters were creditible and deveoped. Good plot and well paced. This deserves six stars
    • 4/5
      Former NYC medical examiner Dr. Edward Jenner is asked by a friend to look into the case of his daughter's murder, which turns out to be one of a string of serial killings. The young woman's roommate turns up at his home, asking for shelter, and a relationship develops between them as they search for the madman together.
    • 4/5
      Edward Jenner is a former medical examiner living in New York City. He is pulled back into his craft when his good friend, Douggie's niece, Ana, witnesses the gruesome murder of her roommate, Andy. Andy's father hires Jenner to examine his daughter's case alongside the New York City medical examiner, Steve Whittaker. When Whittaker overlooks a vital piece of evidence left on the body, Jenner doesn't. The murderer left markings on the body, markings that resemble Greek writing. The case turns out to be more than Jenner bargained for when a string of similar murders, also with the strange writing, are discovered and the monster comes after Ana.PRECIOUS BLOOD is not for the squeamish reader. Hayes is a medical examiner himself, and he didn't hold back on the graphic details involved in the deaths at the hands of his psycho killer. Hopefully that statement doesn't sound like a negative point against the novel because it isn't. The detail was very realistic; the kind of detail that makes you double check your door locks at night.Edward Jenner is a character that intrigues me. He comes into this story with baggage from his experiences through the 9/11 tragedy. His foil is Steve Whittaker. Jenner is a character who is capable of compassion and emotion. Whittaker is cold and unrelenting. Jenner is driven by his relationships with others, even the dead bodies. Whitaker is driven only by his ambition and his desire to be recognized. But Jenner isn't predictable. Often when we have a character who is compassionate and kind and whatnot, we can predict everything that person is going to do, or we know HOW that person is "supposed" to behave in accordance with the stereotype. Jenner doesn't always follow that pattern, and that can be unsettling. Even now having finished the book, I'm still trying to figure out little nuances about Jenner's character. I think Hayes wants Jenner to maintain that little bit of mystery but still be a dependable character. And let's face it, how often are "real" beings truly predictable 100% of the time?Jun is probably my favorite character in the book. He brings a touch of comic relief to the extremely dark plot. And the idea of the leather pants, the orange fur coat...he definitely stands out. I'm often critical of female characters, especially if they fall too closely to the "stereotypical" damsel in distress. Ana was too much of a "damsel in distress" for me to really like her. But I regularly reminded myself that she was supposed to be a typical, college-age, party girl. That was supposed to be her role. And she fit that role well.The plot of PRECIOUS BLOOD was a complex series of events. I listened to this book on audio and I'm not sure if I maybe missed some points at the end, but there were some elements that I thought were left hanging; they didn't quite end up all neatly knitted into the design of the plot. And the other possibility is that Hayes is impressing on the reader that a psychopath can't be explained. There will always be questions left hanging; it's the nature of the beast.The questions that obviously were not answered for a reason are the ones that I am confident will appear in the sequel to this novel. I don't see Whittaker going away. Hayes left the door wide open for Jenner to return.The reader for this audio book was Kirby Heyborne. I believe this is the first audio I've heard of his reading, and I think he did an outstanding job. I'm not an expert on dialects, but I was impressed with his changing between Asian, Hispanic and Irish throughout the novel. Heyborne provided each character with a distinct sound. And he infused a very darkly dramatic tone befitting the novel.