BOOK REVIEW: Blood Memory

Greg Iles dedicates BLOOD MEMORY to all of the women who realize in the dead of night that something is wrong and has been for a long time. Thus the dedication becomes an introduction.
The protagonist of BLOOD MEMORY is not your typical female detective. Cat Ferry is a manic depressant alcoholic who is having an affair with Sean Regan, a married homicide detective with the New Orleans Police Department. Cat is a forensic odontologist and has helped Sean solve several murders in the past.
The case they are working on at the beginning of the book involves a series of brutal killings of middle aged men who have been shot and had their bodies covered with savage bite marks. Cat has had several panic attacks at the crime scenes and with her reputation of alcohol and mood swings, she is taken off the case.
Cat goes home to her family in Natchez, Mississippi and as we meet the people who were responsible for her early years we get feelings of what went wrong in her childhood to cause her promiscuity, alcoholism and depression. As we learn about her family, we feel that the murder cases in New Orleans may have a connection to her own life.
Because a Greg Iles book typically grabs you from the very start and keeps you running, I hate to give too much away. In all of his books the action is fast with lots twists that you may or may not see coming.

This is not a happy book. It is about hurt people who spend their lives paying for the vicious acts that were committed to them as children. Iles explores the meaning of childhood memories and how sometimes we have to repress them in order to live.
Greg Iles is an author that I read any chance I can get my hands on one of his books. He has been compared to William Faulkner for his ability to capture the Southern soul. I think his characters are much more universal than that. His people would be found anywhere.
BLOOD MEMORY was definitely written to pay respect to all the adults who live with memories, repressed or otherwise, of being abused as children. As a result the book is a little longer than it needs to be and some of the scenes require the reader to “suspend disbelief” and go along with the action. Still, it is a hell of a ride.