Blood Hunt

by Jack Harvey (Pseudonym), Ian Rankin

It begins with a phone call. Gordon Reeve’s brother has been found dead in his car in San Diego. The car was locked from the inside, a gun was in his hand. In the US to identify the body Gordon realises that his brother has been murdered. What’s more, it’s soon obvious that his own life is in danger.

Once back in Scotland he finds out his home has been bugged by professionals. But Reeve is a professional too. Ex-SAS, he was half of a two-man unit with someone he came to fear, then to hate. It looks like his nemesis is back…

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

432 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

A pseudonym used by Ian Rankin.

Reviews

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Blood Hunt is an early work by Ian Rankin using the pen name Jack Harvey.
This book has some real potential but what let it down was the amount of extraneous information.
I have no idea what hoops Ian Rankin had to jump through to get this work published. For me what this book is screaming out for is a good editor. This from someone who's knowledge of writing and publishing could be written on the back of a postage stamp.
The book has an almost Jack Reacher feel about it.
Gordon Reeve ex SAS, six foot two eyes of blue, is someone you don't want to mess with. Gordon finds out that his brother has been murdered and Gordon wants answers. Gordon's brother, who was a journalist, was just about to expose a huge multinational chemical company of gross misuse of it's products but was killed before he could publish.
The Company does everything in its power to make sure the damning story never sees the light of day.

The Company's main enforcer is an other ex SAS veteran, Jay. Gordon and Jay were soldiers together, way back when. The last time Gordon and Jay worked together, Jay almost got Gordon killed and Gordon has never forgiven Jay.
Jay is looking to stop Gordon but Gordon has his own agenda.

Not a bad story but it could have been so much better.

[Baba · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two former SAS colleagues clash while embroiled on opposite sides in a global corporate agri-chemical conspiracy! These tales do feel like they were quickly put together without masses of thought. 5 out of `12. Another Ian Rankin book that I read a hard-copy paperback published by Orion Books for what is listed as an e-book only?

[LJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

BLOOD HUNT (Suspense-California-Cont) – Okay
Rankin, Ian - Standalone
LittleBrown, reprint 2006- Paperback
*** Former soldier Gordon Reeve flies to California to claim the body of his brother Jim, an apparent suicide. But it soon becomes obvious that the facts aren't fitting together and that Jim's death was murder.
*** In spite of three attempts, I just could not get into this book. I will admit I'm not a big fan of conspiracy themes but, that aside, I didn't find the character interesting or the plot compelling. For me, this was a Rankin practice book until he started writing Rebus.

[Fran · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was alarming and scary due to the real-life situations this thriller is based on. Chemical companies poisoning our food and water may sound like a half-baked conspiracy theory until to look up definitions of words such as mad cow disease and prions.

[Judie · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a page turner but way too violent and amoral for my taste. I skimmed a lot of it just to get to the end of the plot. Also, world wide conspiracies involving chemicals and agriculture remind me of The Constant Gardener (but that was better done as conspiracies go). I found it hard to care about the amoral Nietzschean main character, Gordon Reeve. Back to Inspector Rebus and the Knox haunted landscape of Edinburgh for me.

[Evangelin · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a amazing book.I loved it.

[David]

I always think this is my least favourite of the Jack Harvey novels, perhaps my least favourite of Rankin’s entire oeuvre. As he says in his own intro, it’s a book that he knew before he started would be the end of his Jack Harvey career (Harvey eloped with Richard Bachman), and I think it was a mistake to use the “Gordon Reeve” character again (alternately, to re-invent the Reeve character, as he shares relatively little with the Gordon Reeve who appeared early in Rebus’s career). Another name on exactly the same character and actions would have worked better for me. Still, I found on this re-read of the whole Rankin collection, that I liked all three Harvey novels better than I remembered. Last time through, I re-read only the Rebus books. They remain my preference, but there is a lot of good entertainment in the non-Rebus fictions as well.

[Mark Barrett · Rating 2 out of 5]

Formulaic stuff.

An ex-SAS soldier with anger issues gets embroiled in a conspiracy and ends up fighting off bad guys, one of whom happens to be another excellent-SAS soldier with whom he had beef back in the day.

