The Colour of Blood
Published on 3. April 2008
Book
Paperback/Softback
352 pages
978-0-7195-6748-3 (ISBN)
Description
Emily Howard is nineteen years old, slim and petite with a pale complexion and a red rose tattoo. She is also missing. She disappeared three days ago, and now her father has been sent photographs of her naked body. He is desperate to find her.
So he calls Ed Loy, a private investigator who knows the dark streets of Dublin better than most; a man who will find Emily Howard within twenty-four hours. But locating Emily turns out to be only the beginning. Within hours, Emily's ex-boyfriend is found murdered, and Loy finds himself in a race against time to catch a killer - and to unearth the many dark secrets the Howard family have kept long buried.
So he calls Ed Loy, a private investigator who knows the dark streets of Dublin better than most; a man who will find Emily Howard within twenty-four hours. But locating Emily turns out to be only the beginning. Within hours, Emily's ex-boyfriend is found murdered, and Loy finds himself in a race against time to catch a killer - and to unearth the many dark secrets the Howard family have kept long buried.
Reviews / Votes
To call Declan Hughes "a natural" is to engage in understatement * Douglas Kennedy * 'Declan Hughes breathes new life into the private detective story' * Michael Connelly * This is a writer who has clearly immersed himself in the PI tradition and has given it a new spin ... this series is finally starting to motor' * Reviewing the evidence.com * The story goes at a fast pace, with a cast of vivdly-drawn characters, and, above all, a great sense of place * Susanna Yager, Sunday Telegraph / Seven * The overheated theatrics are a proper fit for his tough-guy hero, whose stern moral code and haunted personal history lend credibility to Hughes's recurring theme of ''the sins of the father'' * Marilyn Stasio, New York Times * 'It should certainly appeal to fans of the genre and leave them looking forward to the next' * John Boyne, Irish Times * PRAISE FOR THE DYING BREED * ** * A very fine writer * Sunday Telegraph * Hughes is not afraid to take his references and run with them, he is not afraid to have a good time. Above all, he is not afraid of writing well * Anne Enright, Guardian * 'A deeply atmospheric writer . . . [Hughes'] keen ear for the demotic, his sharp eye for the damning detail, makes The Dying Breed a vivid, gripping, and . . . chilling read.' * Claire Kilroy, Irish Times * Hughes is an impressive talent * Irish Independent * This intelligent, often brutal thriller will have readers' hearts racing from start to finish. * Publishers Weekly starred review * As crisply written as his previous books, Hughes is definitely onto another winner * Dublin Evening Herald * PRAISE FOR DECLAN HUGHES: * * * To call Declan Hughes "a natural" is to engage in understatement. Here is a crime novel that's both deftly plotted and truly character-driven. Like Chandler's Los Angeles, Hughes's Dublin is brilliantly atmospheric. The dialogue crackles and the characters have a truly lived-in authenticity. A great read * Douglas Kennedy * 'Declan Hughes breathes new life into the private detective story with The Wrong Kind of Blood. This thrilling ride of deception brilliantly teaches us that the past is never far behind us, that it can reach out and grab us at any time' * Michael Connelly * 'Finally Ireland gets a hardboiled detective worthy of the name...- it's not hard to see why [Declan Hughes'] publisher placed so much faith in such a relative newcomer' - Robert Mayes * Ireland on Sunday * 'Top class . . . Fast moving, and paced with acutely observed dialogue, Hughes draws an accurate and decidedly dark picture of the changes wrought by Celtic Tiger Ireland on Seaview and its inhabitants. Highly recommended' * Irish Independent Review * 'Hughes is in his element describing the sites and sounds of the places Loy visits' - Ken Griffin * Sunday Tribune * 'Declan Hughes manages the extremely difficult trick of not only locating a credible thriller in Ireland but also casting an eye on the way this society has changed utterly in the past two decades . . . Hughes laces his plot with razor-sharp and frequently hilarious comments on Irish society' * Herald AM and Evening Herald * 'Declan Hughes has written a thriller that is a hell of a good read... there's an energy to his writing that suggests he's in it for the long haul' * Irish Sunday Independent * 'I'd be prepared to swear that there has never been a character in Irish crime fiction with a name so taut, muscular and slyly tongue in cheek as Ed Loy . . .' * Irish Times *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
John Murray Press
Product notice
Paperback (UK-A)
Illustrations
none
Dimensions
Height: 179 mm
Width: 112 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
172 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7195-6748-3 (9780719567483)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Declan Hughes has spent twenty years working in the theatre in Ireland, as director, playwright and running Ireland's leading independent theatre company. THE COLOUR OF BLOOD is his second novel.