Jaye Ford's Blood Secret

Books & Poetry

Wednesday January 08, 2014 Comments

Comments Print article

Rennie Carter has spent most of her life running from her violent past, but then she found the small, sleepy town of Haven Bay – home to her lover Max Tully – and did the one thing she never thought she’d do. She stayed.

Now Max has disappeared and Rennie fears the worst, but her friends in town believe there is a less sinister reason for his absence. Frustrated by their lack of concern, she begins her own investigation, and as she delves deeper into Max’s life she discovers she is not the only one keeping secrets.

Blood Secret is the third novel from New South Wales author Jaye Ford and it is filled with enough innuendo and suspicious characters to keep mystery fans enthralled until the end.

Blood Secret, by Jaye Ford, Bantam, $32.95

The book begins very promisingly with a confrontation which automatically plants suspicions in the reader’s mind. Unfortunately, the pace slows dramatically after Max’s disappearance and Ford takes her time revealing subtle clues about the complicated pasts of both Max and Rennie. In hindsight, this technique is necessary for the development of the characters, but it does mean some chapters seem to pass without any real plot development.

It is worth sticking with the story, though, because when the action happens, it happens fast – and it continues in a non-stop, roller-coaster of revelations and accusations leading up to a final, thrilling confrontation.

Ford’s characters are complex individuals and she does a brilliant job of weaving together their personal histories, adding just enough ambiguities to create a seemingly endless list of suspects and scenarios.

With a well-crafted plot and strong, emotional characters, Blood Secret is a tense mystery which will keep you guessing until the final revelation.

Make a comment View comment guidelines

Jump to next article

Support local arts journalism

Your support will help us continue the important work of InReview in publishing free professional journalism that celebrates, interrogates and amplifies arts and culture in South Australia.

Donate Here

Comments

Show comments

Will my comment be published? Read the guidelines.

. You are free to republish the text and graphics contained in this article online and in print, on the condition that you follow our republishing guidelines.

You must attribute the author and note prominently that the article was originally published by InReview. You must also inlude a link to InReview. Please note that images are not generally included in this creative commons licence as in most cases we are not the copyright owner. However, if the image has an InReview photographer credit or is marked as “supplied”, you are free to republish it with the appropriate credits.

We recommend you set the canonical link of this content to https://inreview.com.au/inreview/books-and-poetry/2014/01/08/jaye-fords-blood-secret/ to insure that your SEO is not penalised.

<h1>Jaye Ford's Blood Secret</h1>

<address><a href="https://inreview.com.au/contributors/trista-coulter/" class="author">Trista Coulter</a></address>
											
							Rennie Carter has spent most of her life running from her violent past, but then she found the small, sleepy town of Haven Bay – home to her lover Max Tully – and did the one thing she never thought she’d do. She stayed.
Now Max has disappeared and Rennie fears the worst, but her friends in town believe there is a less sinister reason for his absence. Frustrated by their lack of concern, she begins her own investigation, and as she delves deeper into Max’s life she discovers she is not the only one keeping secrets.
Blood Secret is the third novel from New South Wales author Jaye Ford and it is filled with enough innuendo and suspicious characters to keep mystery fans enthralled until the end.
<div id="attachment_14083" style="width: 226px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="http://indaily.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Blood-Secret-cover.jpg"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-14083" loading="lazy" decoding="async" class=" wp-image-14083 " alt="Blood Secret, by Jaye Ford, Bantam, $32.95" src="https://indaily.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Blood-Secret-cover.jpg" width="216" height="331" /></a>
Blood Secret, by Jaye Ford, Bantam, $32.95
</div>
The book begins very promisingly with a confrontation which automatically plants suspicions in the reader’s mind. Unfortunately, the pace slows dramatically after Max’s disappearance and Ford takes her time revealing subtle clues about the complicated pasts of both Max and Rennie. In hindsight, this technique is necessary for the development of the characters, but it does mean some chapters seem to pass without any real plot development.
It is worth sticking with the story, though, because when the action happens, it happens fast – and it continues in a non-stop, roller-coaster of revelations and accusations leading up to a final, thrilling confrontation.
Ford’s characters are complex individuals and she does a brilliant job of weaving together their personal histories, adding just enough ambiguities to create a seemingly endless list of suspects and scenarios.
With a well-crafted plot and strong, emotional characters, Blood Secret is a tense mystery which will keep you guessing until the final revelation.
							This article is republished from <a href="https://inreview.com.au" target=_blank rel="canonical">InReview</a> under a Creative Commons licence. Read the <a href="https://inreview.com.au/inreview/books-and-poetry/2014/01/08/jaye-fords-blood-secret/" target=_blank rel="canonical">original article</a>.
							<link href="https://inreview.com.au/inreview/books-and-poetry/2014/01/08/jaye-fords-blood-secret/" rel="canonical">

<a href="https://inreview.com.au" target="_blank" rel="noopener">InReview</a> is an open access, non-profit arts and culture journalism project. Readers can <a href="https://artists.australianculturalfund.org.au/s/project/a2E9q0000008PVN/inreview-sa-20222023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">support our work with a donation</a>. Subscribe to InReview’s free weekly newsletter <a href="https://inreview.com.au/subscribe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.
							<img src="https://inreview.com.au/pixel2.png?cc_article=jaye-fords-blood-secret" width="1" height="1">

Copied to Clipboard