Blood Line: a Gabe Wager Mystery

Gabe Wager #10

by Rex Burns

When gang warfare claims his cousin, Detective Wager seeks justice

There was a time in Denver when a child’s murder was a tragedy, but now that gangs have taken hold of the city, teenage deaths are sickeningly routine. As far as homicide detective Gabriel Wager can tell, the latest victim, a thirteen-year-old boy, was a good kid, with no affiliation to any local gang. But in gangland, even innocents have a way of becoming targets.

 

As he investigates the boy’s murder, Wager’s aunt asks him to speak to her son Julio, a teenager who’s been cutting class and quit his after-school construction job. They fail to connect, and a few days later Julio is found executed in the same style as the previous boy, shot in the back of the head. As he tries to unravel the dual mystery, Wager finds himself deep in a callous world, where even children can be killers.

Genres: Mystery

247 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Rex Burns (b. 1935) is the author of numerous thrillers set in and around Denver, Colorado. Born in California, he served in the Marine Corps and attended Stanford University and the University of Minnesota before becoming a writer. His Edgar Award–winning first novel, The Alvarez Journal (1975), introduced Gabe Wager, a Denver police detective first working in an organized crime unit, then in homicide. Burns continued this hardboiled series through ten more novels, concluding it with 1997’s The Leaning Land. His second series (3 volumes) features Devlin Kirk and "Bunch" Bunchcroft, a private investigator series set in Colorado. The third series, beginning in 2013, follows the adventures of a father/daughter private detective team. The first, "Body Slam," focuses on the world of professional wrestling. The second, set in England and the Middle East, deals with theft from an oil tanker. His short story series, appearing in "Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine," features Aboriginal Constable Leonard Smith of the Western Australia Police.

Reviews

[Joe Nicholl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blood Line (1995) by Rex Burns is the 10th book in the Denver Police Department Detective Gabe Wager series. Burns is a very good crime fiction writer and he captures character & setting very well; think authentic. But, sometimes his books lack in the mystery department. Blood Line avoids this pitfall by being a straight ahead police procedural and the results are most satisfactory. Blood Line is a strong entry to the Gabe Wager series...Plot follows Wager investigating two separate murders of young men/boys, one being Wager's cousin. Are narcotics involved? The story moves along smoothly through the mean streets of Denver and makes a few stops at Denver International Airport. Lot's of action and shoot-outs and in the end you get a solid & tight crime fiction novel. Residents of Denver, like me, will get a kick out of reading Blood Line as with the entire Gabe Wager series...4 outta 5 stars...

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

an OK cop book... the jacket makes the author seem a little more talented than he is though. Fun to know the local references...

[Ribs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty slow.