Paid in Blood Book

"Paid in Blood" is a detective suspense novel which ended like an action-packed military thriller. While the reader knows who the main bad guy is and the broad picture of his evil plan, the reader had to learn the details of the scheme along with the heroes and hope they'd solve it in time. Suspense was also created by the various family problems that the characters were dealing with and the physical danger at various points.

The forensic details of the investigation were excellent and woven into the story without slowing the action. However, apparently there were many inaccurate details about how the Naval Criminal Investigation Service is actually run.

The characters were interesting, varied, and complex. They dealt with realistic family problems (a marriage falling apart, an unwanted marriage, a single mom feeling guilty about leaving her child so much, etc.) in addition to the investigation. The bad guys seemed unrealistically unwavering in their motives (a.k.a. cliche bad guys), but that's true for many thrillers.

Several of the main characters were Christians. Mel was bitter toward God for letting his marriage fall apart after all his prayers and efforts to save it, and several other main characters felt that God had let them down in their family situations. However, their parents or friends urged them to trust God despite circumstances.

There was no sex. There was a very minor amount of "he cussed" style bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this fast-paced, exciting novel.