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Blood of Angels
iReed Arvin'si previous novel, The Last Goodbye , was "the best thing a thriller can suspenseful, intelligent, and well written" (Harlan Coben), and had the critics People magazine stated, "You'll be hooked," and the New York Times declared it "sultry, devious, adrenaline-boosting suspense." Now comes a vivid and haunting tale of one man's search for the truth -- no matter what the consequences. Thomas Dennehy, senior prosecutor in Davidson County, Tennessee, doesn't recognize Nashville a decade of relentless immigration means cops are learning Spanish, and the DA' s office is looking for Vietnamese translators. Thomas's latest case is prosecuting Moses Bol, a Sudanese refugee who faces the death penalty for killing a white woman in the Nations, a notorious, racially charged part of town. Bol's conviction seems certain, until a university professor claims Thomas sent the wrong man to the death chamber in a previous case. The DA' s office is rocked to its core, but within days another blow a beautiful and brilliant anti-death penalty activist mysteriously surfaces as Bol's alibi, claiming she was with him at the time of the crime. Bol's case becomes a lightning rod as protesters on all sides converge on Nashville and tensions threaten to explode. Meanwhile, Bol's alibi has her own secrets -- and is terrified of someone working behind the scenes to get what he wants -- even if it means murder. Will Dennehy be able to piece things together before everything he believes about the law, and about justice, is torn apart? Vivid with the emotional complexity that has become the hallmark of Reed Arvin's work, Blood of Angels is filled with nonstop action, impeccable detail, and unforgettable characters, making this a novel that is impossible to resist.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published June 28, 2005
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129 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
October 10, 2011
After reading this, I'll be sure to look for whatever else I can find by Reed Arvin. This is a darned good book! Some days later, still giving this book some thought which is something that seldom happens with a lawyer/thriller novel. This wasn't an opus, far from it. What it was, is a tale spun every bit as well as any of the bestselling guys do. Arvin has earned his spurs. I loved that Arvins protaganist had a very real and human reaction to the drama played out in the novel, ending in the only way that made sense. I'm going to upgrade my score to 5 stars, just because his story has some 'stick' which is something very few authors manage in the schlock fiction shelves.
August 4, 2015
Very good! I enjoyed this and it reminds me of John Grisham's writings!! Very good read!
June 15, 2025
A good legal thriller always hits the spot for me because I find legal minutiae itself — navigating the thicket and morass of our legal system to ascertain guilt or innocence — thrilling. But add in the hallmarks of a thriller, like murder, kidnapping, and mystery, and I’m all about it. Reed Arvin’s 2005 book, Blood of Angels, had all the aforementioned, along with some interesting Nashville, Tennessee-specific demographic dynamics that made for a compelling, fast-paced read. I’d never previously read Reed Arvin before, but Blood of Angels made me want to continue doing so.
Thomas Dennehy is a pretty good guy, a former JAG officer, he’s now the assistant district attorney in Davidson County, Tennessee. I hedge with “pretty good guy” because he’s on the prosecutor’s side and sends people to death row to be executed. I’m morally opposed to the death penalty, and for what it’s worth, Thomas doesn’t seem as adamant about it as his District Attorney boss does. More of a, the state has the death penalty and I’m an officer of the state, ergo, sort of thing. His most recent execution is Wilson Owens, convicted and executed for slayings at a local grocery store. Interestingly enough, an EMT, Charles Bridges, who responded to the scene, was also charged with one of the deaths. He messed up trying to save one of the victims and on the scene, police realized he was high on methamphetamine.
As it turns out, a new confession and a new organization (a fictionalized version of the Innocence Project, a nonprofit that helps exonerate wrongfully convicted people — indeed, the Innocence Project has exonerated 200 death row inmates) is arguing Owens was wrongfully convicted and executed. It’s one thing to exonerate a living man; it’s another to exonerate a dead man. It makes the state, rightly, look bad, and it would make Thomas look bad. This confession from an incarcerated inmate leads them ostensibly to the gun used in the grocery store killings. If it proves to be the gun, then that is strong evidence in favor of Owens being wrongfully convicted and executed.
Meanwhile, there’s another capital murder case on Thomas’ docket: Moses Bols, a Sudanese man, is charged in the rape and murder of a white woman. Even before the Owens case hangs over Bols’ case, the demographic tensions in Davidson County, Tennessee is at a powder keg ready to explode. There are the Sudanese (and many other nationalities) refugees, who are rather aloof in this foreign land, with unfathomable trauma backstopping them, and then the Nationites, lower class white people who live in the Nations, a small neighborhood. These groups live next to each other in West Tennessee. (For what it’s worth, the Nations neighborhood seems far different than even 20 years ago when Arvin wrote about it.) The two sides even clash in a riotous episode at one point in the book.
