If the words roller-coaster ride, action-packed, and adrenaline-rush describe your ideal novel, then you need to check out the latest book in the John Steel series by Stuart Field. I’m thrilled (pun intended) to kick off the Blood and Steel tour. Read on for more details.
Blood and Steel by Stuart Field
Genre: thriller
Publication: August, 2020 by Terminal Velocity, a Next Chapter imprint
After a young woman is found dead in her apartment, Detective John Steel is brought in. A British cop working with the NYPD, he is a man with unique talent for finding trouble and winding up his partner, Detective Samantha McCall.
Soon, another woman goes missing, and the duo must find out why. But there is a cost: the dead woman is the girlfriend of one their own, and the missing woman may have something the killer wants.
As the clock ticks, the investigation runs deeper and an old enemy shows his face. Will any of them see the end of this alive? (from Amazon)
My thoughts
Whew!
The book opens with a bang. A violent confrontation between criminal and cop sets the tone for the rest of the novel. Even when the narrative relaxes, the suspense never does. Field does a good job of building up the creepiness and dread in the characters (and in us!) before springing like a tiger on its prey, ripping apart both character’s lives and reader expectations with equal cunning.
A young woman is found dead in her apartment. But there are strange aspects to this case, and as the detective team of John Steel and Samantha McCall investigates, the case becomes personal. It also leads them to a frightening killer from a past case. Mr. Williams is sadistic, cunning, and duplicitous, but is he the killer? Or does he have another agenda?
The death of this first victim is a horrible one. Field knows how to sock you in the gut with the horror of the crime: not through a description of a brutal torture death, but through the emotional reactions of those who cared about the victim. It grabbed my emotions for certain.
Characterization
The story revolves around John Steel. It wouldn’t be the same without this green-eyed superhero. He’s British nobility and works for the NYPD, but he has links to other, more mysterious organizations. Now he’s investigating crimes with his police partner. At the same time, he relentlessly hunts down the organization SANTINI who is responsible for his family’s death.
He’s a different sort of man. He’s almost superhuman in his physical abilities–to the irritation of his police partner Sam McCall–but he can’t or won’t deal with the emotional pain of losing his family years before. It’s painful to see him struggle with this. At times, I was exasperated at his unwillingness to stop and deal with it. Part of me wanted to shake him until he agreed to go to therapy. Another part of me knew that would never work; he’d just toss me aside, smile, and run off to hunt the enemy.
Steel’s ingenuity in dealing with bad guys is astounding. Crawl beneath a moving train? Check. Rappel down a wall? Check. Half-strangle someone with his legs? Check. The list goes on. The guy has the uncanny (and unnerving) ability to appear and disappear. He both saves lives and ends them with equal ease. Kudos to Field for coming up with such a wide variety of feats for his hero. There’s never a dull moment when John Steel is around.
There are occasional amusing moments. At one point, Steel smashes a gun against someone’s head to “calm” him. Steel’s idea of calming someone is a bit different from mine!
I continued to enjoy Sam McCall, who is easily riled up by John Steel’s unflappable personality. She’s also a good, smart cop. The other characters are fairly well developed and there’s a wide variety of people. I particularly liked the detective team of Joshua Tooms and Tony Marinelli, who always have each other’s backs. Field’s characters often have secrets and reveal hidden depths at unexpected times.
Action-packed
I said it before in my review of Hidden Steel, but it bears repeating. This book begs for a film version. It has all the fun features of a blockbuster: a dastardly crime, multiple villains, conspiracies, and action scenes crammed with impressive stunts. At the center, there’s a brave, intelligent, and astoundingly strong hero haunted by past loss. And to top it off, there’s a fun will-they-won’t-they element between he and his impetuous and strong female cop partner. Plenty of tension sizzles between John Steel and McCall.
There are twists and turns at every point. Field is terrific at giving big reveals at unexpected moments. But these reveals don’t answer questions as much as rip open the story to show more unanswered questions.
The previous book ended on a cliff-hanger. This book further develops the overall character arc, giving some answers and dangling some tantalizing possibilities, and I can’t help but wonder what Steel will discover in the next book!
A few issues
A few things detracted from the book for me. The prose has quite a few misspellings and typos, which always jump out at me. I think I was reading an eARC, though, so perhaps these will be corrected in the final edition.
And this is a weird thing to complain about, but I feel like it needs to be mentioned. The characters smile too much. Sometimes the smile didn’t seem to be in sync with the emotional tenor of the scene. This is a little irritation, but it did stand out to me as the incongruity between nonverbal action and emotions weakened certain scenes.
4 stars
Despite these minor complaints, I thoroughly enjoyed diving back into John Steel’s story. Still, though, the narrative drove forward at a break-neck speed, barely slowing for breath, making it an easy, fun summer read. For those who love adrenaline rushes, this book’s for you!
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions are my own.
Buy Blood and Steel!
Links:
Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/3g31KV9
Amazon US: https://amzn.to/3fX08vY
About Stuart Field
Stuart Field was born in the UK, in the West Midlands. He spent his early years in the army, seeing service in all the known (and some unknown) hotspots around the world. He now lives in Germany with his wife Ani. When not engaged in highly confidential security work, he writes thrillers which perhaps mimic his life-experience more than the reader would like to believe.
Social Media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/StuartField14
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