Author: Ed E. Duncan
Genre: Crime Thriller
Publication Date: February 25th 2016
Publisher: Zharmae
Format: Paperback
Pages: 238
Rating:4 stars
Goodreads Summary: For underworld enforcer Richard "Rico" Sanders, it seemed like an ordinary job. Retrieve his gangster boss's priceless pigeon-blood red ruby necklace and teach the double-dealing cheat who stole it a lesson. A job like a hundred before it. But the chase quickly goes sideways and takes Rico from the mean streets of Chicago to sunny Honolulu, where the hardened hit man finds himself in uncharted territory when a couple of innocent bystanders are accidentally embroiled in the crime.
As Rico pursues his new targets, the hunter and his prey develop an unlikely respect for one another and Rico is faced with a momentous decision: follow his orders to kill the couple whose courage and character have won his admiration, or refuse and endanger the life of the woman he loves?
Overview
You might be reading the title and thinking Pigeon Blood Red? What on earth is that about? Well it's actually about the consequences of when rubies go missing and the domino effect that this one act has on others. Well that's my take on the story anyway. With a healthy dose of murder, affairs and hot weather thrown in there too. I'm not typically a fan of adult thriller books that aren't 'who dunnits?' but this was a refreshing change of pace for me and I actually enjoyed it.
Pigeon Blood Red has multiple point of views from the four main characters.
Writing
At the beginning of the book I thought it was quite slow, but then gradually warmed up, causing me to be well in to the book by around 50 pages. A lot of the book did rely on internal monologue and there was also quite a few flashbacks chucked in there too.
Characters
Evelyn is one of our main characters, she is a middle aged woman trapped in a loveless marriage, so her way to to make it or break it for her and her husband is a trip to Hawaii. She then gets wrapped up in a situation that she had no business in and gets swept into a world that she never even realised existed, let alone one where she is wanted dead. Evelyn is not the most interesting of characters, even her flashbacks seemed a bit limp for me, she chose Robert because he was the 'bad boy' and that didn't pan out, now only realising at middle aged how unhappy she is, sort of mid life crisis anyone?
The next main character is Robert, Evelyn's husband, whose an excessive gambler and alcoholic, who owes lots of various people money. Robert is basically to cut it short, an idiot, who I have no sympathy for. He makes stupid decisions and when push comes to shove he doesn't have the backbone, when then the threats start coming in.
Unlike Rico, our next main character, Rico is an assassin working for Litvak a renowned loan shark. Ricoc is probably the most complex character, with his murderous ways, which we found out more about in the flashbacks.
The fourth main character (I'm calling these main characters, because each of these have a point of view in the book) is Paul, to me, he was a bit of a wet wipe, I wasn't a huge fan of him until the end, when he finally started coming out of his shell more.
And finally we have Litvak who is the loan shark with a missing stash of pigeon blood red rubies.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I really enjoyed it and Rico was my favourite point of view by far. To me this was mainly setting up the series for the rest of the trilogy, as it did have action in it, but I expect it to really kick off in the next couple of books. A huge thanks to Ed E. Duncan and Kelsey and Taylor at Book Publicity Services.
Recommend...
I would recommend this to anybody who likes adult thrillers with hints of organised crime.
Book Links
Author Links
Author Bio
Ed Duncan is a graduate of Oberlin College and Northwestern University Law School. He was a partner at a national law firm in Cleveland, Ohio for many years. He currently lives outside of Cleveland, OH and is at work on the second installment in the Pigeon-Blood Red trilogy.
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