Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

Tense chilling constant action a train accident a serial killer on the lose.This is a book that gets your adrenaline pumping you will race through the pages.The characters come alive jump off the page.An author to follow.#netgalley #amazonuk

Absolutely loved this book and Ziba's character. I actually read another in the series before this so it was nice to go back and be introduced to Ziba a bit more. Tense, action-packed and full of suspense. I'm a big fan of the author and the series and can't wait for more.

what a great introduction to ziba Mackenzie. Fast paced, full of intrigue whilst still taking the time to develop all the characters

3.5 rounded up. The writing itself was nice. It flowed well and I thought the construction of it all was well done.

The main character (Ziba) has an interesting backstory (dead husband and being an expert in serial killers/profiler) and she seems to be a keen observer of those around her. The book starts off fast, with a train accident and a haunting message from a dying woman. This message sends Ziba on a quest to determine what the woman meant. It coincides with a current serial killer patrolling London.

Ziba is a bit rough. She even admits she's not a "people person" but sometimes its a bit much because her interactions with others are strained and not enjoyable to read about. The first time she meets Fingerling for example--it's unprofessional all the way down. Her romance was better done but I didn't like Ziba that much so I didn't care about it overall.

I did like the mystery angle of the book, it was gruesome and surreal, I thought it was well-plotted. I think the best parts of the book were the hunt for the killer (and the why--yikes) as well as the writing voice. Pretty decent for a debut.

Blood for Blood is set in London and features Ziba MacDonald an ex Special Forces operative now working with the police. Ziba has known tragedy as her beloved husband has been murdered but her colleagues and his think its time she got back to work. The story starts with a train crash and Ziba's involvement in it. Enter The Lacerator so called because of the damage he inflicts on his victims. The action moves along at a good pace and Riba's experience and knowledge help develop the search for the killer until he fixates on her. I enjoyed reading this book but as the start of a series there was a good deal of backgrounding which slightly slowed the pace of the story. Good to see a female protagonist with a different skill set. I look forward to reading more in the series.

I had almost talked myself into not liking this book. I sometimes do that and in this instant I am so glad I didn't listen to myself.

This is the first in a new series about a profiler with ties to Scotland Yard. Surviving a horrible train accident motivates her back into the game after the murder of her beloved husband. It also sets her on a collision course with a serial killer from years ago who has been reawakened after the crash's trauma which holds a personal connection to him.

This book is not one of your top of the line thrillers, but believe me it will hold your interest all the way to the end and wanting more from this remarkable character. I certainly will be eagerly awaiting the next one.

Don't miss!

Book Review: Blood for Blood, Book 1, and Nothing to Lose, Book 2, Ziba Mackenzie Series, by Victoria Selman

Snap to, Mackenzie!

It's zero dark thirty. Enter Ex-Reconnaissance Regiment Special Forces Operator Ziba MacKenzie, now a consultant "offender profiler" freelancing for Scotland Yard, and specializing in solving serial killer crimes.

Both thrillers are set in London, with a healthy dose of multiculturalism; Ziba is a Persian name.

Book 1 shows signs of a debut author and begins a bit tight and contrived - a train crash where the protagonist haphazardly - and with rather too much of a coincidence, briefly gets acquainted with someone who turns out to be a key character in the plot.

"He did it. You have to tell someone." That someone on the train lives just long enough to pass on her cryptic message. The hunt for the "London Lacerator" is on.

(But what if Ziba missed her train?)

In Book 2, the story runs deeper. Not only does the protagonist have her hands full dealing with a serial killer (the "Primrose Hills Killer" / "Hillside Slasher"), she is confronted with the bane of her existence: the horrific assassination of her ex-Scotland Yard DCI husband.

The author finds her mojo - and pens a five-star gem!

She thrives in her element and showcases the depth of her research in actual serial killer cases, and as well a rather good command of suspect interrogation techniques and Special Forces tactics, mantras, - and timely SF /poker wisecracks.

"Train hard; fight easy!"

"A Smith and Wesson beats Four Aces."

Just the right tinge of humour to make the crime thriller a great deal of fun to read!

Review based on an advance reading copy provided by NetGalley, Amazon Publishing UK and Thomas & Mercer.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publishers and also Amazon for the ARC, which I have enjoyed reading.
This is a debut book, Blood for Blood by Victoria Selman, and I would look forward to reading more books about Ziba MacKenzie in the future. The storyline was interesting and the characters were also entertaining and I can see the main characters growing and developing in future books..
Highly recommended.

What a great read, a fab storyline with some great charecters a police procedul told well, can't wait for Zibas next story

Blood for Blood I
by Victoria Selman
I usually read 3-4 books a week. This book started like a best seller! Out of the gate at a very fast pace, the characters were filling out nicely, and I even felt that feeling that you have when you have great read on your hands. Then for me it started to drag on and on and got harder to move forward the characters were falling flat, and the storyline was getting very dull. It took me a week and a half to get through to the end.... I admit the last 50 pages I skimmed a bit. The main character was enjoyable, and I hope the next installment reaches its full potential.
IMHO

Thanks to NetGalley and Amazon UK for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Title: Blood For Blood

Series: Ziba MacKenie 1

Author: Victoria Selman

Pages: 319

Genre: Adult Thriller

Thomas & Mercer

February 1st 2019

Netgalley



Ziba Mackenzie profiles killers. Now one is profiling her.



Rush hour, London. A packed commuter train is torn apart in a collision. Picking through the carnage, ex-special forces profiler Ziba MacKenzie helps a dying woman who passes on a cryptic message: He did it. You have to tell someone.



When a corpse is found bearing the gruesome signature of a serial killer dormant for twenty-five years, Ziba is pulled into the hunt for the perpetrator. As the body count rises it becomes clear he’s on a new spree. But what’s brought the London Lacerator back after such a long hiatus? And does his sudden return have anything to do with the woman on the train?



Ziba scrambles to profile the killer in the hope of predicting his next move. But time is running out. And the closer she gets to uncovering his identity, the closer he gets to destroying hers.

My Thoughts
Rating: 5

Would I recommend it? yes

Will I read any thing else by this author: yes

Will I go on with this series: yes

Its dark and twisted to the point that once you start to read it you don't want to stop , it does deal with some dark and heavy stuff so that might a wronging to some people , the killer is creepy and terrifying at the same time, and as you reading the story , it keeps you guessing from the start , you have no idea who the killer is ,or if his someone that knows Ziba and is close to her . And the more Ziba looks into the old woman's words 'he did it' , truths start to come out , with that said I want to thank Netgalley for letting me read it exchange for my honest opinion

I love serial killers. And I especially love TV shows about serials killers. And one of my favorite serial killer shows to watch is Criminal Minds - and this book read exactly like an episode from that TV series including inspirational quotes, trivia about other serial killers, and language that was very similar to what I’ve heard during the show.

Now, barring those eerie similarities, Blood for Blood starts out with a literal bang as a subway train explodes on the London Underground. I was excited to read more, only to have the plot descend into a messy cat-and-mouse chase between profiler Ziba Mackenzie and a serial killer haunting London streets.

The plot was fine, but the chapters from the killers POV were quick to show how incorrect Ziba’s profile of him was which was frustrating. The motivation behind the killings was a tried and true tragic tale and the big plot-twist was one I didn’t actually see coming.

There’s an odd romance sub-plot between Ziba and her deceased husbands' best friend that I could have done without, and while I really want to like Ziba, I wish she had more of a personality for me to get behind.

I think with a bit of editing, and the removal of the romantic sub-plot, Blood for Blood has the potential to be a really intriguing mystery-thriller. Ziba had so much potential, and I’d really like to see her character developed a little more.

Blood for Blood by Victoria Selman is an incredibly deep, gripping, intelligent and grotesque serial killer thriller. With a likeable, yet non-typical female main character, Selman took me on a thrilling journey which has taught me a lot about special forces and many elements of criminal profiling. Blood for Blood by Victoria Selman is out now from Thomas & Mercer.

Warning: Don't start reading this book on a tube. Themes of child sexual abuse and descriptions of mutilation.

