A Trace of Blood

A Trace of Blood Available April 2010

Niamh Caton, and Tom Caton. Two people with a common ancestry, separated by an ocean. Each of them in a city named Manchester. Neither aware that the other exists, until a sequence of sudden and inexplicable deaths throws them together in a desperate race to catch a killer. It is fall in New Hampshire. Naimh buries Aunt Miriam; victim of a senseless hit and run. Now she is alone in the world. Three thousand miles away across the Big Pond, Detective Chief Inspector Tom Caton - on the verge of moving into a new apartment with his fiancée Kate, a Home Office forensic profiler - is surprised to learn that he and Naimh are cousins, albeit four times removed. He is drawn into her obsession to trace their ancestors, and search out living relatives. New members of the Caton clan are unearthed, and just as speedily dispatched. In County Kerry, Ireland, where the Caton dynasty began, in New Hampshire, and in England, Niamh and Tom find themselves in a race against time to find the motive that will lead them to the perpetrator before they become the killer's final victim and, quite literally, the end of the line.

From Publishers Weekly
Mystery, murder, and genealogy merge in this satisfying suspense novel that brings together the Old and New World.

ABNA Review
This excerpt has mystery, death of family & being left alone in the world. It is a time to be left alone and figure how what you really want to do with your life. I feel such compassion for the main character. I believe this is a book to read.

ABNA Review
I thought this one of the strongest entries I've read. The writing itself was smooth and coherent; the whole story read effortlessly.

From 10,000 entries, "A Trace of Blood" reached the SEMI FINAL [final 100] of the Amazon/Penguin BreakThrough Novel Award 2009.