A classic Goddard thriller, Blood Count's hero is liver transplant surgeon Edward Hammond whose guilty secret is that he treated a Serbian war criminal. When this past catches up with him (as the past always does in Goddard's books) he is blackmailed to criss-cross Europe in the company of a rather appealing dodgy accountant and the warlord's ex-mistress. Showing a surprising facility in evading assassination and killing bad guys, Dr Hammond (should he really keep insisting on the 'doctor' if he is a surgeon; they like to be called plain mister) is repeatedly led up garden paths. No-one is whom they seem and he is duped time and time again. He has to trust someone but he doggedly insists on trusting the wrong people and never once thinks of insurance. Once in possession of the evidence he fails to copy it and gives it away. Once in possession of millions of pounds he transfers every last penny to the account number he has been given. Even at the end he flies half way around the world on the strength of a text message.
Classic Goddard but not his best; the characters are weak and the formula is beginning to show.
January 2012; 459 pages
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