AVAILABLE NOW
“[U]nique in its approach and bracing in its execution, “A Blood Thing” bleeds terrific reading entertainment on every page.
—Providence Journal
“This dark, edgy tale touches a multitude of human emotions and is filled with sacrifice, loss, and terror. Hang on tight and remember to breathe."
—Steve Berry, New York Times bestselling author of The Bishop's Pawn and The Lost Order
“Two brothers put to the ultimate test. How far will they go to save a sibling they love, and at what cost? James Hankins's characters are perfectly imperfect, the dilemma they face increasingly intense, and the ending anything but certain for everyone involved in A Blood Thing."
—Robert Dugoni, #1 WSJ, Amazon, and NYT Bestselling Author of The
Tracy Crosswhite Series
“Both a family saga and a political thriller…This is James Patterson on steroids.”
—Charlie Donlea, USA Today bestselling author of The Girl Who Was Taken
“[A] meticulously plotted thriller.”
—Publishers Weekly
A Good Man In Ruins.
A Family Broken.
A Nightmare That Has
Only Just Begun.
AVAILABLE
NOW
A BLOOD THING
SUMMARY
Never trust a blackmailer.
Vermont’s promising young governor, Andrew Kane, is at another public meet-and-greet when a stranger from the crowd slips him a cell phone and whispers, “Keep this with you…keep it secret…you’re going to need it after the arrest.”
Hours later, Andrew’s brother, Tyler, is taken into custody—framed for the brutal murder of a young woman—and Andrew discovers there is only one way to free him: answer the mysterious phone and agree to a blackmailer’s demands.
All the governor has to do to make it all go away is compromise everything he stands for and grant a full pardon to a convicted felon. With no better option, he complies. Which is his first mistake…because the stranger isn’t through with him. He has another little condition. Then another. And another. And Andrew has no choice but to play along until he can find a way out of this personal and political nightmare. But he isn’t prepared for what he will face, or how far he will have to go to save his brother and keep his family together.
Tags: Political thriller, legal thriller, police thriller, blackmail, extortion, revenge, conspiracy, murder, crime, crime thriller, suspense, mystery, attorney, lawyer, governor, government, state government, Vermont, domestic suspense, family, legal, fiction, action #ABloodThing
Book Details
Pub Date: June 5, 2018
Formats:
-
e-book
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Hardcover
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Paperback
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Audio
ISBN-10: 1503950166
ISBN-13: 978-1503950160
ASIN: B0776SM7FH
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Language: English
A riveting new novel of suspense, extortion, and a conspiracy that will test the unbreakable bonds of one family—from the bestselling author of The Inside Dark, The Prettiest One, Shady Cross, Brothers and Bones, and more . . .
A BLOOD THING
“James Hankins’s A Blood Thing is the type of page-turner that you’ll want to tell everyone you know about as soon as you turn the final page.”
10 Thrillers That Will Keep You On The Edge Of Your Seat.
If you love enthralling mysteries, frightening criminals, and psychological thrills, then the titles gathered here belong on your bookshelf. These thrillers are full of surprising twists and turns that will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. This video was made with Ezvid Wikimaker. View Video
A video list of ten “edge of your seat” thrillers
(A BLOOD THING starts around the 3:34 mark).
Click on the image above to play the video.
PRAISE
#ABloodThing
—Providence Journal
A BLOOD THING
James Hankins’ chillingly effective “A Blood Thing” (Thomas & Mercer, $24.95, 455 pages) also makes use of New England settings, Vermont in this case.
Reminiscent of Harlan Coben for all the right reasons, Hankins’ latest treats us to classic noir that dredges up the genre staples of extortion and manipulation layered amid hero Andrew Kane’s quest for the light in the form of saving his brother from a murder charge. The descent he must first make deeper into the darkness takes him into a netherworld of ambiguous morality, posing the question of how far would you go to save someone you loved?
Unique in its approach and bracing in its execution, “A Blood Thing” bleeds terrific reading entertainment on every page. Read More
“A Blood Thing by James Hankins is a suspenseful thriller that puts a family on the edge of ruin and explores how far siblings will go to protect each other.”
“Just as I thought I could set the book down, another twist grabbed me and kept me reading on. I love it when a book makes me think about it long after I reach the end, and A Blood Thing certainly does that.”
“[T]his book is such a perfect craft that it may be his best novel yet."
—San Francisco Review of Books
“How far would YOU go to protect your family, your dearest loved ones?... Hankins provides a slightly new spin on this age-old question by adding in some political intrigue and corruption as well as some domestic suspense making for a tense read that had me hooked.”
—NovelGossip Blog
“A Blood Thing is an engrossing tale of family guilt and loyalty and features one of the most chilling psychos I’ve encountered recently.”
—Literati Literature Lovers Audiobook Version
"With great pacing, suspense and believable characters, A Blood Thing is a masterpiece of murder-mystery writing....”
—AuthorLink Writers & Readers Magazine
“A Blood Thing will keep you on the edge of your seat, as it plunges you into a world of family secrets, cold-blooded murder, and political maneuvering.”
—BrooklynFansofBooks Blog
10 Thrillers to Keep You on the Edge of Your Seat
10 Great Thrillers Where Family and Blood Ties Are Everything
By: Peiasantiago & Ezvid Wiki Editorial
If you love enthralling mysteries, frightening criminals, and psychological thrills, then the titles gathered here belong on your bookshelf. These thrillers are full of surprising twists and turns that will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. This video was made with Ezvid Wikimaker.
A video list of ten “edge of your seat” thrillers
(A BLOOD THING starts around the 3:34 mark).
Click on the image below to play the video. #8 Video.
My Book: The Movie
By: Marshal Zeringue
Here Hankins dreamcasts an adaptation of his new suspense novel, A Blood Thing:
A Blood Thing is a crime thriller about a powerful family targeted by a twisted, cunning blackmailer. The importance of family and the lengths to which we go to protect our loved ones is the central theme of the book, so if it were made into a movie, the casting of the actors who would play the family members would be critical to bringing that theme to life on the screen. Read More
CRIMINAL ELEMENT
Mysteries, Thrillers, and All Things Killer. . .
By: Debbie Maldrum
A Blood Thing by James Hankins is a suspenseful thriller that puts a family on the edge of ruin and explores how far siblings will go to protect each other.
A Blood Thing is about four siblings who would do anything for each other. The eldest brother is the governor of Vermont. The second brother works for the Vermont State Patrol. The only sister, Molly, served in the army. Tyler, Molly’s twin, is the sweetest 29-year-old man you could meet
CrimeReads
Crime Fiction and Family
10 Great Thrillers Where Family and Blood Ties Are Everything
By: JAMES HANKINS
Without a shred of evidence to back up this claim, I would venture to say that a great many crime novels—perhaps even the majority of them—contain at least some element of family, whether a family’s dramatic conflict plays a central role in the book, or whether, by contrast, family plays a smaller but still vital role in the story.
Read More
The Page 69 Test
By: Marshal Zeringue
"It’s fitting for purposes of this exercise that the blackmailer’s wall, so central to his plan and to the story itself, appears on page 69. It’s so important to A Blood Thing, in fact, that the cover of the book—on which appear words on paper, and photographs, and yarn, all held in place by thumbtacks—was designed to mimic the wall."
B O O K S
Click on covers for book descriptions, reviews, and buy links.