Two-dimensional characters, predictable outcomes, a tattered old conspiracy theory about chemical companies and pesticides, good action scenes. If you like pumped-up masculinity, detailed description of throats being ripped out and muscled men touting various firearms, it’s worth a read. If not…

About two thirds of the way through I came across a scene I distinctly remember (no spoilers, but it involved truth drugs, a car and two plastic bottles). So I have clearly read this book before and instantly forgotten it. Probably tells you all you need to know.

[Tinet · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am a big fan of the Rebus serie and other books by Ranking, but this one is like the script for a Rambo movie.

[Janet Brandenburg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gripping plot

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I've read many books by Ian Rankin, mostly in the Detective Rebus series, but also the occasional standalone novel. 'Blood Hunt', published in 1995, is one of Rankin's early standalone books, published under the pen name Jack Harvey.

*****

The story features Scotsman Gordon Reeve, a former special forces (SAS) soldier who teaches a weekend survival course.



During training, the 'troops' are taught about map-reading, reconnaissance, surveillance, infiltration, close combat, etc. Afterwards, the 'soldiers' have a GRUELING 36-hour field exercise, during which they try to capture an enemy combatant (played by Reeve).



The course teaches the participants the seven Ps: 'Proper Planning and Preparation Prevent Piss Poor Performance'. Reeve himself follows the seven Ps when he takes action after his brother is murdered.

Gordon Reeve, who lives on the island of South Uist in the Outer Hebrides, is shocked when he gets a phone call from the San Diego Police Department.



Detective Mike McCluskey tells Gordon his brother James (Jim) was found dead, and it appears Jim took his own life. Jim was a freelance journalist, and he'd been working on a story in the United States.



Gordon says goodbye to his wife Joan and 11-year-old son Allan......





......and makes his way to California, where Jim met his end. Detective McCluskey is very empathetic, and assures Gordon that Jim rented a car, drove it to an isolated spot, and shot himself.



Gordon searches Jim's hotel room and collects Jim's belongings, but Jim's papers and computer are missing. Moreover, Gordon learns Jim had hired a man called Eddie Cantona to drive him around, and had no need to rent a car.



Gordon decides the whole set-up stinks, Detective McCluskey is lying, and Jim was murdered.



Gordon decides to look into Jim's death, and his inquiries take him back and forth to Washington D.C., France, California, England, and Scotland.



Along the way, Gordon learns the following:

◙ Jim was investigating a company called 'Co-World Chemicals' (CWC), which makes herbicides and pesticides.




◙ CWC chemicals, which are exported all over the world, are poisoning/killing thousands of people, and Jim planned to write an exposé.



◙ Mr. Kosigin, the head of CWC, is determined to avoid exposure at all costs. So Kosigin hired a firm called 'Alliance Investigative' to write up detailed dossiers on potential whistle blowers as well as journalists taking an interest.



◙ The whistle blowers and reporters then suffer premature deaths, orchestrated by a man called Jay. As it happens, Gordon Reeve and Jay were in the SAS together many years ago, and are old enemies.



◙ Gordon's inquiries, and his search for Jim's missing files, put him and others in grave danger. Gordon is a FORMIDABLE opponent though, and the book is chock full of surveillance operations, break-ins, listening devices, chases, shootings, knifings, killings, fires, truth serum interrogations, and so on.





Finally, Gordon and Jay, along with Jay's team of henchmen, meet in a showdown that's been a long time coming.



I always like a book with a formidable hero, and Gordon's exploits put him in that category. On the downside, the story is a little too complicated (for me). Still, this is a fine early-ish effort by Ian Rankin and I'd recommend the book to fans of adventure thrillers.

You can follow my reviews at https://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot.com

[Michael Martz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought I'd won the lottery when I discovered a previously unheard-of novel by one of my favorites, Ian Rankin, on the shelf at the local library. Alas, Blood Hunt wasn't recent output by Rankin, but was actually written under a pen-name back in 1995. That would normally not be a problem, but the writing and plot were both well below the level of quality I've seen in his more recent work.

The story line itself was OK at a high level. A Brit journalist with personal problems was working on an incendiary story of some sort, but commits suicide on the US west coast. The circumstances seem a bit murky to his surviving brother, an ex-SAS guy who runs a survivalist training camp in Great Britain. It becomes his crusade to prove that his brother was murdered, and the remainder of the book is involved in that effort. As I mentioned, the writing was mediocre, but the real weakness was in the various sub-plots that impinged upon his search for truth. The conclusion was fairly contrived and the actual end of the book was very abrupt.

