Traitor's Blood

by Reginald Hill

An international fugitive is faced with a vexing “A first-rate espionage thriller . . . nonstop action” (Publishers Weekly).   Lem Stanhope-Swift, the sixth Viscount Bessacarr, has been living in Venezuela, keeping his distance from the British authorities ever since an embezzlement charge landed him in a spot of bother back home. Over the years he’s been enjoying the tropical weather and an abundance of liquor and women. But he’s just learned that he has cancer, and desperately wants to see the daughter he long ago abandoned.   Landing on his home country’s soil under a false identity, he’s disappointed to discover that the secret service is there to greet him. They have a They’ll arrange the visit, as long as he first agrees to an assignment to kill another wanted man on the run—the fifth viscount, Lem’s own father . . .   “A perfect mixture of tension and mordant humor.” —Publishers Weekly   “Entertaining . . . easily keeps the reader’s attention through a series of twists and turns that prevent guessing the outcome until the very end.” —Library Journal   “Hill remains one of the finest mystery writers of our era.” —Booklist  

Genres: Mystery, Thriller

324 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Reginald Charles Hill was a contemporary English crime writer, and the winner in 1995 of the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement.

After National Service (1955-57) and studying English at St Catherine's College, Oxford University (1957-60) he worked as a teacher for many years, rising to Senior Lecturer at Doncaster College of Education. In 1980 he retired from salaried work in order to devote himself full-time to writing.

Hill is best known for his more than 20 novels featuring the Yorkshire detectives Andrew Dalziel, Peter Pascoe and Edgar Wield. He has also written more than 30 other novels, including five featuring Joe Sixsmith, a black machine operator turned private detective in a fictional Luton. Novels originally published under the pseudonyms of Patrick Ruell, Dick Morland, and Charles Underhill have now appeared under his own name. Hill is also a writer of short stories, and ghost tales.

Reviews

[DONNA L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disappointing

Disappointment
Reginald Hill has been my favorite author - but this novel was so full.of violence and bloodshed that it is my least liked book EVER. There are too many characters to keep straight who was doing what to whom. I almost stopped reading it after "Bucko" 's father, now handless, drowned. The ending, finally stress-free, however, did satisfy. I think I may have one more Hill book on my Kindle
But will not start reading it until I've recovered from this one.

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
A fast read. Not very likable at first, but it did get more and more enjoyable after the first 100 or so pages. And surprisingly, very funny toward the end.

[Cybercrone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent read!!
You never know who are the good guys and who is trouble, but it will be great fun guessing.

[Jim Willse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Preposterous plot, and certainly not as literate and thoughtful as others in the Hill canon, but fun nonetheless.

[Marian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun!

This was quite fun. A very twisty plot, with good characters. A bad boy protagonist to start off, and never knowing who, really, were the bad guys.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good read but not in the Dalziel and Pascoe league at all.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fugitive Brit living in South America has been told that he has only a few months to live. He fakes his death and returns to England to see his daughter. His father is a defector now living in Moscow.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the fastest moving books from Reginald Hill I've ever read.
Not quite as good as his Daziel and Pascoe series but it's a fun Bondesque journey.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was not as good as the series Hill does so well. Somewhat like a soap opera in that every body lies all of the time.

[Mary Quann]

couldn't finish it. The characters aren't interesting and the plot... lags.

[Chris Warren]

I felt it was simply not worth investing my time.