Blood Relations is a murder mystery/suspense novel by increasingly-diversifying horror writer Michaelbrent Collings. It’s also my new favorite MbC novel.
Lane Cooley is the LAPD’s top homicide detective. She’s also a single, Mormon Relief Society president and trying to care for her rebellious teenage sister. She has her investigative team over each week for Family Home Evening/Poker Night, and her boss is insistant that no one swears or smokes around her.
And now the latest murderer she’s investigating has become a serial killer case. What’s more, her sister meets the criteria of the killer’s victims.
As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly nick-named Mormons, I found Collings’ inclusion of a Mormon protagonist enjoyable. I figured I didn’t have to worry, as Collings is a Mormon as well, and so his descriptions of the LDS faith were accurate and didn’t induce the cringing I sometimes experience when people who don’t really know much about Mormons try to depict them. But more importantly he dealt head-on with the issues of how a person of faith and religion many view as restrictive would function in the high-pressure, high-stakes world of a homicide detective in a career that puts one in regular contact with the very worst society has to offer.
Several have praised Collings for depicting a Mormon character and presenting information on the LDS church and its beliefs without getting preachy. I can’t speak to that, as I’m “in the choir”; I just know it didn’t seem overbearing or over-emphasized to me. It was Cooley’s character. Your mileage may vary.
Most importantly, however, this novel was fun to read. Yeah, it’s a murder mystery, and Collings doesn’t pull punches there-it’s adult fare. But it also provides a cast of interesting and sympathetic characters (and corpses) and a compelling plotline. It was very easy for me to get through the book in a few sittings. I didn’t want to put it down. Collings keeps piling on the suspense and the twists to the end, and though he got a little heavy-handed in his misdirection at a few points, it didn’t matter. It was a fun read.
Though it doesn’t show on the book’s cover, Amazon’s listing includes the tag “Volume One”. If there are any further Lane Cooley books in the offing (pun intended) I’ll be standing in line for my copy.