Never by Blood

Rating:
Summary: Plumb full of action
Review: Noel Carroll is a composite name of a husband and wife writing team. Husband Noel is a former CEO, while wife Carol was a corporate executive. Together they have published novels, short stories and satiric essays. Circle of Distrust is another of their works.

Therese Elliott has a terrifying and realistic nightmare about her husband's upcoming launch of the shuttle Atlantis, twenty-five days before launch. In her dream the entire crew has been murdered by a madman, and she is seeing dead bodies through her husband's eyes. Little does she know, until she hooks up with a investigative priest from the Vatican, that she has unconsciously tuned into an international terrorist with his own agenda for disrupting the flight and destroying the space station. Sparks fly, and the very current issue of celibacy arises as Therese and Father John enter Lebanon to interview potential witnesses to a murder that would cast light on which of the space crew could be the culprit. Naturally Therese nearly gets herself killed when she dares to go for a walk close to the hotel to clear her head:

"Mustafa did not look convinced. 'The person who did this is known to us, my friend. Your hotel doorman recognized him and passed the information along to the police who quickly called us.' John did not ask in what capacity the doorman did this. In the city of Beirut, there were agents and friends of agents everywhere. He wondered what the man had reported back about himself and Therese."

Plumb full of action, Never By Blood has all the hallmarks of a great whodunit, international thriller style. The Noel Carroll team does a bang-up job of secreting the murderer among a fairly small list of potentials and completely faking out the reader in the most delightful way. Shuttle/Nasa details are complex enough to satisfy the biggest techno-nut. The power is in the details, and Never by Blood spares none. It is a multi-layered exercise in what excellent writing is all about. There is never a dull moment, and characterization is top-notch. A most amazing read. Please keep writing more of these...they're great!

Shelley Glodowski
Reviewer