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Dark Places of The Earth #2
Blood Price
Paul Wood was just a tourist in Sarajevo. Then an unexpected encounter made him a desperate woman's only hope of escape. Now, to get her to safety, he must find a way through the minefield of warlords, criminals, and peacekeepers that is postwar Bosnia.
Pursued by brutal gangsters, unable to leave the country legally, Paul agrees to do a job for a shadowy group of human traffickers, in exchange for safe passage. The smugglers seem friendly. The job seems harmless. But when he discovers the secrets seething beneath, the repercussions will propel him on a perilous journey around the world - from a warlord's compound in lawless Albania, through the jungles of Latin America, and towards an explosive confrontation at the extraordinary Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert...
Pursued by brutal gangsters, unable to leave the country legally, Paul agrees to do a job for a shadowy group of human traffickers, in exchange for safe passage. The smugglers seem friendly. The job seems harmless. But when he discovers the secrets seething beneath, the repercussions will propel him on a perilous journey around the world - from a warlord's compound in lawless Albania, through the jungles of Latin America, and towards an explosive confrontation at the extraordinary Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert...
435 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 11, 2005
33 people are currently reading
210 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
November 6, 2025
Jon Evans - image from TechCrunch
Paul, a programmer-backpacker, in Sarajevo with his gf, gets entangled in a plan to spirit the gf’s sister out of the country, and away from her psycho boyfriend. Complications ensue as Paul must cope with sundry groups of evil-doers, and bring his programming skills to the table to ensure safe passage. But what if his labors allow even greater crimes?
There is much landscape covered here, Bosnia, Albania, Belize, San Francisco, Burning Man. We are shown populations in the first two that are scarred from the war, see something of the local economies, the corruption, how order is maintained. The Blood Price contains a diverse set of characters and settings, and is rich in information. Evans has offered a lot in his 422 pages. Although this is not what I would call literature, it was a very entertaining, satisfying read, a fast-paced action thriller that expands our knowledge of some of the seedier sides of the world.
=============================EXTRA STUFF
Links to the author’s personal, Twitter and FB pages
You can find his columns for TechCrunch here
Some of Evans’s novels are available for free from Feedbooks
January 30, 2026
Full review to come
February 6, 2023
The synopsis seemed to be interesting and I really wanted to like this book but the main character was so incredibly stupid that it annoyed me to no end!
Without giving too much away here are two basic points to keep in mind:
1. Don't vacation in Bosnia (what were they thinking??)
2. When a human trafficker offers you a job, don't take it no matter how charming he is, or what humane rationalizations he uses (Ok there was an ulterior motive there but really, don't do it!), or how desperate for work you might be!
Still, I added an extra star because the thrilling finale and the utter weirdness of Burning Man (where the climax of all these bad decisions takes place) made for good reading spite of all that went before.
Also, this is where our hero the narrator and his friends use up what's left of their nine lives!
Do I recommend it? Heck if I know. It's not a keeper and I'm not compelled to try anything else from this author but I can see it appealing to others in spite of the flaws. The author is widely travelled and shines light into areas of the world that we don't normally see. It's rarely pleasant but like a traffic accident many of us just have to look....
Without giving too much away here are two basic points to keep in mind:
1. Don't vacation in Bosnia (what were they thinking??)
2. When a human trafficker offers you a job, don't take it no matter how charming he is, or what humane rationalizations he uses (Ok there was an ulterior motive there but really, don't do it!), or how desperate for work you might be!
Still, I added an extra star because the thrilling finale and the utter weirdness of Burning Man (where the climax of all these bad decisions takes place) made for good reading spite of all that went before.
Also, this is where our hero the narrator and his friends use up what's left of their nine lives!
Do I recommend it? Heck if I know. It's not a keeper and I'm not compelled to try anything else from this author but I can see it appealing to others in spite of the flaws. The author is widely travelled and shines light into areas of the world that we don't normally see. It's rarely pleasant but like a traffic accident many of us just have to look....
January 10, 2020
Quick Summary: A digital nomad with a "complicated" relationship status gets into more trouble than he bargained for when he agrees to develop a website for the underworld goons.
Review: This book started off slow and in the end it became action packed towards the end, I lauded this cause the author was trying to initially build the character and was later building the story. Either have a balance between the two throughout the book like in the Robert Langdon series or choose one of the either paths. However this did not destroy the overall experience of the book, it was still a great read and will recommend this to anyone who is going for a long trip.
