Blood Rival

In fiction you can blur the real world with the fictional to give your story a sense of authenticity. This is something that Jake Arnott has done in the past taking a splash of truth, a soupcon of reality, and then blending in some fictional high-octane action. In the case of Blood Rival, there was a story that reminded me of a real gangland murder some years ago, but this was only one basis for the story, the other was far more antient.

Lee Royle has always considered himself a lucky crook. As a younger man he helped mastermind a massive heist that he got away with doing minimal time, whilst others took the fall. With his ill-gotten gains he built a criminal empire by trusting his gut and being ruthless. However, luck runs out at some point and for Lee it was at the end of a knife in a seemingly random road rage incident. His widow and her new husband take it upon themselves to get to the truth and stabilise the firm they have taken over.

There is a lot going on with Blood and that is what you would hope and expect for from a novel by Arnott. There is a real sense of British grime to it, old fashioned gangsters carving up the criminal underworld among themselves. There are also others who enable the underworld; corrupt officers, PIs happy to work for anyone, shady dealers in information. What you do not have much of is a moral centre, the one legitimate police officer is not given much to do.

Instead, this is a book that centres more on the Widow Jo, and her new husband Eddie. The book is non-linear and Arnott has an interesting way of bringing up the past. Characters will have a conversation in the present and this will trigger a chapter from the past. The reader gets to witness what really happened, whilst many of the characters remain oblivious.

Other criminal types are given chapters to highlight their antics with a dodgy copper being the most interesting. However, in a book with such a high body count, there is no guarantee that any of the characters will make it. In fact, many of them do not. Indeed, are too many characters dispatched?

Blood is a fiction book, but at the start it had a sense of reality to it. It dabbled with the themes similar to the Brink’s-Mat robbery, where substantial amounts of bullion were stolen and not recovered. Many criminals involved ended up dead in a violent manner. Was this the inspiration that Arnott took? Only in part, the rest is a retelling of an ancient Greek tragedy.

When you consider this alternative origin for the story, more makes sense. Some of the characters and their actions are old fashioned and not logical. They have a heightened feel to them from a 2000-year-old tale. I think modern lags and antient sagas do not meld perfectly as the actions of a 20th century criminal are different from BC.

Blood is an entertaining and interesting take on the crime genre. I think it would suit a connoisseur of the genre who enjoys authors playing with the format. As a straight story it feels a little too eccentric, but as an exploration of old and new, it holds the interest.