Blood World

Mysterious Book Report No. 419

by John Dwaine McKenna

By combining sci-fi and crime-fiction, thriller writer Chris Mooney has come up with an irresistibly striking story that’s as thought-provoking as it is entertaining and explosive to read.  In his recently released Blood World, (Berkley Books, $27.00, 436 pages, ISBN 978-0-593-19763-9) Mooney posits a world in which near-immortality is attainable for a wealthy and privileged few . . . but only at the expense of the most innocent and vulnerable among us . . . our children.  The younger the better.

The novel begins in a near-future United States, where scientists have discovered a new wonder drug that makes the blood of certain “carriers” into a virtual fountain of youth.  It means that those who have the means and connections—the elites—to obtain this precious blood can have their ailments and diseases cured as well as their power and strength amped up until they are almost superhuman.  All of that, and all of the money involved makes carriers of the exotic blood into targets for criminals.  So-called “blood farms” spring up around the country, where kidnapped children are held and routinely bled, so that their blood can be sold to the unscrupulous, self-centered and wealthy . . . with its epicenter in Los Angeles, California . . . where youth and beauty are Hollywood’s stock-in-trade.

The problem is so pervasive that the LAPD has formed an elite ‘Blood Unit’ to combat the problem.  It’s an exclusive and highly sought-after assignment that accepts only the highest quality candidates, which is why a young officer named Ellie Bautista joined the police department.  But she’s been consistently denied a transfer to the Blood Squad, until she and her partner are ambushed during a routine stop.  What happens next gains her an undercover assignment that plunges the dedicated young police officer into a seamy and depraved underworld where life is cheap and death comes often in an environment more treacherous and deadly than she could ever have imagined.

Then, a terrifying psychopath comes up with a disgusting new way to increase the potency of carrier blood by a thousand-fold . . . and only Ellie Bautista stands in his way.

Blood World is explosive and timely, set in a world we can all recognize and should be scared of . . . as we try to decide if there’s any moral line that wouldn’t be breached in the pursuit of immortality.  This novel is a stunner!

 

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