Bleeding Hearts

Jack Harvey (aka Ian Rankin)

Average Rating 8/10 (1 Review)

A shot rings out, the woman dies instantly. But she was not alone on the steps of the London hotel. A number of other people could also have been the intended target of the invisible sniper.

But the assassin, Michael Weston, knows he has carried out his assignment successfully. One mistake was enough, a long time ago, when a young American girl had accidentally received a fatal bullet. After all those years, the father of the dead girl still had Hoffer , the New York private eye, on a permanent retainer to track him down. Every time Weston completed a job, he knew Hoffer would not be far behind.

But why had the police been on the scene so quickly? Who had tipped them off - the same people who had hired him? He had to find out, even if it meant coming face to face with Hoffer…

If he wasn't careful, someone was going to bleed Michael Weston dry.

Review by Chrissi (010402) Rating (8/10)

Review by Chrissi
Rating 8/10
I do not think that I have ever read any Ian Rankin, in spite of several recommendations from a lady that I used to work with who enjoyed his Inspector Rebus series. I have to admit that it came from a rather dubious source - the League of Friends of the hospital where I work has a few books that they sell, all second hand and very battered, and if I have nothing to read at lunchtime, I go and have a look at their shelf. Fortunately on this occasion, I did not have to buy a Mills and Boon, (whose titles comprise the majority of their stock,) I bought this one and was very impressed.

A hired assassin murders a woman, and the police are on the scene very quickly, too quickly for the liking of the assassin. This killer works on a contract basis, and has had only one mishap, a girl whose father is still hunting him using the services of an American Private Investigator. This PI has been hunting him for quite a while now, and has learned his technique, but always seems to be a way behind. The assassin decides to investigate the killing that he has just done, to get the answers of who wanted the woman dead and what it has to do with him.

At the outset you are unsure why this woman would be a target, she was a journalist, perhaps she had information on someone that did not want to be exposed, or maybe it is someone that she knows. There is no way to tell, the authorities are unsure whether the woman was the target, because she was killed standing next to a politician, so maybe it was a botched attempt on them. The killer however, knows that he got his target, and now wants to know why.

Killers are not supposed to be nice people, but this one is coming to the end of the time in his life when he wants to kill people, and we see his relationships with his friends and the daughter of a man that he has done work for.

The twist is really very unexpected. We see him as he tries to make sense of the situation in which he finds himself, and follow the logic of the deductions that he makes. This makes the twist all the more striking; it really does bring everything to a great conclusion.

I will keep an eye out for the Jack Harvey books, the pseudonym used for writing thrillers by Ian Rankin, as these cannot be part of a series like the Rebus, and I do like one off stories. Such a clever ending.
Chrissi (1st April 2002)