Format: Paperback, 272 pages
Release Date: June 16, 2015
Publisher: Henry Holt and CO (BYR)
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult, Mystery
When a woman’s body is found in a Portland park, suspicion falls on an awkward kid who lives only a hundred feet away, a teen who collects knives, loves first-person shooter video games, and obsessively doodles violent scenes in his school notebooks. Nick Walker goes from being a member of Portland’s Search and Rescue team to the prime suspect in a murder, his very interest in SAR seen as proof of his fascination with violence. How is this even possible? And can Alexis and Ruby find a way to help clear Nick's name before it's too late?
April Henry weaves another page-turning, high stakes mystery in Book 2 of the Point Last Seen series.
Blood Will Tell is the second novel in the Point Last Seen series. This story once again features three teenagers in Alexis Frost, Nick Walker, and Ruby McClure who couldn't be more different even if they tried. Different social backgrounds, different reasons for being a part of the Portland's Search and Rescue team, different struggles with life itself. Alexis has spent her life covering for her mom’s mental illness.
She joined SAR because she needed something that stuck out on her college applications in order to get into a good college. Alexis is also experiencing her own ups and downs with a new boyfriend Brandon who runs hot and cold. Nick’s bravado hides his fear of not being good enough for his own friends. His father was presumably killed in Iraq, and Nick has the desire to join the Army and do something with his life. Ruby is the brains of the three, and my favorite character. She wants to pursue her eccentric interests that often times leads to interesting discoveries. She is hard working, intelligent, and not willing to toss her friends away.
Nick really is the focus of Blood Will Tell along with the not so mysterious killer who Henry all but gives away early in the story itself. Nick is a teenager who loves video games, knives, and doodling rather disturbing scenes. His desire to join the Army is not taken well by his mother, or his older brother. This then becomes a story of discovery for Nick after evidence is found at the crime scene which bears his DNA. There are facts, which I will not spoil, that come out and changes everything Nick has been told. His friendship with Alexis and Ruby is definitely tested. Thankfully, Nick has Ruby as a friend, and Ruby refuses to stop searching for something to help Nick with his troubling situation.
Not really all that mysterious when the author gives you the identity of the villain way before the end of the book. The only mystery was whether or not 3 teens, friends, and members of Search and Rescue, can work together to help one of their own before the killer strikes someone close to them. I do like the fact Henry spent time researching DNA, and SAR, and didn't just come up with fictional police procedures. I like when things make sense and that it is possible that these things can happen to anyone at any time.
I dare say that if you are interested in DNA, you should also look into the theory of Locard's Exchange Principle. In forensic science, Locard's exchange principle (sometimes simply Locard's principle) holds that the perpetrator of a crime will bring something into the crime scene and leave with something from it, and that both can be used as forensic evidence.
**I received this book for free from Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.**
Previous Novel in Series:
Book 1 will be a great feature for next week :D
ReplyDeletei can do that!
Delete