Blood Work - Michael Connelly

Terry McCaleb is a medically retired FBI agent whose prior job hunting down serial killers in California somehow put too much of a strain on his heart. Following retirement and a heart transplant, Terry seeks to live on his boat, fix it up and then sail off into the sunset touring islands, or well something. But this is disrupted when the sister of the woman whose heart now resides in Terry's chest shows up and asks for his help in catching her sister's killer.

The details of Terry's investigation are interesting and his motivation is clear. Some of his actions are a bit bizarre but for the most part he follows along regular procedures to find the things the original police officers missed. Along the way he alienates his cardiologist and falls a little to conveniently in love with the sister (his heart's sister? too sappy). 

Finally when the killer is found, it's the killer's own motivations, having to do with an old grudge which don't really make sense. I liked how they figured out who the killer was, but the overall connection that is drawn is just a little too much (as is the final confrontation). 

Overall it was a good book to cleanse with after coming off some heavier stuff. This is a good pick for a beach bag or lake house. There is apparently a movie associated with this book starring Clint Eastwood that I'm interested in watching. I'll post an update with my thoughts on the movie adaptation. 

UPDATE: I've watched the Clint Eastwood flick. Interestingly in the acknowledgements to the book, Connelly thanks Eastwood for reading the book and giving him advice, so maybe Eastwood had this in mind from the very beginning. A couple things changed from the book, Graciela (the sister) is a waitress and not a nurse as in the book (this was a bigger plot point in the book but not necessary for the movie adaptation), the killer's catchphrase shifted from "take the cannoli" to "Happy Valentine's Day" which actually fit more into the motivations of the killer, and finally, well the killer was changed so that was kind of huge. It affected the entire ending. I can't say it was worse. Some elements were changed to be more ridiculous, and some of the changes actually were better than the book. So it's a mixed bag folks. Also, Clint Eastwood is too old for this romance stuff. Jeff Daniels was great though. Best character in the movie. 

2.5/5 Stars for this book.