Blood Money

Rating:
Summary: tightly woven plot with holocaust nucleus and real people!
Review: a fabulous book with real characters and a deeply-woven plot based on a holocaust incident! even with reading the ending first i couldn't figure it out! one of the best and most interesting mysteries i have read!

Rating:
Summary: A topical, engaging mystery
Review: I'm a long-time fan of Rochelle Krich, and Blood Money is as great a read as she has written so far. Series detective Jessie Drake works to solve the apparent murder of an elderly Holocaust survivor who had come to L.A. with a secret, exciting plan -- foiled by a murderer. In the course of unraveling the clues to his murder, Drake discovers that other Holocaust survivors may also be at risk from someone out to get their long-hidden Swiss assets. The sub-plot about Jessie Drake's own Jewishness, which she discovered in a previous Krich mystery, adds to the depth of the story.

A great read, a great surprise ending.

Rating:
Summary: This is a pedestrian mystery with a very complicated plot.
Review: Krich is wise to write about what she knows. As the daughter of Holocaust survivors, she is in a position to understand the mind-set of those who went through this horrible experience. She is also wise to use the current interest in the money secreted by Jews in numbered Swiss bank account during World War II as a plot device. It is too bad that the characters are stereotyped and the plotting of the mystery is so complicated and unbelievable. This book is a good idea gone astray because of mediocre writing. However, there are a few touching passages in which the reader feels the pain and the loneliness of the elderly who are estranged from the younger generation and who have nothing to look forward to except illness and death. All in all, "Blood Money" is a decent read but it is not a great mystery.