Blood Red City by Rod Reynolds – a review BLOG TOUR

I have read previous novels by Rod Reynolds and so was delighted to be invited onto the blog tour for his latest Blood Red City.

Blood Red City starts with Lydia being sent a video of an apparent assault on the tube. The sender of the video is a friend who left the paper under a cloud. Lydia has recently been relegated to the night shift entertainment slot but at heart she is still a serious investigative journalist and thinks this could be the story to restart her career. She sets out to track down the victim of the assault but with no victim and the only witness disappeared she begins to think she may be being led down the garden path. Michael however knows that something went on and he is determined to find out what Lydia has found out before he is exposed. When Michael and Lydia meet, she soon realises that she couldn’t have begun to predict just what a dangerous situation she has put herself in.

Set in London Blood Red City is a book that definitely deserves the accolade ‘gritty thriller’. The story shows us the dark side of London and the battles to keep control. The novel starts off with a great hook, a crime that might not be a crime, and doesn’t let up throughout as we discover corruption and violence lurking just beneath the surface of our capital city.

I really liked the character of Lydia. A lot of the time female protagonists are either written as weak and indecisive, or conversely whisky swigging, don’t care about anything types. Lydia however just seemed normal, she made some bad decisions but also some good ones and she was clearly good at her job. The character of Michael was harder to pin down, throughout the story you get the impression of there being two sides to him and it’s not clear if he wants to protect or to harm Lydia.

The story itself is full of twists and turns that I found impossible to predict. There are some very unpleasant characters in it and each time you think that you have a handle on what is going on another red herring is thrown in. It is a complement to the standard of the writing however that despite the twists it doesn’t get complicated. It is a fascinating story that I thoroughly enjoyed.

I would definitely recommend Blood Red City if you like gritty drama where the setting is as important as the characters.

Don’t forget to visit the other stops on the blog tour to find out what other bloggers thought of Rod Reynold’s latest.