Review: This book started off slow and in the end it became action packed towards the end, I lauded this cause the author was trying to initially build the character and was later building the story. Either have a balance between the two throughout the book like in the Robert Langdon series or choose one of the either paths. However this did not destroy the overall experience of the book, it was still a great read and will recommend this to anyone who is going for a long trip.
December 18, 2018
Great story but a little draggy
The story was good right from the beginning. The action was exciting. Some scenes were exceptionally gruesome. I found the zombies to be irrelevant to the flow of the story and near the end I skipped over their part because I just wasn't interested. Had never connected with them.
The story was good right from the beginning. The action was exciting. Some scenes were exceptionally gruesome. I found the zombies to be irrelevant to the flow of the story and near the end I skipped over their part because I just wasn't interested. Had never connected with them.
May 25, 2018
Enjoyable???
The book was enjoyable, but, there was way too much profanity!!! Just enough characters to make it a thriller. I will probably not read any more books by Jon Evans.
The book was enjoyable, but, there was way too much profanity!!! Just enough characters to make it a thriller. I will probably not read any more books by Jon Evans.
December 28, 2020
International action adventure featuring a travel obsessed out of work computer programmer with a few useful friends to help him out of difficult situations.
March 5, 2014
There is much landscape covered here, Bosnia, Albania, Belize, San Francisco, Burning Man. We are shown populations in the first two that are scarred from the war, see something of the local economies, the corruption, and how order is maintained. For a reader looking for a fast paced action mixed in with some geeky tech stuff, this is a book for you.
This book starts out different from a lot of traveling books. The main character of the story "Paul Wood" is drunk, walking around and comes across a family that is quickly taken up by gunpoint and driven away. But after a few minutes of just staring at the road Paul realizes, even with his dullen senses from the alcohol that they left behind the family's younger soon. Breaking the #1 backpackers rule "Don't get involved" he takes up the boy and hires a taxi to follow the truck that took the family. As he reaches their destination, he realized it is a smuggling operation, but manages to give back the young boy and get out unscathed. Later on, Paul and his girlfriend Talena get back on the road and go to visit Talena's old friend who was basically a sister towards her. When they get their, they soon realize that Saskia, Talenas old friend has been married to the leader of the infamous "Mostar Tigers", a Bosnian war group that fought during the Serbian war. Paul is treated extremely well that night, but when he gets up to go take a leak in the middle of the night he discovers Saskia, covered and bruises and finds out she is being abused. Paul and Talena come to the conclusion that they must smuggle Saskia into America so she can avoid this terrible future set out for her. Using his connections with the local military Paul obtains the number of the smuggler he encountered back at that operation.
He soon knows him as Sinisa, a man with big dreams for his illegal smuggling empire. In order for paul to get Saskia smuggled out to America, paul must not pay a fee of money. But he must give him his coding expertise for a month and build a website from scratch to be used as communications. With help from another coder, an ugly, perverted russian man named Arwin they both set out for the next month to get the website set up. After the month of hard work ends, Paul and Saskia manage to wind up in America within the next week.
The story then begins in a new chapter, a few months later after they get back to America. Paul and Talena are doing well for themselves, and Saskia is working very hard as an illegal immigrant to get her pay. Talena, browsing on the internet finds at article that reminds Paul of Sinisa's accomplices. As they read it they find Zoltan and Zorrana, who seemed to be a nice couple are actually bosnian war criminals wanted for numerous crimes against humanity. Paul, reporting it to the FBI soon finds out there is a leak in the FBI informing Sinisa of what they've done. Just a few hours later, Paul learns the hard way. Zoltan and Zorrana visit their homes and end up beating Paul, and Zoltan threatening to rape Talena if they dont stay out of the way. Fueled by anger, Paul hacks into Mycroft, the website he coded for Sinisa and finds out he is making a huge deal that has to do with 13$ million dollars worth of afghani heroine at the festival the burning man. Paul, Talena, Saskia and friends all head far out into the desert for the world famous, but insane festival. After a few days they discover where the deal is going down, and with a friends brilliant planning and mechanic skills they steal the money. But as they escape Paul sacrifices himself by running straight as their pursuers getting knocked unconscious instantly. Paul awakes and finds a deal has been made, the money for Paul. The transaction goes well, and Paul is back in safe hands. But, still wanting revenge they chase Sinisa again, catching his plane on fire and managing to blow it up mid air along with all of its money, aswell as Zoltan and Zorrana.
