Review: Blood in the Ground

  The story starts out with Peyton being woken from his sleep by a dream, which to him, can only mean one thing. So without a doubt in his mind he rings Mahoney, an aging cop who had dealt with the case which saw the killer of Peyton's parents, called Opossum put onto death row. A case which perhaps would not have been successful without the special spiritual gifts which Peyton happens to command. But now Peyton asks the old detective a strange question, is Opossum still in prison? Mahoney squanders his way down to the prison where Opossum is spending his last few hours before his death sentence carried out, but the impossible happens, Opossum escapes. Whilst suspicion hangs over the heads of a couple of bystanders, a priest and Opossum's female psychiatrist, Mahoney only cares about catching Opossum and jumps straight onto the trail...

Robert Paul Blumenstein has written a very well put together piece of literature; it has been very well researched and flows very smoothly throughout. The story itself visits to many locations such as Frankfurt San Francisco and Jerusalem, it moves quiet intensively from one drama to the next which keeps the story fresh, fast moving and very interesting. The book also delves deep into spiritual topics of good versus evil, and how much can evil tempt or corrupt the good of mankind, and even to the topic of how sexuality can be corrupted. This is all played out within the scenes of the story as it develops; one particularly strange moment was when the psychiatrist Doctor Kirkpatrick seems to get twisted into one of Opossum's rituals by wearing very little clothing. But the story centres on Opossum and his ability to corrupt people and his ability to get them to 'make deals' which seem to come at a cost.

This was the first book that I have read by Robert Paul Blumenstein and I must admit that I liked it, mainly because he was not afraid to throw in topics which other people tend to glance over at times, the dialogue that is used is very modern with realistic exchanges between the characters, and I especially liked how he added in the odd verse from the bible, which tended to give the book a more dramatic feel. Overall, I would recommend this book to those who like to read detective suspense novels, or to those who have an interest in the paranormal. This book is packed with both!