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Bloodstained Kings
by Tim Willocks
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Arrow (1996)
ISBN: 0099459116
EAN: 9780099459118
Paperback: 400 pages
Edition: New Ed
SKU: MM2400
Condition: Good
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Customer Reviews
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Southern Gothic.
Rating  (4)
Date: 2001-08-23
Bigger than life and meaner than a pitbull, New Orleans Police Lt. Clarence Jefferson has spent his career collecting dirt on the rich and powerful. Always wary, Jefferson has accumulated the incriminating evidence in two huge suitcases as insurance. One day, Jefferson disappears and, after several months, is presumed dead. He exerts his influence from beyond the grave, however, writing to his lover, the sultry heiress Lena Parillaud, and to the last man who saw him alive, Dr. Cicero Grimes. The letters provide clues to the whereabouts of the suitcases, triggering a desperate search which eventually involves the feisty WWII veteran George Grimes (Cicero's father), seedy attorney Rufus Atwater, Lena's estranged husband Filmore Faroe (recently escaped after 13 years from a prison his loving wife had made for him), and Ella MacDaniels, a young woman who unknowingly stands at the center of the mystery. Before book's end, alliances are made and broken, bullets fly, and several players lose their lives.Willocks delivers a riveting novel, a southern gothic replete with buckets of blood and philosophical musings. Willocks knows his terrain as well as James Ellroy knows L.A., and is equally unafraid to expose its dark underbelly. Frightening and hypnotic, grotesque and suspenseful, Bloodstained Kings is one of those books that grabs you and doesn't let go--Willocks provides memorable, three dimensionsal characters, sharp dialogue and rich atmosphere, weaving his protagonists' disparate lives togther with enviable skill. An unusual, unforgettable novel, a worthy successor to his previous effort, the gritty Green River Rising.
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For the confused:
Rating (4)
Date: 2001-01-31
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Just a quick point of information: Bloodstained Kings is Tim Willocks' third novel, with Green River Rising his second. The first is Bad City Blues and deals with the main characters in Bloodstained Kings i.e. Dr Grimes and Clarence Jefferson, and describes situations alluded to in Bloodstained Kings.You can get it at amazon.co.uk and personally, I would advise reading it before this, to save confusion. It is also a superb read, dealing with the same emotions and decisions that "strong men" have to struggle against as this book, and as a primer to Bloodstained Kings is excellent. On the other hand, it is perfectly possible to read Bloodstained Kings without having read Bad City Blues, and still thoroughly enjoy it. Go ahead, buy this book!!
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Fascinating most of the time
Rating (4)
Date: 2000-11-09
As others have said, not up to par with Green River, but still a fascinating page-turner with a literary edge. I'd love to read more from Willocks, but it looks like he's not going to be cranking them out too quickly.I, too, was a bit mystified by the sketchy explanations of the relationship between Grimes and Jefferson. But it didn't bother me. I like a book that lets me draw some of my own conclusions. I don't need to be spoonfed all the details.
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Question to those who have read it...
Rating  (3)
Date: 1999-06-24
What exactly happened between Cicero Grimes and Clarence Jefferson? SPOILERS AHEAD... It really isn't explained, I mean, Willocks writes that Jefferson tortured Grimes, but why? And the part where Grimes "kills" Jefferson, what was happening there? This is key part in the novel, and it is never really explained. Please email me if you have an answer... JMMPRODS@worldnet.att.net
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Read a Movie
Rating (3)
Date: 1999-06-22
The beginning was brooding and exciting. A guy is locked up in a bunker. The middle is long, and larely predictable, filled with backstory. The end is a long, action sequence. SPOILER UP AHEAD-- I have one question, if Filmore Faroe has been "dead" for 13 years, wouldn't everything be in Leanna's name? Filmore really wouldn't have any power. Once Leanna escaped, she could have struck back with all of her power and might but didn't. Kinda puzzling.
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