Review : Pigeon Blood Red

Hello everyone !!

So this review took some time because I was ill when I read it and then I read a few other books and it took some time to reflect back on what I’d read and collect my thoughts into a review that sounds sane.

Thanks to Kelsey Butts from Book Publicity Services and the author Ed Duncan for providing a free copy of the book in exchange of an honest review.

Author : Ed Duncan

Genre : Thriller

Goodreads Rating : 3.75/5

Page Count : 250

Synopsis (Goodreads) : For underworld enforcer Richard “Rico” Sanders, it seemed like an ordinary job. Retrieve his gangster boss’s priceless pigeon-blood red ruby necklace and teach the double-dealing cheat who stole it a lesson. A job like a hundred before it. But the chase quickly goes sideways and takes Rico from the mean streets of Chicago to sunny Honolulu, where the hardened hit man finds himself in uncharted territory when a couple of innocent bystanders are accidentally embroiled in the crime.

As Rico pursues his new targets, the hunter and his prey develop an unlikely respect for one another and Rico is faced with a momentous decision: follow his orders to kill the couple whose courage and character have won his admiration, or refuse and endanger the life of the woman he loves?

REVIEW

When Robert McDuffie, a business man in debt, steals a ruby-necklace belonging to loan shark Frank Litvak and flees Chicago to Honolulu, Litvak assigns the task of retrieving the necklace and killing McDuffie and his wife to Rico. What follows is a cat and mouse chase, a mix up and a lot of dead bodies.

There quite a lot of things I loved about this book. The plot line, the suspense, but most importantly, the characters. Most of these characters are varying shades of grey instead of the usual, clearly “good” and “bad”. Rico, the underworld enforcer, was my favourite of them all. He’s loveable and yet intimidating and I love such characters.

It’s a well written, easy to read and well paced story. The pace definitely added to the suspense and kept us, as readers, engrossed. The only trouble I had with this book was with how Litvak’s fate at the end. I certainly expected a bit more there. However, given that this book is the first of a trilogy, I wouldn’t judge the author’s decision at this point. Perhaps this was necessary for the future plots.

This is certainly a book I’d recommend and I look forward to reading the rest of this trilogy.

Reasons you should read this book –

You like urban noir.
You love suspense thrillers.
Well written characters who are neither completely “good” nor utterly “bad”.
A likeable yet intimidating underworld enforcer
If you’re someone who buys books because of their beautiful covers, this is one of the most interesting and gorgeous covers I’ve seen for a thriller
It’s well written and easily readable.

My Rating – 😍😍😍😊👌

That’s all for now bookworms, have a great weekend !!

-Vrinda.