Written in Blood

Author: Chris Carter
Genre: Psychological Thriller, Crime Fiction
496 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2020

Synopsis
Los Angeles, December 4th – exactly three weeks until Christmas day. Angela Wood, a master in the art of pickpocket, has just finished for the day – six hundred and eighty-seven dollars – not bad for less than fifteen minutes work.

As she celebrates her profitable day with a cocktail, one of the patrons in the lounge she’s in catches her attention by being rude to an old man. Angela decides to teach him a lesson, and steals the man’s expensive-looking leather bag.

Inside is no money … no laptop computer … nothing of any value … at least not to Angela. Just a black, leather-bound book, surprisingly heavy. Curiosity takes over and in the comfort of her apartment, Angela quickly leafs through the pages.

That is when the worst nightmare of her life begins.
This is no ordinary book.
Read it at your own peril.

My review
Written In Blood by Chris Carter by Chris Carter is a dark, intense, and heart-pounding thriller that delivers a frantic adrenaline rush from start to finish. I was hooked from the beginning, drawn into a story centered on what initially seems to be a mentally unstable serial killer—someone who has operated undetected for years and can no longer even recall how many lives he’s taken.

Angela Wood, a talented pickpocket, is enjoying a cocktail after a successful night of swiping wallets when she witnesses a man being exceptionally rude to an elderly customer. Acting on impulse, she decides to teach him a lesson by stealing his leather bag, only to later discover it contains nothing but a journal—one that will lead her into more danger than she ever anticipated.

I found the dialogue in the first two books of the series a bit stiff, so I decided to skip ahead to Written in Blood to see if the storyline and writing style would feel more engaging—and I was pleasantly surprised! Carter is a skilled thriller writer, expertly weaving familiar genre tropes into a fast-paced, entertaining narrative. This installment is packed with twists and turns that make the plot gripping from start to finish. I can easily see crime and thriller fans enjoying this one. While the plot is just as engaging as his earlier works, I found it less graphically dark, though no less captivating.

Overall, Written in Blood is a gripping, tense, and fast-paced thriller. Carter’s writing has noticeably improved as the series has progressed, though the characters haven’t evolved as much as I had anticipated. Despite this, it’s a solid and engrossing dark crime novel, and I’m excited to dive into the next installment.

My recommendation: read it!