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Alyssa Ward is a convicted murderer who has just been released from prison after killing her stepmother. But she's determined to prove her innocence. Meanwhile the sister she never knew she had is about to see her idyllic world collapse around her ears. So far so familiar? And BLOOD KNOT doesn't start off very promisingly either, thanks to the clunkiest information dump I've read for some time: '"I met an arms dealer today." Francesca Sayle -- Frankie for short -- grinned. "No, I'm not lying." '"Never a dull moment being Dutch-English translator cum Economic and Political Affairs assistant at that madhouse of a Korean embassy, is it?" Joe, her husband, frowned and glanced around the crowded restaurant.' Within pages, though, Joe breaks the news to Frankie that their marriage is over. But there's no clean break on the cards -- within a few more chapters she discovers that he owes a colossal gambling debt to an Albanian gangster who isn't too fussy about how he reclaims the money and doesn't take the end of a marriage for a no. So she isn't likely to object too loudly when a mystery person offers to take over the debt. Once you're into the book, though, it turns into a reasonable page-turner. The second half is much stronger when Ryan relaxes into her saga and in places it reads like something Lynda LaPlante might dream up in an idle moment in her earlier days. LaPlante, though, would have given the characters some more meat. There are a few too many wimpy, blubbing sorts for my liking, and it's difficult to warm to any of them. In fact, only Tomas, Alyssa's former partner, is genuinely likeable and Alyssa herself has an attractive vulnerability at times. Ryan bounces us around narrators rather a lot -- there's also a third strand to the plot featuring Frankie's old school friend Monique, who thinks she has a double-crossing husband on her hands. You'll need to check your incredulity meter in at the door when it comes to the various plotlines, but I recommend BLOOD KNOT as a rollicking weekend read when you really don't want to have to apply your brain too much.
Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, April 2004
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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