Review: A great read - Love Lies Bleeding
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 20, 2013
The Love Lies Bleeding of the title is a plant which provides a clue to a 70 years old mystery. Make no mistake, Laini Giles has crafted an out-of-the-ordinary police procedural here. I couldn't tell till right near the end what exactly had happened, but I knew early on the significance of the button hook tossed into the grave with the bloody corpse.Senior Investigator Frank Conley solves the mystery of the 70 years old skeleton, discovered by a hiker. The puzzle strikes close to home - within his own family - and as he struggles with his own problems he manages to piece together what probably happened all those years ago. 'Probably' often has to suffice because most of those concerned are dead.There is a ticking clock in the background, but it is not as overtly crude as in others of this genre. There's urgency but it has to be married with the slow moving actions of a small town.There are a lot of layers in this book, paricularly when it comes to characterization. Nobody is what they seem. LLB has been well crafted and in spite of the laid-back smalltown feel, it is not in the least unsophisticated.Well done, Ms Giles.