THE BUSINESS OF BLOOD
Series: In the Business of Blood #1
Author: Kerrigan Byrne
Genre: Historical Mystery
Cover Designer: Quirky Bird Designs
Release Date: October 24th, 2019
London, 1890. Blood and death are Fiona Mahoney’s trade, and business, as they say, is booming.
Dying is the only thing people do with any regularity, and Fiona makes her indecorous living cleaning up after the corpses are carted away. Her childhood best friend, Mary, was the last known victim of Jack the Ripper. It’s been two years since Fiona scrubbed Mary’s blood from the floorboards, and London is no longer buzzing about the Ripper, but Fiona hasn’t forgotten. She hasn’t stopped searching for Jack.
When she’s called to a murder in the middle of the night, Fiona finds a victim mutilated in an eerily similar fashion to those of the Ripper, and only a few doors down from Mary’s old home. The relentless and irritatingly handsome Inspector Grayson Croft warns her away from the case. She might have listened, if she hadn’t found a clue in the blood. A clue that will lead her down a path from which there is no return.
As a killer cuts a devastating swath through London, a letter written in blood arrives at her door, and it is only then that Fiona realizes just how perilous her endeavor is. For she has drawn the attention of an obsessive evil, and is no longer the hunter, but the prey.
Fiona Mahoney is in the business of blood. But she’s not the only one.
With intriguing twists, blood-chilling discoveries, and dazzling prose, USA Today Bestselling author Kerrigan Byrne shows that a woman’s work is never done, even when is sleuthing out a serial killer.
Aidan stood behind me for a moment, motionless and silent. I could hear every word ever spoken and unspoken between us spilling onto the ground at my back.
“I understand what the years have done to you, Fiona. I know all the reasons you do what you do.” The pity in his voice summoned a scream from deep, deep in my soul, and I swallowed three times to keep it from escaping. “I appreciate that you have to be cold sometimes. But have a care this profession of yours doesn’t make you heartless.”
Heartless.
Struck by an idea, I frantically searched until I found Frank Sawyer’s heart in the center of the basin. An unceasingly strong muscle upon which one’s entire existence depended. I counted four chambers. Four valves. I stared hard, unblinking in the wan light until Aidan’s retreating footsteps plodded away.
I’d never found Mary Kelly’s heart.
Every single part of her had been catalogued in all its exposed and grotesque exactitude. But not her heart. The Ripper had taken that, along with her life.
I searched for the palpitations to prove Aidan wrong and found them, faint and fluttering, against my rib cage. I still had a heart, even though he owned pieces of it. And yet, I’d stood over too many corpses of those I loved, each time expecting my bleeding heart to just…stop. It should, I think. When a heart was broken as many times as mine, it shouldn’t work anymore. But somehow, it still did. It kept going.
And so long as it beat in its chamber, I’d search for the Ripper.
5 ‘Until The Ghosts Are Put To Rest’ Stars
Oooohhhhh, Kerrigan Byrne rocked my world with this twist on Jack The Ripper, because it’s SO MUCH more than I expected! Mind, heart and soul gripping, THE BUSINESS OF BLOOD is a full blown experience!
I tend to stay away from anything close to horror genre, but as soon as Ms. Byrne announced this book as a brand new Historical Mystery I wanted to jump right in. Being a huge retelling fan, I could only imagine how enrapturing TBoB would be. Well, I really had no idea just how much I would be absorbed…
Aye, well. Sometimes I worried for my soul, too. God knows I’ve committed enough sins these days to procure my place in hell.
Fiona Mahoney is everything I love in an heroine and some. Not only is she smart, independent and strong beyond belief – which is even more extraordinary considering the time and age – , but she have such a hidden fragility in her feeling and emotions, if not only in her POV, that we immediately related to her, her pain, and her thirst for justice and a bit of revenge.
Death’s business is a messy one.
And I made my living cleaning up after him. At least here in London.
Being a self employed woman at that time and age, and the nature of her business as cleaning up murder scenes is, on itself so avant guard that it’s no wonder I was hooked even before I got into Fiona’s intricate and heart felt mind and spirit.
From the very first page I felt every single emotion she went through: from the loneliness, to the pain, the rage, the fear, the confusion, and heart and body’s reactions to all the intriguing men she interacted with – specially Inspector Croft, who I romance reader’s heart is rooting for, because even though this is not a romance, hello potential broody Hero! LOL – , I was there, going through it all right along with her. Ms. Byrne truly has a the gift to transport us in time and space with her incredible story telling!
I’d stood over too many corpses of those I love, and each time I expected my bleeding heart to just…stop. It should, I think. When it’s broken as many times as mine, it shouldn’t work anymore. But somehow it still did. It kept going.
And so long as it beat in its chamber, I’d be searching for the Ripper.
The twists and turns,the dark and gothic elements that Ms. Byrne does to perfection, it’s just impossible not to dip into this world and find yourself completely immersed in this universe and in Fiona Mahoney’s mind! And oh my, for a non romance the sexual tension just left me…*delicious shivers*
Oil and water, that was Croft and me. Two negatively charged magnets repelling each other by nature of physical law.
The Business of Blood indeed blew my mind, not only because of the shock and the surprise I passed with the unfolding of the mystery, the cleverness of the connection of the background feud with The Ripper that I have no doubt will follow all this series, but specially because it left me BEGGING for more! Kerrigan Byrne truly is a masterful storyteller! I had not even finished and I was already dreading the last page because I just knew I couldn’t be satisfied without knowing more, uncovering all the secrets and see the cementing of all relationship, so it’s safe to say I will be in pins and needles for the next book in the series, I truly CAN.NOT.WAIT!!!! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
“My ghosts provide constant company. And until I put them to rest, my life and my heart have no room to spare.”
ARC kindly provided by the author via Social Butterfly PR for an honest review
Kerrigan has done many things to pay the bills, from law enforcement to belly dance instructor. Now she’s finally able to have the career she’d decided upon at thirteen when she announced to her very skeptical family that she was going to “grow up to be a romance novelist.” Whether she’s writing about Celtic Druids, Victorian bad boys, or brash Irish FBI Agents, Kerrigan uses her borderline-obsessive passion for history, her extensive Celtic ancestry, and her love of Shakespeare in almost every story.
She lives in a little Victorian coast town on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State with her wonderful husband. When she’s not writing you can find her sailing, beach combing, kayaking, visiting wineries, breweries, and restaurants with friends, and hiking…okay…wandering aimlessly clenching bear spray in the mountains.
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