If you're new to Ian Rankin, start with the early novels in the Rebus series. The one thing Blood Hunt gave me was an appreciation for how much Rankin has grown as a writer.

[Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of Nietzsche's gentlemen. That's Gordon Reeve. Former SAS. Now running a "weekend warrior" school on one of the islands of Scotland. He gets a call that his brother, a journalist living in California, has committed suicide. He goes to California, and finds that things are not what they might seem. What follows is an excellent hunt for revenge and redemption. Not one of Rankin's John Rebus novels, but very good. It reminded me of David Morrell's First Blood, the basis for Rambo.

[Mary Tonks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another of Rankin's earlier works, originally penned as Jack Harvey, this novel is full of suspense, violence, and revenge. Gordon Reeve does not believe his journalist brother has committed suicide, and sets out to prove this was murder. He also sets out to find and punish whoever is involved. As a former SAS operant, he's well-suited to the task.

[Clemens Schoonderwoert · Rating 3 out of 5]

**Read 3.5 STARS!**

This standalone straightforward crime novel is another book by Ian Rankin from his early years.

Storytelling is excellent, the story well executed, but the characters are not all very convincing and believable in the dealings with life and death, while the many explanations about various subjects within the story are somewhat a drag at times, and so stopping the fluency.

Originally from 1995, my version is 2012, this book is divided into nine parts and features mainly the life and deeds of ex-SAS man, Gordon Reeve.

It all starts off with the death of the journalist Jim Reeve, Gordon's brother, in San Diego, and this Jim is on to something concerning damaging chemicals within the food chain, and because of that journalistic investigation his supposedly suicide will turn later on into a murder.

Gordon Reeve, while investigating his brother's murder is manipulated and thwarted by the SDPD, especially DI McCluskey, this DI who's actually in the pay of CWC, a powerful multinational with political influences, and with at its head a madman called, Kosigin, while this same Kosigin on his turn is being watched and monitored by a firm called Alliance Investigative, with as their main director a man called, Jeffrey Allardyce.

Soon it will turn into a hit and run exercise for Gordon Reeve while being in France and a couple of times in Britain and the USA, until a final showdown in Scotland against his former colleague at the SAS and now his lethal adversary called, Jay, will complete Gordon's mission.

What is to follow as a whole is a fast-paced crime novel with no real surprises, but still a good and enjoyable read with the predictable outcome.

Very much recommended to anyone who likes an action-packed crime novel, with many killing and be killed actions, all in order to get revenge for his murdered brother, and so that's why I like to call this book: "A Decent Revenge Hunt"!

[Oliver Rogers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Former SAS soldier, Gordon Reeve hunts down the killer of his brother and settles an old score.

If I had to pitch one book to adapt to a film or television company I would choose this! That way I'd be sure of a good time filming in so many locations around the world. I'm not convinced this is completely successful as a thriller. I thought 'Bleeding Hearts' was more enjoyable and better at tension forming, but this book has much greater ambition and takes an international storyline in many interesting directions.

The central character of Gordon Reeve demonstrates the reason why John Rebus had be a failed SAS soldier in Rankin's later novels. Reeve is a lot like superman and there isn't very much that will stop him and of course he's going to beat all who are thrown in his path. Mainly because the book is good at pulling out the other characters' flaws. It is a little unbelievable in places as it struggles to pack in so many locations and that for me would be the bit to thin down. The scenes set during the Falklands War are fabulously described and work extremely well, building the tension and the narrative. I felt the storyline about chemical pesticide pollution of food stuffs was not fully resolved but well that's our current society, so I suppose it was never fully going to be.

These Jack Harvey novels are really interesting as they point to a different direction for Ian Rankin. But at the same time aspects of the long running Rebus series are first used and developed here.

A good thriller and worth a read.

[Colleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

6.5 stars. Thriller. Gordon Reeve deals with his PTSD by teaching survivalist skills to weekend warriors at his rugged rural farm in Scotland. When he gets a call from La Joylla, California (south of San Diego) police department that his investigative reporter brother has committed suicide he flies to there investigate. No cell phones, and he suspects some of his calls are wire-tapped. He starts to uncover a vast international conspiracy involving a pesticide/herbicide chemical company, private investigators with dirt on everyone, private mercenaries, and a ghost from his past. Computers had CDs to store data. His kid collects CDs of video games, including one from his uncle. But oddly, Gordon's brother's hotel room has no CDs or computer. Rather suspicious. 48 pages into the novel Gordon meets his brother's driver (no cab record) and the pace picks up. - Unlike his later books, Rankin doesn't pepper the novel with funny observations. He manages to make the round, Row Row Row Your Boat, into a really dark horror meme. Or maybe that's his joke for the reader. - The US Presidential election is looking more hopeful now that groups like White Dudes for Kamala are raising millions of dollars. Maybe we won't have to endure the Project 2025 Utopia. - And Israel killed off the Gaza Hamas negotiator in Iran when he came for Iran's Presidential Inauguration. Sounds like pre-WWI politics.

[David Hallstrom · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm giving three stars out of respect for Ian Rankin's talent.

The Jack Harvey books were written when Mr. Rankin was first making enough off of his books to write full time. But as he was not a name there was going to be one book a year as Ian Rankin. And so he created an alias.

The first of the Harvey books, Witch Hunt, is the strongest.

The other two, Bleeding Hearts and Blood Hunt read more like David Morrell international thrillers than the police procedural at which Rankin excels.

Blood Hunt, the last of the books, is better than Bleeding Hearts but is weak in many of the same ways. Most notable is that much of the action in both Bleeding Hearts and Blood Hunt takes place in America. With American and Scots both acting and talking like Scots.

Here are a couple of hints: No one working at a San Diego airport car rental agency is going to refer to their vehicles as hire cars. And if you ask a Chicano southern California street gang member to get you an oilskin they will have no idea what you are talking about.

Rankin coming in to his own as a writer coincides with the publication of the Harvey books. They are interesting artifacts but barely above average books.

[Peggy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a novel written by Ian Rankin under the pseudonym Jack Harvey. It is about a survival expert, former elite soldier, Gordon Reeve. Gordon's journalist brother is in San Diego and word comes to Gordon in Scotland that Jim has committed suicide. Gordon goes to California and discovers what he suspected-Jim was murdered. Gordon uses his talents to track the story Jim was working on at the time of his death. An evil chemical company that will endanger lives for profit is what Gordon finds. It is soon apparent that Gordon is now in grave danger, as is his family back in Scotland. He must become the soldier he once was to fight the threats and uncover the truth. This is a thriller that eventually pits Gordon against his nemesis from the war in Argentina. This is an action packed story.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

While not as good as a lot of other Ian Rankin, even a bad Rankin is better than most other authors. Easy to read in about 24 hours (and difficult not to), this is a modern Revenge Tragedy, which ultimately comes down to two ex-SAS men pursuing each other across the Scottish highlands, after a long preamble with political stuff about big business pumping poisons into our foods (see the BBC radio programme The People vs MacDonalds).

This is a more violent book than most Rankin, and the cultural stuff has dated. Cellphones are a luxury, people still have pagers and portable faxes, video games are sent on disc, you contact people on payphones.

Indeed, one of the dated things makes the big twist stand out even more.

There is lots more Rankin, and this one is not worth going out of your way for, but if you see it, worth a read.

[Reader]

A former soldier, Gordon Reeve knows something about killing. So, despite the fact that his journalist brother Jim's death has been ruled a suicide, he can't shake the feeling that someone is responsible—and someone, Gordon thinks, will pay. Traveling across an ocean, Gordon arrives in California determined to get answers to the innumerable questions swirling in his head: Why was the car Jim's body was found in locked from the outside? Why can't he shake the local cop who keeps thwarting Gordon's attempts to talk to the friend who saw Jim last? Why would anyone want Jim dead? Keeping his anger in check is something Gordon has never been very good at, but he's got to stay cool if he is going to get to the bottom of the situation. Only then can he let the rage he cultivated during his years as a professional killer help him exact revenge on whoever dared harm his family.

[Sanni Kuutti · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not mean to read this book.

I got a very used copy of this book from my local recycling center for 50 cents. The only reason I bought it was to cut it up to use in scrapbooking and other art/crafts. I started looking through it to find some interesting words and phrases, but I quickly became invested in the story. So, while I was destroying the book, I was also actually reading it. I read the entire book in one day, which is not what I often do.

This is exactly the kind of a book that I think only people over the age of 40 read. Boring. Old. (I am a teenage girl who mostly reads newer YA fiction/fantasy). But I must admit it was quite good. And clearly it was interesting as it kept me hooked all the way. Not my type, but surprisingly good.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining if, it has to be said, rather far-fetched! This is Ian Rankin's alter ego, writing thrillers with, in this case, a main character who is ex-SAS and gets involved in a series of challenging situations following the death of his brother in the US. The brother's death is not what it appears, officials who are supposed to be helping are not what they seem, and the past - a special forces incident in Argentina during the Falklands conflict - catches up with the present in a surprising way. The final scene is exciting and this is definitely in the "rattling good yarn" category, but it does require quite a hefty suspension of disbelief.

[Emma Swan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmmm, my least favourite of all the jack Harvey novels. It’s dated and all the technology is way beyond out of date but this didn’t bother me too much in the previous novels. This one has a lot that’s tying to happen but a lot of lose ends and the ending felt quite flat. All in all it feels like your standard nineties thriller - you know who is going to win, the characters are pretty one dimensional and the plot of so far out that you shouldn’t stop to consider the how or why of it. Am a massive rebus fan and enjoy rankins standalones but neither of these 3 novels really did it for me and this one in my opinion was the worst of the three.

[Anne Belcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was hesitant to start this book as it was long, and I don't remember buying it, thinking "I'll get through it"! But it turns out that Ian Rankin may well be my next favourite author to listen to! I loved the story, the investigation side of things, the characters, the settings, and the writing style!
I'll definitely be adding more of these books to my shelves!

After a brief discussion with my husband, he's informed me that Ian Rankin wrote the Detective Rebus books, so now I have a lovely new obsession to look forward to!

Would rate alongside my other favorites: Kathy Reichs and Tess Gerritsen.

[Yrinsyde · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, it is no secret that I am really enjoying Ian Rankin's novels. I bought a few early Rebus recently, because my library didn't have them (they have the newer in the series - hooray!). This is an early story that has been improved and republished (a guess). It is a trifle long and some sections of the story could've been shortened, but overall it is is a page turning thriller. A global agrichemical company is exploiting populations in various countries. Evidence has been gathered that mysterious medical conditions correlate with the company's activities. Company men will kill to keep things under wraps. Do they succeed? It ends as one man against another.

[Jef Proudfoot · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finally an Ian Rankin book that I didn't like. Having devoured the Rebus series I thought I was in for a treat. How wrong I was! It's a mess with holes a mile wide in the plot, lots of technical errors and full of lucky breaks. This bloke decides his brother has been murdered because the murderer must have had access to car keys in order to lock the car. You what? Later on he makes reference to a car having trouble with its axles. Maybe half a century ago..... It makes me wonder if all the scientific stuff in book was nonsense too? And how about the military bits? I don't know as it's not my area of expertise.It was an ok read but it got on my nerves.

[Kerry Swinnerton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well.....definitely not as slick and easily read as the other two “Jack Harvey” novels.
Too much extraneous information, too many references to various philosophers of whom I am not very familiar and too much military jargon.
I liked the fact that Rankin changed his genre to his Rebus novels, and if I’d read this novel before the other two Harvey offerings, I’d never have bothered with any more....and they are actually better than this one.
Hope that Rankin doesn’t go back to writing this style and gets rid of Rebus permanently as I won’t a reader.

[Mark Baines · Rating 3 out of 5]

Where this book really scores is the whole underlying premise that big pharma are unscrupulous and the impact of chemicals on peoples health. The research suggests that BSE/ME/Farmer Flu is/was not caused by ‘contaminated’ animal feed, but rather from the (over)use of chemicals, about which the immediate benefit in terms of yield is understood, but the long term consequences on health and environment are definitely not.l

A decent enough tale that’s holds together without effort. Maybe a little formulaic and certainly not in the style of Rebus. An easy enough holiday read.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a bit unbelievable. Gordon Reeve gets a phone call that his brother Jim, a journalist has been found dead in a car in SanDiego, the police have ruled it’s suicide. Gordon leaves his home on an island in Scotland to travel to the USA. Jim had been working on a story in relation to a major chemical corporation. Gordon, who is ex-SAS, determines that Jim was murdered. Now he is being chased by whoever killed Jim. He returns to Scotland, finds his house bugged and he is being followed. He has to end this chase by a confrontation with an ex-SAS colleague who is working for the chemical company. An early book by Ian Rankin writing as Jack Harvey, not up to the usual Rankin standard.