Also thrown on to Thomas’ plate is Fiona Towns, the local reverend who is vehemently opposed to the death penalty and has been trying to help the Sudanese refugees, including Bols. They are unlikely bedfellows, literally, because they’re on opposite sides of the issue and case, but Thomas admires Fiona’s principled stand and courage and Fiona, being the person she is, sees the good in Thomas, that his moral compass could turn against the death penalty.
Unfortunately for Thomas, the final piece of the puzzle is that Charles Bridges, going under a different name and looking markedly different, is out of prison and seeking his revenge against Thomas. He’s the one who set up the whole faux-confession in an attempt to taint the Owens execution and thereby, Thomas and the DA’s office. A whip-smart forensic analyst with the county realizes the grocery store murder weapon was recently moved putting a giant hole in the theory that Owens wasn’t the killer. It didn’t occur to me until now, but Bridges is also the one who set off a pipe bomb near the church windows that nearly killed Thomas and Fiona. Bridges also killed Thomas’ cat and caused his dad’s old truck to burn to the tires. But that’s all the least of it. In the last 100 or so pages, Bridges kills Carl, the barely hours-retired assistant DA and Thomas’ mentor. I knew when Arvin kept building up Carl’s retirement and retirement party that something would happen to Carl. It was still sad to see transpire! Then, because you just knew the security measures weren’t going to be enough, Bridges kidnaps Jazz, Thomas’ 10 year old daughter. She was living with Thomas’ ex-wife and her new husband, a multi-millionaire surgeon in a mansion. Like I said, those security measures didn’t matter.
Thomas, not so much the FBI on the scene or the new husband’s millions, is what rescues Jazz from certain death (Bridges attempt at mimicking execution via the gas chamber). Bridges’ last effort to get at Thomas is to threaten to kill Fiona. Even when Fiona has the opportunity to shoot Bridges dead to rescue Thomas, she doesn’t. Instead, she flings herself at Bridges. Thomas is able to get the upper hand in the melee, but is stabbed in the gut for his troubles and Bridges causes Thomas to shoot him dead.
Afterward, Thomas and Fiona realize their relationship can’t even reach the point of being a relationship given her call to the ministry and his new endeavor: leaving the DA’s office and going fishing, literally. She was right about him after all. Oh, and it should be said that Bols, who initially confessed out of fear, was innocent, too. The woman he was accused of raping and killing was actually murdered by her boyfriend, who then tried to make it seem like Bols was the culprit. The death penalty is orchestrated by men and as such, is fallible, which is why it’s inhuman to continue its practice.
Interestingly, Arvin was a record producer, keyboardist, and then writer. He’s only written five books and Blood of Angels was his most recent. For someone who doesn’t appear to have a background in the law, I thought he wrote about it rather convincingly, dramatic fictional elements aside. Too bad he stopped writing, as this was quite good.
Thomas Dennehy is a pretty good guy, a former JAG officer, he’s now the assistant district attorney in Davidson County, Tennessee. I hedge with “pretty good guy” because he’s on the prosecutor’s side and sends people to death row to be executed. I’m morally opposed to the death penalty, and for what it’s worth, Thomas doesn’t seem as adamant about it as his District Attorney boss does. More of a, the state has the death penalty and I’m an officer of the state, ergo, sort of thing. His most recent execution is Wilson Owens, convicted and executed for slayings at a local grocery store. Interestingly enough, an EMT, Charles Bridges, who responded to the scene, was also charged with one of the deaths. He messed up trying to save one of the victims and on the scene, police realized he was high on methamphetamine.
As it turns out, a new confession and a new organization (a fictionalized version of the Innocence Project, a nonprofit that helps exonerate wrongfully convicted people — indeed, the Innocence Project has exonerated 200 death row inmates) is arguing Owens was wrongfully convicted and executed. It’s one thing to exonerate a living man; it’s another to exonerate a dead man. It makes the state, rightly, look bad, and it would make Thomas look bad. This confession from an incarcerated inmate leads them ostensibly to the gun used in the grocery store killings. If it proves to be the gun, then that is strong evidence in favor of Owens being wrongfully convicted and executed.
Meanwhile, there’s another capital murder case on Thomas’ docket: Moses Bols, a Sudanese man, is charged in the rape and murder of a white woman. Even before the Owens case hangs over Bols’ case, the demographic tensions in Davidson County, Tennessee is at a powder keg ready to explode. There are the Sudanese (and many other nationalities) refugees, who are rather aloof in this foreign land, with unfathomable trauma backstopping them, and then the Nationites, lower class white people who live in the Nations, a small neighborhood. These groups live next to each other in West Tennessee. (For what it’s worth, the Nations neighborhood seems far different than even 20 years ago when Arvin wrote about it.) The two sides even clash in a riotous episode at one point in the book.
Also thrown on to Thomas’ plate is Fiona Towns, the local reverend who is vehemently opposed to the death penalty and has been trying to help the Sudanese refugees, including Bols. They are unlikely bedfellows, literally, because they’re on opposite sides of the issue and case, but Thomas admires Fiona’s principled stand and courage and Fiona, being the person she is, sees the good in Thomas, that his moral compass could turn against the death penalty.
Unfortunately for Thomas, the final piece of the puzzle is that Charles Bridges, going under a different name and looking markedly different, is out of prison and seeking his revenge against Thomas. He’s the one who set up the whole faux-confession in an attempt to taint the Owens execution and thereby, Thomas and the DA’s office. A whip-smart forensic analyst with the county realizes the grocery store murder weapon was recently moved putting a giant hole in the theory that Owens wasn’t the killer. It didn’t occur to me until now, but Bridges is also the one who set off a pipe bomb near the church windows that nearly killed Thomas and Fiona. Bridges also killed Thomas’ cat and caused his dad’s old truck to burn to the tires. But that’s all the least of it. In the last 100 or so pages, Bridges kills Carl, the barely hours-retired assistant DA and Thomas’ mentor. I knew when Arvin kept building up Carl’s retirement and retirement party that something would happen to Carl. It was still sad to see transpire! Then, because you just knew the security measures weren’t going to be enough, Bridges kidnaps Jazz, Thomas’ 10 year old daughter. She was living with Thomas’ ex-wife and her new husband, a multi-millionaire surgeon in a mansion. Like I said, those security measures didn’t matter.
Thomas, not so much the FBI on the scene or the new husband’s millions, is what rescues Jazz from certain death (Bridges attempt at mimicking execution via the gas chamber). Bridges’ last effort to get at Thomas is to threaten to kill Fiona. Even when Fiona has the opportunity to shoot Bridges dead to rescue Thomas, she doesn’t. Instead, she flings herself at Bridges. Thomas is able to get the upper hand in the melee, but is stabbed in the gut for his troubles and Bridges causes Thomas to shoot him dead.
Afterward, Thomas and Fiona realize their relationship can’t even reach the point of being a relationship given her call to the ministry and his new endeavor: leaving the DA’s office and going fishing, literally. She was right about him after all. Oh, and it should be said that Bols, who initially confessed out of fear, was innocent, too. The woman he was accused of raping and killing was actually murdered by her boyfriend, who then tried to make it seem like Bols was the culprit. The death penalty is orchestrated by men and as such, is fallible, which is why it’s inhuman to continue its practice.
Interestingly, Arvin was a record producer, keyboardist, and then writer. He’s only written five books and Blood of Angels was his most recent. For someone who doesn’t appear to have a background in the law, I thought he wrote about it rather convincingly, dramatic fictional elements aside. Too bad he stopped writing, as this was quite good.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 20, 2015
Everything a good thriller should be! Tough and determined Nashville Assistant DA, Thomas Dennehy, is facing the possibility that he and the system have condemned and executed the wrong man when someone else confesses to committing the crime. Add to this the fact that his long-time mentor and partner is about to retire, saddling him with a cocky, upstart replacement and there are bound to be fireworks. Great read!
September 23, 2019
I listened to this audiobook. At just over 5 hours of listening this is a quick read. Thomas Dennehy is an assistant DA in Nashville. Seven years ago he got a man convicted of a double homicide. The man was executed and a paramedic who botched a tracheotomy on one of the victims is also convicted of negligent homicide in the same case because he had methamphetamine in his system at the time. Now another inmate claims that the wrong man was executed. This inmate says he did it and knows exactly where the murder weapon is. It will be a gigantic scandal if it’s true. At the same time Dennehy is working on a current case of a rape/murder in the tight knit Sudanese community. A leader in the community stands accused of the crime. The DA’s office is scrambling to investigate the claim of the wrong man executed. Dennehy meets a local activist female pastor who supports the Sudanese man. Public violence is threatening, so Dennehy must piece together the case quickly. But then a twist happens - a retiring assistant DA is murdered and suddenly it is connected not only to the case of the wrongfully executed man, but personally to Dennehy himself. Now not only is he in danger, but so is his daughter and ex-wife. The books starts a little slowly, but when all the pieces start coming together it is fast paced. Dennehy must use his wits to fight a psychopath bent on revenge.
August 1, 2022
I read this book because apparently the author seasonally rents in my condo complex. I didn't have high hopes. But it was actually a very good story and a very satisfying read. The political framework confused me a little a first, but ultimately was treated fairly in my opinion. So I recommend this to those who like mysteries with a touch of courtroom drama.
May 22, 2024
Really well-told story. Suspense novel that doesn't put all it's egg in the "shock ending" basket. There are twists and turns, but they live well within this story of a DA being played by a man he sent to prison. It's almost pulpy at times, but that doesn't detract. I'll definitely read another by Reed.
March 28, 2020
Actually 3.5 stars. Really enjoyed this book, but the finale was too rushed to suit me. Seems that many authors do that kind of ending. Marking this with spoiler for my last comment. The predictability of a killer going after the pet and child of the hero always bothers me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 24, 2024
Interesting characters and plot. Disappointing ending.
April 23, 2025
A murder mystery with many components and many red herrings. Satisfying read.
June 15, 2009
Thomas Dennehy, assistant district attorney in Tennessee, is having a bad week. Wilson Owens, a career criminal he tried and got the death penalty for has finally been executed. Now another prisoner has confessed to the crime saying that he has proof that he committed the crime NOT Wilson. As if it wasn't enough that Dennehy may have killed the wrong man...now he is actively trying a rape/murder case and is again seeking the death penalty. And to top off his week, someone he previously convicted is trying to kill him and all he holds dear.
This book is a real slow mover but it eventually grabs you and keeps you rooted to your seat. An intense fight to the finish with a very very surprising ending.
This book is a real slow mover but it eventually grabs you and keeps you rooted to your seat. An intense fight to the finish with a very very surprising ending.
July 29, 2011
This was a very good novel. The writing was taut, skilfully weaving together the various aspects of Dennehy's life and career into a careful blend of a law novel, a thriller, a psychological look at truth and a detective novel. It was a very fine novel, especially with its ability to weave together several different issues.
May 22, 2011
I especially enjoyed this book because it was set in my hometown. My sister used to work in a school in the Nations and I have been in that area. It was very accurately described. I thought the book was a good thriller that was hard to put down. Not perfect, but good.
July 16, 2012
Başta isim kalabalığından dolayı anlamakta zorlandım.Savcı Thomas`ın hapse attırdığı biri intikam peşindedir.Onun haksız olduğunu ispatlamak için plan yapar.Güzeldi ama hep yakınlarının başına bişey geliyor baş karakterin.:P değiştirin artık şunu;)
November 30, 2015
I enjoy thrillers but usually avoid legal thrillers. This one broke all the rules and was a fast and furious read with Thomas Dennehy of the Davidson County, Tennessee District Attorney's office as the hero with a mission and some real baggage.
I couldn't put it down.
I couldn't put it down.
September 12, 2016
Two parallel stories loosely connected: A social justice story, fascinating with beautiful observations, ambiguous morality, even relevant to the presidential election and the Trump phenomenon: 5 stars; and a serial killer-type story, boring, full of cliches, 1 start!
July 29, 2007
Good summer reading.
August 9, 2009
This book promises to give insight into the Somali community of Nashville, but is really about white Nashville's hang-ups about north (read, "black") Nashville.
March 12, 2010
Read this on audio book...typical mystery/legal book involving a Public Prosecutor in Nashville who may have sent the wrong man to be executed. Good book of it's type
June 9, 2016
The story comprises of multiple plot twists and between them excessive periods of lull. Convoluted story but the author manages to keep you hooked!
Read
October 5, 2016It was bit boring in the beginning; later on the pace increase and it became awesome to finish
February 25, 2016
Well done.
Read
August 3, 2016Favorite book!
May 1, 2017
Terrific book! I was riveted throughout.....lots of complex twists and turns, but I was able to follow them all and the resolution of all the pieces made sense. Great character development; all believable. The writing has enough wry humor mixed in to make the story more than just a procedural.
I will now definitely plan to buy his other book (very well-reviewed) titled "The Last Goodbye".
I will now definitely plan to buy his other book (very well-reviewed) titled "The Last Goodbye".
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews