| Title | : | Blood Guilt (Kit O'Malley Mystery, #1) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1932859128 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781932859126 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 250 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2001 |
Private investigator Kit O’Malley has had more exciting cases than following a wealthy client’s husband, but Celia Robinson is paying big money to find out what the libidinous Geoffrey is up to with a blonde, a redhead and entrepreneur Ian Dalkeith and his group of shady businessmen.
Enduring a heatwave and fighting the inanimate objects that are out to get her are the hardest parts of Kit’s assignment until a body is found in the Robinson’s ornamental fish pond and everything takes a turn for the weird and nasty.
While the cops do their own thing, Celia’s daughter Quinn hires Kit to find the killer and her mother’s missing butler. What Kit doesn’t count on is Quinn’s determination to be involved in the case. To make matters worse she brings along her lawyer, Alexis Cazenove, who is as stunning as she is smart and has an extremely disconcerting effect on Kit's sense of balance.
After a near miss with a homicidal driver, Kit knows she’s getting close to something – even if the truth seems to be that everyone has a secret. And then there’s the question of just who the mysterious Mike Finnigan is following; is it Geoffrey, Dalkeith or Kit herself?
Blood Guilt (Kit O'Malley Mystery, #1) Reviews
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DNF at page 293.
Okay, I think my love of TV police procedurals does not carry over into the written word. This was taking me so long to get through and I just wasn't interested. I was reading it for a 2017 challenge, but there are other books on my TBR that can fill the same spot. -
I loved this sassy mystery book that made me cheer and laugh out loud in many places. Kit is a strong, flawed and interesting character. Her pragmatism and sense of humour add terrific spark to the novel. Her cast of 'support' characters provide a good balance and are so well drawn that you feel you know them, or someone like them. This is an easy-to-digest, fast and fun mystery for those who like a bit of escapism and challenge without the drama and gore.
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DNF... Finding this book hard to get into. Feels like its written for teens. Which normally I don't mind but not what I wanted to read atm.
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This is another good, well-written and well-paced lesbian mystery. P.I. Kit O’Malley is hired by the rich owner of a successful publishing company to find out what her no-good husband is up to. Along the way she meets with her client’s rebellious daughter and also with the beautiful Alex Cazenova, who makes Kit’s head spin so much that she can barely concentrate on her job. It is seemingly, however, a one-sided attraction.
The mystery is a pretty interesting one, replete with a lot of bad baddies and a few goodies, too. Kit earns her fee and author Cameron earns the price of thee e-book I purchased. Here Australian vernacular is not nearly as over-the-top as that of Peta Fox, but it still gives you a little local Australian color. It might even make you want to go out and buy a jar of vegemite somewhere—Amazon maybe.
Cameron inexplicably uses a technique I first found in Laurie King’s first Kate Martinelli mystery—referring to the androgynously named lover’s of the main characters (Lee in King’s book and Sam in Cameron’s). without telling us what sex they are until at least half the book is over. I suspect that King did it so as not to turn away homophobic readers that might have enjoyed the books in her Mary Russell series. But for Cameron, there seems to be no reason at all. Kit hangs out with lesbian pals and in fact has a reputation (although a false one) as a serial lover of women. Cameron goes out of her way to keep the secret of Sam’s sexual identity a mystery, even to the point of making her sentences clumsy by not using the personal pronoun. ‘her’ or ‘she.’ Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Sam really is a man, but she never tells us because they break up without the reader ever seeing Sam, I mean her. I thought this was a cop out in King’s book and completely senseless in this one.
But that’s the only peeve I have. I like Kit, I like her eventual girlfriend Alex, and I really like Quinn, Kit’s employer’s daughter. I also like Hector, the ex-delinquent who tries to help Kit solve the complicated case that she eventually finds herself with.
I enjoyed this book very much without being able to put it at the top o my favorites list. This speaks not to the faults of the novel, but to the surprisingly high quality I am finding in this genre as a whole. I am looking foreword to reading the next book in the series, all three of which are reasonably priced in e-book format.
Another Note: This review is included in my book
The Art of the Lesbian Mystery Novel, along with information on over 930 other lesbian mysteries by over 310 authors. -
Great beginning to a new series (well at least new to me)!! Kit O'Malley is that kind of imperfect perfection as a private investigator that gets more than she bargained for when the client she was working for ends up dead. What was once just an adultery case becomes a murder investigation that hits a little too close to home for Kit. Along the way she fights attraction to her new client's lawyer who seems to hate Kit and disapproves of her "friendship" with Quinn (the daughter of Kit's original client). Trouble, mayhem, sex, romance what else could you ask?? First in a series
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"Kit O'Malley is a welcome addition to the list of female crime-fighters." -Val McDermid
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Loved the first book and immediately bought the second
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This is such a great book. I loved it and then had to read the next two in the series.
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I remember picking one or twice and putting it back down but that's all.
Maybe I will give it another try some day.
