Read @ Joe’s

Title: Blood Lines (2023) Author: Nelson DeMille // Alex DeMille Publisher: Scribner Book jacket: Agents Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor are reunited and tasked with investigating the murder of one of their own: CID Special Agent Harry Vance, an accomplished counterterrorism agent whose body was discovered in a city park in the heart of Berlin’s Arab refugee community. Joe says: This one feels like a DeMille tale of old. Blood Lines is fresh, exciting, and contains a deep mystery that slowly, cleverly unfolds.

Nelson DeMille has a formula. He also has a fanbase that enjoys this formula of quick-witted alpha males that treat life as an eighties action movie full of beer, blondes, and big booms. Yet over the past decade, the DeMille formula has slowly become tiresome with its repetitive cycle. Moments of joy, such as the release of a new John Corey novel, slipped into the ennui of been-there and done-that. Fortunately, the DeMille method gets a needed infusion with Blood Lines. Co-written with his son, Alex DeMille, this is the second book featuring CID agents Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor. Yes, Brodie still thinks on his feet – and usually after a few beers – and Taylor is often exasperated at his exploits and attitude, but this one feels like a DeMille tale of old. Blood Lines is fresh, exciting, and contains a deep mystery that slowly, cleverly unfolds. 

Blood Lines opens with murder, specifically that of a CID agent in Berlin. The DeMille father and son team immediately throws the reader into a new environment with a clean set up and plenty of questions. And these questions do not have the most direct of answers – as a reunited Brodie and Taylor quickly discover.

The DeMilles showcase a unique premise in a prime European location not yet used by father and son. The murder mystery unfolds into one of international intrigue as Brodie and Taylor discover that the deceased, Harry Vance, was involved with something well beyond the typical counterterrorism milieu. Their quest soon involves Arab refugees, Cold War era Stasi spies, and everyone’s go-to villain, neo-Nazis. 

Outside of the usual ticking clock thriller, the style of Blood Lines is handled differently, too. Brodie and Taylor are at the top of their game and they get to showcase their know-how. Additionally, the DeMilles do away with the usual procedural where every minute is heavily counted and logged, like in The Panther and Cathedral. Although time is against them, the mystery is what counts as the DeMilles focus instead on the unraveling rather than forensics.  

Recently, and most noticeably in the John Corey novel The Maze, DeMille’s narrative thought-process became circuitous, which was a daunting task given Corey’s one-track mind. In Blood Lines the exposition explodes as theory works its way into fact with each question presenting a new challenge. Brodie’s internal monologue serves as a path for the reader to play along as a detective – albeit with the occasional detour.

Mostly concerning Maggie.

And her bikini. 

After all, as clever and entertaining as Blood Lines is, this is still a DeMille novel. This also happens to be one of DeMille’s best. Prost.

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And Prost again to the fine folks at Scribner and NetGalley for the advance read. I love getting my hands on a new DeMille and I always appreciate your consideration.