In conclusion this story was pretty good. I give it a 3.5 star rating (ignore the rating I posted) above. Yes this story was great, but honestly the amount of cursing in the story ruined it for me. Jon Evans executed everything very well, but there was just so much repeated use of foul language it sort of made it hard to read for me. But for people who want a fast paced, geeky story, this is the book for you to read.
April 28, 2010
RATING: 4.0
PROTAGONIST: Paul Wood
SETTING: Bosnia, Albania, Latin America, California, Nevada
SERIES: #2 of 2
It’s amazing how much one rash decision can change a person’s life. Paul Wood is in the back streets of Sarajevo at 2 in the morning, a little inebriated, when he sees a truck pick up a family and their belongings. Although the family is loudly protesting, they are escorted to the pickup and go racing away. After they leave, Paul sees a little boy, about 5 years old, who has been left behind. Paul’s initial reaction is not to get involved, but uncharacteristically, he decides to try to unite the boy with the family that has obviously left him behind. Hailing a cab, he follows the pickup to a remote location and discovers that he has stumbled upon a people smuggling operation. The leaders of the operation are rather astonished to see what Paul has gone through to bring the boy to his family and allow him to return to the city.
The reason that Paul is in Sarajevo at all is because he and his girlfriend, Talena, are on a backpacking vacation. Their relationship of 2 years is seriously deteriorating; it’s only a matter of time before they call it quits. Talena is Bosnian and wants to visit with her sister, Saskia. In a wonderfully described scene, Paul and Talena travel to the area where Saskia lives with her husband, Dragan, and undergo a local celebration. Unfortunately, Saskia is a victim of horrible abuse from her husband; Talena can’t bear for to leave her sister in such conditions. And so she and Paul come up with a plan to contact the smugglers that Paul left the little boy with and find a way to spirit Saskia out of the area.
The lead smuggler, Sinisa, is building an international smuggling network that he wants to run like a business. In exchange for arranging for Saskia to get to America, Paul uses his computer programming skills to work with another member of Sinisa’s team, Arwin, to create a website to be used by smugglers around the world. His dream is to become the Amazon and eBay of human trafficking; and the website will ensure perfect, secure communications. Once the task is complete, Paul, Talena and Saskia are taken to Albania and then to Central America. Once in America, Paul declines to help Sinisa any further, and they become targets of Sinisa and his minions, which Paul finds out includes a group of war criminals.
The suspense is hair curling; the tension thick. There doesn’t seem to be a way to outwit Sinisa and his cruel assistants. The book concludes in a spectacular showdown at The Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert.
Evans does a superb job of rendering the various settings in the book. The plot line is a creative one. The only part of the book that didn’t work for me was when Paul needlessly puts himself in jeopardy, such as blithely entering a friends’ apartment when the door is open or putting himself in the enemy’s hands – not smart things to do for a character who is facing danger at every moment!
Normally, what makes an international thriller work is a focus on action and danger and keeping the plot moving forward at breakneck speed. That is true for THE BLOOD PRICE, but what makes the book really stand out is the connection the author builds between the reader and the characters and the fact that you care about what happens to them. Watching the indolent Paul step up to the challenge of facing and overcoming real danger, wondering how or if Paul and Talena will be able to weave the tenuous threads of their relationship into a strong fabric, seeing the nuances of even the most sinister characters—these were the things that made THE BLOOD PRICE worth reading.
PROTAGONIST: Paul Wood
SETTING: Bosnia, Albania, Latin America, California, Nevada
SERIES: #2 of 2
It’s amazing how much one rash decision can change a person’s life. Paul Wood is in the back streets of Sarajevo at 2 in the morning, a little inebriated, when he sees a truck pick up a family and their belongings. Although the family is loudly protesting, they are escorted to the pickup and go racing away. After they leave, Paul sees a little boy, about 5 years old, who has been left behind. Paul’s initial reaction is not to get involved, but uncharacteristically, he decides to try to unite the boy with the family that has obviously left him behind. Hailing a cab, he follows the pickup to a remote location and discovers that he has stumbled upon a people smuggling operation. The leaders of the operation are rather astonished to see what Paul has gone through to bring the boy to his family and allow him to return to the city.
The reason that Paul is in Sarajevo at all is because he and his girlfriend, Talena, are on a backpacking vacation. Their relationship of 2 years is seriously deteriorating; it’s only a matter of time before they call it quits. Talena is Bosnian and wants to visit with her sister, Saskia. In a wonderfully described scene, Paul and Talena travel to the area where Saskia lives with her husband, Dragan, and undergo a local celebration. Unfortunately, Saskia is a victim of horrible abuse from her husband; Talena can’t bear for to leave her sister in such conditions. And so she and Paul come up with a plan to contact the smugglers that Paul left the little boy with and find a way to spirit Saskia out of the area.
The lead smuggler, Sinisa, is building an international smuggling network that he wants to run like a business. In exchange for arranging for Saskia to get to America, Paul uses his computer programming skills to work with another member of Sinisa’s team, Arwin, to create a website to be used by smugglers around the world. His dream is to become the Amazon and eBay of human trafficking; and the website will ensure perfect, secure communications. Once the task is complete, Paul, Talena and Saskia are taken to Albania and then to Central America. Once in America, Paul declines to help Sinisa any further, and they become targets of Sinisa and his minions, which Paul finds out includes a group of war criminals.
The suspense is hair curling; the tension thick. There doesn’t seem to be a way to outwit Sinisa and his cruel assistants. The book concludes in a spectacular showdown at The Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert.
Evans does a superb job of rendering the various settings in the book. The plot line is a creative one. The only part of the book that didn’t work for me was when Paul needlessly puts himself in jeopardy, such as blithely entering a friends’ apartment when the door is open or putting himself in the enemy’s hands – not smart things to do for a character who is facing danger at every moment!
Normally, what makes an international thriller work is a focus on action and danger and keeping the plot moving forward at breakneck speed. That is true for THE BLOOD PRICE, but what makes the book really stand out is the connection the author builds between the reader and the characters and the fact that you care about what happens to them. Watching the indolent Paul step up to the challenge of facing and overcoming real danger, wondering how or if Paul and Talena will be able to weave the tenuous threads of their relationship into a strong fabric, seeing the nuances of even the most sinister characters—these were the things that made THE BLOOD PRICE worth reading.
December 29, 2010
This adult book is a great James Bond-type novel. Encountering a desperate woman while visiting Sarajevo, Paul Wood and his girlfriend, Talena, become unwitting agents of the woman's escape from a web of criminals, warlords, and would-be peacekeepers; an effort that forces Paul to do a smuggling job in exchange for safe passage.
August 23, 2010
ARC- My first review! I enjoyed the book, I found it confusing in parts, mostly because I did not understand the subculture of backpacking 20 some things who are techies too. But eventually I had it all figured out, well, at least enough to keep reading. The ending was a sit on the edge of your seat.
August 1, 2013
Really good. It is not often that I read a book that is so unpredictable, I was so engrossed it was difficult to put down, especially since anything and everything could happen and I became a little too attached to the characters.
May 23, 2014
I had read Dark Places and was happy to revisit Paul Woods, a Canadian computer programmer who gets beat up a lot in a multitude of countries worldwide. If only he'd settle down. If only he'd accept the world as is, not expecting it to be a better place. If only ...
January 17, 2016
This is definitely a bloke's book and not one for the squeamish, but I enjoyed it anyway. Human traffickers, Bosnia, war, atrocities of Bosnia and Albania. It went on a bit too long about some festival they went to in Nevada, but was a really good read.
February 25, 2011
Pretty good for a book I chose just because.
August 2, 2011
Excellent, fast paced mystery/suspense. Part travelogue, part techno-geek, part murder mystery. Highly recommended.
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August 4, 2011it's the best
December 16, 2013
A definite improvement from Dark Places and an incredible page-turner with some great twists. I congratulate Evans on an original voice and style/subject matter in the suspense/mystery genre.
October 12, 2014
This book was a bit too macho-like for my taste. I loved the first book, Trail of the dead, but this was a really tedious read!
November 23, 2014
Amazing if you're thinknig of reading this don't judge it by the first few chapters trust me it get amazing after the first 6
October 19, 2016
The first 2/3 was ok, not great, but I was enjoying it well enough. But the ending lost me.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews