Blood Relative

by David Thomas

How well do we know our loved ones? In the wake of a brutal murder, architect Peter Crookham is forced to confront this question, launching him on a dangerous quest to uncover the truth. When Peter arrives home late for a dinner engagement with his beautiful wife, Mariana, and his journalist brother, Andy, he encounters a bloodbath: Andy has been brutally stabbed to death, and a nearly catatonic Mariana is bathed in his blood. Convinced Mariana is incapable of murder, Peter vows to clear her name. But when he discovers that Andy had been secretly investigating Mariana's past, Peter can no longer trust his instincts. Desperate for answers, he travels to Mariana's childhood home in East Berlin--and finds himself caught in a web of intrigue involving the notorious Stasi…and a terrible secret that someone will kill for in order to keep hidden. This gripping, atmospheric page-turner will keep readers guessing until the very last page.

Genres: Crime, Thriller, Mystery, Fiction, Thriller Suspense

384 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2011

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Please see: David Thomas


Former name of Tom Cain, now Diana Thomas

Reviews

[Cold War Conversations Podcast · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gripping thriller set in England and Berlin

Set in England and Berlin. Architect, Peter Crookham arrives home to find his young German wife Marianne covered in blood and his brother murdered. Peter’s world is turned upside down as he attempts to prove his wife’s innocence and unveils a past that he knew nothing about.

David Thomas’s book is a gripping tale of paranoia, suspicion and the darkest side of the former East Germany

I was drawn to this book by the East Germany and East Berlin story line which doesn’t really figure until the latter portions of the book, but David Thomas’s description of a husband desperate to defend his wife and beset by doubt about all he has been told holds the reader’s attention throughout.

David Thomas has researched his subject and his description of the tour of the Stasi Remand prison at Hohenschönhausen reminded me of the chilling tour I had.

Overall a good gripping thriller.

[[ J o ] · Rating 1 out of 5]

Definitely the worst book I've read for a while. Usually I say I do not read for escapism, which is broadly speaking the utmost truth, but there are times when I do read for escapism, though it's usual an escape from reading. Crime books, mysteries and thrillers are sort of my version of colouring-in books. They're easy to get through and most of them require little or no brain power whatsoever.

This was no exception. It had a standard plot full of clichés and the worst narrator imaginable. Every single thing was thrust at you-it was told, not shown-and the dialogue was as robotic as is possible to be.

There was no depth in the story in regards to the crime, so it was more of a genreless mess than a mystery or thriller. There was no working out, no science, no detection. Everything just seemed to happen, one thing after another.

Very easy to get through if you're looking for an extremely quick read to pass the time.



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[Cathie · Rating 4 out of 5]

“You’re just too good to be true.”

Peter Crookham considers himself Mr. Average. So when Mariana Slavik walks into his life, he can’t believe his luck.

Then that night as he heads home from work to meet up with his estranged brother Andy who is paying him a visit, he finds him in a pool of blood with Mariana covered in blood.

“How well do you know your wife, Mr. Crookham?”

After receiving shocking news that his brother was investigating his wife’s past, Peter begins to search through the information on his brother’s computer.

So the tale begins.

As Peter delves into his wife’s past, he is met with resistance and threats. Honestly, if not for the information his late brother already gathered, he may not have been able to come closer to the truth in a fast-paced manner. And he would not have been able clear his wife’s name.

When he realizes Mariana’s past is the key to finding out what caused her to commit a horrific murder, it leads him to take a trip to East Berlin. Risking his life and safety, he retraces his late brother’s steps into the City’s past and discovers more than he could ever imagine.

A surprisingly twisted psychological thriller. With bits of historical fiction woven in, we are exposed to the mindset of the East German state, the Stasi corruption, and the author’s fascination for and loathing of totalitarian communism.

What ties it all in the end are the relationships of the past and its effects on the present.

And mourning.


Disclaimer: I received this book in exchange for a fair review. All opinions are my own and I was not compensated for this review.

[Hayley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this book free from a Goodreads giveaway (however this is NOT a paid review); it was one of those giveaways where I went "yeah, not too interested in this story, but it could be ok, and not many other people have entered...". So I entered, and won, so I figured I should read it.

Excellent decision.

It's a very well written story. Peter Crookham, a wealth architect, returns home one night to find his brother, Andy, dead, and his beautiful, German wife Mariana, covered in his blood, and broken women. Peter is at first desperate to prove Mariana's innocents, but soon realises that she did do it - and then wants to know why. His determination sends him to Germany, to dig up secretes from the Communist East Germany. Secrets that some people don't want dug up.

This book his highly descriptive, going into some detail in sections, but somehow that manages not to detract from the fairly fast-paced story. The characters are well rounded, their motivations make sense, and match their actions. The back-story into what happened in East Germany in the 1980's is clearly well-researched, and told very well. The mystery is interesting, and just when you think you know where it might be going - bam! it takes you in another direction. The narrative is interesting and gripping all the way through, with several well-written action sequences.

All in all a fantastic read - 5/5. :)

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a really good and thoroughly intriguing crime thriller that delves behind the wall that once divided Berlin and uses the impacts of that era on its residents as the basis for a gripping read where you don't know who to believe. This is interwoven with the emotional conflict caused by murder of one loved one by another that is well balanced with the brutality of the crime and the motives behind it. I did find Crookham (the elder) a little irksome at times as he swung between his divided loyalties and couldn't decide whether to just get on with his life and accept what has happened or to investigate matters himself and uncover the truth but once he sorted himself out, I was on his side all the way. The story itself is interesting with enough twists and uncovered truths to keep you guessing but not too many so you don't end up lost and confused.

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This started out really good - made me want to read and crass and read. And then it got very historical with lots of descriptions on life with the Stasi. I think I need to read some actual nonfiction about Germany during, before and after the Berlin Wall. Thus character was over the top with heroism considering he was a very quiet unbrace architect. Don’t get me wrong- it had its moments of interesting bits, but I found it a little far fetched. Would someone really go do out if his way to prove his wife didn’t kill his brother when everything pointed at her guilt?

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn’t expecting much from this book as I purchased it in Poundland and the only other time I’ve done this the book was dreadful however I was pleasantly surprised this time. The book suffers from the characters being a bit wooden or cartoonish in their villainy but the story was fairly good and I was not bored at any point. It was perfectly acceptable and while it won’t set the world on fire it did its job.

[Melissa-Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

While the book was easy to read (I finished it in two days), I found it to be extremely predictable.

[Deborah Robb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peter Crookham is living the good life. Successful career as an architect with a thriving company and happily married living in a house designed by both of them. Life turns upside down when his wife is accused of killing his brother. The facts are not disputed-Peter came home from work to his brother lying dead on the floor with his wife covered in blood. His brother is gone and his wife is practically catatonic. Peter cannot reconcile his wife doing such a horrible thing. His brother, who he did not see very often, was in town to visit their mom and was going to spend the night. No reason at all for Mariana to have committed such a horrendous act. Frustrated by the police's lack of interest in exploring other options, Peter decides to figure out how such a horrible thing came to happen. After going through his brother's belongings, it becomes clear his journalist brother had been investigating his wife. Peter comes to realize he really knew very little of his wife's past other than she was from Germany and estranged from her family. His investigation leads him to Germany and becomes deadly. Very good read.

[Emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’d give this 2.5 stars if I could because while there was enough tension to keep me interested, there were also some serious flaws. I felt like the unraveling of the mystery at the end came too sudden. The author gets credit for leaving no storylines unfinished, but that’s the best thing I can say about the ending. Some things seemed too convenient as well. The main character is a bit bland, but I guess he’s supposed to be so it can be forgiven.

I’m very very much bothered by the German in this though. Not only are the German quotes grammatically weird, the way the Germans speak English seems unrealistic as well. And there’s the thing where half the conversations in the book supposedly are in German, but the main character understands everything just fine and can easily do conversations when it’s convenient, even though it has been pointed out multiple times that his German is very basic and he didn’t take real classes or anything.

[Maria Beltrami · Rating 3 out of 5]

What could drive a young woman, a successful architect and wife of an equally successful architect, to seemingly kill her brother-in-law in cold blood? At first, her husband cannot believe his wife is guilty, but when her guilt is established beyond reasonable doubt, he decides not to abandon her and, digging into her past, to investigate what her motives may have been. What he discovers, risking his life several times and delving into the most sordid secrets of the GDR, is a childhood trauma of monumental proportions, capable of undermining the psychological foundations of even the most stable person. A book that is perhaps not perfect, that does not answer all the questions it raises, but is nonetheless enjoyable to read and testifies to the healing power of love.

[Gordon Johnston · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent thriller with a few twists. When an English architect comes home to find his German wife has apparently killed his journalist brother, he initially looks for a hidden killer. Surely she didn't commit the murder? But as he looks further into Mariana's past he finds a few things that just don't add up. And then he discovers that his brother was following the same path. A trip to Berlin leads him into a long buried story from the days of East Germany and the Stasi.

This one is a little different and a good read, if a little predictable.

[Ches Torrants · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was drawn in very quickly. First, in old West Germany, an underworld character flees for his life and defects to the East. Then Peter, a modern day British architect, comes home to find his brother blood-soaked, apparently murdered by his wife. He loves her, but knows so little of her upbringing in East Germany. Against all advice, he sets out to investigate in the shadow of the old Stasi terror. The action is intriguing and I found the resolution satisfying, if slightly trite at the end.

[Studvet · Rating 2 out of 5]

A 2.5 ....maybe. Fairly atrocious and could have been a lot better. Interesting premise but lazy writing and illogical narrative and plot-points . Enough to keep you skimming thru it but that was it.

[Pat Stearman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading Group book but the sort of thing I might well have picked up anyway.
Not a traditional crime novel, it sits somewhere to the thriller end of the genre. Interesting & horrible events, very interesting main characters.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit different because of Stasi angle. However not very believable especially lack of emotion.

[Kriti Chaturvedi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice book. Though thought of a very exciting ending but it was ok. Written well , pace of the story is good.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is an exciting one, but somewhat unbelievable. There are some mistakes with German words, which should have been corrected at the editing stage.

[Aubree Rice · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was fine, slow in the start + lots of historical references. Picked up immensely in roughly the last 1/2

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not nearly as good as "Ostland".

[Jud Hanson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peter Crookham is an British architect with a successful business and a beautiful wife. That all changes in a heartbeat when he arrives home one night to find his brother, a journalist, dead on his living room floor and his wife covered in blood. All the evidence points to his wife, something that is hard for him to believe. While his wife gets treated in a psychiatric hospital. Peter begins searching for answers. His efforts to find out why his wife would kill his brother don't go unnoticed, however and after receiving a strange email warning him to stop his investigation, he begins to wonder how well he actually knows his wife. His quest to know her better will take him back in time to post-war Europe and put his life at risk from those trying to protect some secrets from being revealed.

Blood Relative by David Thomas is an excellent entry in the European crime genre. Thomas has written a well-developed novel that is very descriptive without being tedious. His characters have depth and the plot flows very well from start to finish, with few, if any, slow spots. Since his main character is an architect, not a cop, I would expect that this would be a stand-alone novel. However, there is the potential to give the primary investigator in the novel his own series. If you are looking for a new author to try, you should definitely pick up Blood Relative. I would rate this book 4/5 stars.

*A copy of the book was the only compensation received for this review.*

[Lora · Rating 3 out of 5]

Peter Crookham runs a very successful architectural practice with his German-born wife, Mariana. One afternoon he arrives home from work to find Mariana covered in blood--it appears that she has murdered Peter's brother, Andy. Peter and Mariana are taken to the police station, but soon Peter is let go and Mariana is put in a psychiatric hospital, because it seems that she's suffered some type of psychotic breakdown. Peter realizes that if he can uncover the motive behind Andy's death he'll be able to find out if Mariana is guilty. Peter's investigation leads him to look into Mariana's youth in what was then East Germany. Blood Relative is a thriller in the style of Harlan Coben and keeps the reader guessing until the end.

[I Read · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book and the idea behind the storyline appealed to me. I was particularly pleased that I got to learn quite a fair amount of history along the way; Thomas researched the subjects thoroughly.

I can't put my finger on why but I didn't find I had the irresistible draw pulling me back to reading that I get with other books and there was nothing to set it out as exceptional so I couldn't rate it any higher than I did.


** I received this free of charge through Goodreads First-Reads **

[Dan Barbier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blood Relative, David Thomas first novel, is a Linwood Barclay, John Rector like suspense drama that asks the reader to remain alert throughout the story. Thomas is the real name of author Tom Cain, and Blood Relative is as far away from The Sam Carver series as can be. The only resemblance between the two author's name, is the sheer talent to draw you inside the fiction. Tom Cain or David Thomas, either one delivers.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

A creepy and puzzling mystery - good for history buffs!

[Isaw · Rating 2 out of 5]

started off ok, lost me half way through..

[Miki Jacobs · Rating 5 out of 5]

having recently been to Berlin and some of the places mentioned, this book became a bit more 3d for me. It was a little slow to start, but I couldn't put it down in the end

[Henry Schaefer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started with a bang, kind of unraveled at the end. Quick, fast paced read though. Worth it.

[Stuart Haining · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to read, good plot