Book Review: Running with Wild Blood by Gerrie Ferris Finger

Running With Wild Blood
A Moriah Dru / Richard Lake Mystery
Gerrie Ferris Finger
Five Star, January 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4328-2966-7
Hardcover

This is another intense, convoluted and complicated case for Moriah Dru and Richard Lake out of Atlanta, Georgia. Dru, a former cop, is the head of a PI firm that specializes in finding and protecting lost, damaged and at-risk children. Her lover and frequent partner is a lieutenant in the Atlanta PD.

A three-year-old cold case, the murder of a sixteen-year-old girl engages Lake who in turn engages Dru to help him solve the murder of this wild teenager. The more they probe beneath the surface, the odder and more troubling facts, suppositions and cross-currents bubble to the surface. The duo’s task is complicated by the association of some principals in the case with local motorcycle clubs and gangs. Soon, the coiling tentacles of the case engage the FBI and other police agencies in other states.

The novel is an intense and thoughtful look at motorcycle clubs and gangs, their motivations and rivalries. Locations range across multiple state and city jurisdictions and the author has made an effort to illuminate some of the restraints and difficulties encountered when law enforcement pursues cases across state and municipal boundaries. The contrasts between an upper-class private school with all its social niceties and the rough and tumble world of the biker are interesting.

There are several incidents of violence and incipient head-breaking. They are well-handled on the page and will, I suggest, keep readers engaged. The pace of the novel is by no means pell-mell, but the tension is palpable, the characters genuine, the dialogue both pert and realistic. A very satisfying experience.

Reviewed by Carl Brookins, February 2015.
Author of Red Sky, Devils Island, Hard Cheese, Reunion.