Streets of Blame: He used their DNA to disappear. Now the wrong twin must prove he exists.

by Darin Hartley

376 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2025

Reviews

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

just (12 4 2025 ) won this from goodreads, thanks so much, cant wait to get it! thanks so much!
just got it and will start reading 12 30 2025

in seattle, a homeless man making notes meets a homeless woman. they get together to kill and use the dna of others to get away with it

a man has a wife and son who were killed in a snowslide on a freeway coming home from skiing. he is a twin, his brother works in a university. he was arrested for murdering someone in the park, and called his brother for help. his brother got off work to help the overworked public defender on his case

his brother went undercover as a homeless man to help solve the murder to get his brother free

[Darin (Author) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was nine years in the making. I finished the original manuscript in 2016 and decided to dust it off in September 2025. I am glad I did. I walked the streets of Pioneer Square daily, most weekdays, during the rain and cold and gray; and the sunny days of the short summer. I observed buildings, landmarks, and mostly the people: employees, tourists, and plenty of homeless people. The homeless have their own subculture. You can observe it, but you will never fully understand it. This brings a rare sense of realism to this novel.

I saw lots of people discarding items on the street or sidewalk—gum, cigarettes, cups, straws, and food. That was the impetus for using DNA as a core part of this novel: identical twins and the sights, smells, and sounds of Pioneer Square.

I hope you will enjoy it as much as I enjoyed getting it done!

Darin Hartley (Author)

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book’s concept was certainly intriguing, but the execution fell way short. I know this is an early edition (won from a Goodreads giveaway), but the constant typos were highly distracting. The dialogue felt utterly unnatural and implausible, the characters’ relationships with each other felt cheesy, plastic, and happened too fast to be believable. The way the author described body parts, in particular women’s or genitalia in general, was cringe-worthy at best and reeked of adolescent fantasy at its worst. It was all predictable, there was no character arc or major obstacles to the protagonists’ efforts, and it all comes together way too easily in the end. I would have loved to see this as an episode of Law & Order but it flops for me as a book. Sorry, Hartley. (I did super dig the personalized note, bookmark, and signing the book).

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It keeps you guessing while you follow along with well written characters set in Seattle's historic Pioneer Square. It shows that manipulation of the truth can lead to wrong assumptions.