The story
Ziba MacKenzie is a special forces trained criminal profiler with an intriguing history. Widowed, yet still open to romance, while being an absolute bad-ass at her job and being respectful of others, she is the perfect character to track down a serial killer who has been dormant for 25 years. Following a traumatic incident on a tube, Ziba is called back into her role with the special forces, specifically to help hunt a serial killer who has struck once more after more than two decades of not killing. In the process, she learns all about the ways religion can factor into psychopathic murder and will find this criminal profile a tough one to crack.
Why I loved this book...
It's a serial killer thriller told from a slightly alternative angle; what's not to love?! But seriously, the first chapter of this novel is so striking and puts you right in the action. Slowing down to provide some background on the two main characters, Ziba and our serial killer, Raguel, the novel steadies its pace yet retains it's gripping quality. Selman has vast knowledge of special forces, or at least she sounds like she does, and I ultimately loved her references back to technical elements of the role and much of the profiling which isn't shown as much in entertainment.
She also references many previous real murderers which was incredibly interesting for me, as I am dipping my toe into true crime and this felt like a crib sheet of the ones I should be aware of. These references furthered the novel a lot in my opinion, as Ziba uses them to bounce ideas around in her own head, and I thoroughly enjoyed her monologues when figuring out the profile, as this is very much how we all go about figuring out a mystery and made her accessible. I also liked the characterisation of the men in the novel, but felt that there could have been a wider spread female presence, which was felt when she was helping women in the tube, but fizzled thereafter.
Overall, this is a 5* thriller. The pacing is incredible, the opening absolutely shocking and the following murders carry on the murderous ambience of the novel. I would love to see Ziba with Duncan in a future book, however, as I feel that they would bounce ideas off each other and work hand-in-hand where she now works alone, and I'd like to feel that connection. I would recommend this to strong-stomached lovers of serial killer thrillers, police procedurals and true crime. If you enjoyed Steve Cavanagh's Twisted, you'll love this. Thank you, Victoria Selman for offering the Net Galley of this incredible book at The Flower Girls event. I can't wait to read the next in the series!

Ziba Mackenzie, ex Special Forces, turned criminal profiler, is used to working with the Police to help solve murder cases, but it seems a criminal is taking very specific interest in her!
I thought this was slow and steady to start, however still readable...and worth the wait as the pace picks up and stays strong until the end! ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Summary:

For Ziba Mackenzie, it was regular everyday commuter train journey. And in a fraction of second, there is a huge jolt. Smoke in the trains makes the air unbreathable. There’s a train collision. Being an ex-special forces Ziba Mackenzie’s instinct was to help the people around in chaos. That’s when she met the lady whose dying words were “He did it. You have to tell someone”.

The mysterious message was still in her head when she received an urgent call from the Scotland Yard. They were trying to nab a dormant serial killer who’s now active. Ziba has been trained profiler specializing in serial killers. That’s why she is brought in for consulting. But Ziba is fairly consumed, with the nagging feeling of the strange message left by the train women. As a profiler, Ziba is duty bound to determine the identity of the serial killer but she thinks it’s important to work out the dying women’s wish too. Will she be able to figure out both the cases or will she fail?


My take on the book

I love reading crime fiction. It’s somewhat my weakness in books. But I am often put off with the novels where it gets messed up at the end.

The storyline was an attention grabber from the get-go. It is written from Ziba’s perspective. Every thrill and the suspense were right on pace (it wasn’t too slow or too fast you assume you are reading Hollywood movie script).

I love the way the writer builds up Ziba Mackenzie. The author provides subtle hints involving Ziba which converges with her character later in the narrative. As the plot expands further, the author introduces the other characters and the depth of each role progresses. Though, there are some instances in the book where I hated Ziba for being stupid because of her stubbornness. But then again, I could sense the personality is so well developed that I could connect with her at that level.

As a debut novel, the author has done an admirable job with the narrative and the storyline.

I hope to read the next in series for Ziba Mackenzie.

Thanks, NetGalley for approving the advanced copy of the book request.

I didn't really get into this one. I only made it a third of the way through before giving up. The story didn't grab my attention and the characters were flat.

‘Blood For Blood’ is Victoria Selman’s debut novel and it was originally released in 2017. I read the synopsis for ‘Blood For Blood’ and it appealed to me in so many ways. I absolutely love the psychological aspect of stories and I particularly loved the fact that a profiler was the main character. I couldn’t wait to start reading. I absolutely loved ‘Blood For Blood’ but more about that in a bit.
I absolutely loved the character of Ziba MacKenzie and I took to her from the start. In fact I ended up being quite envious of her because she has the role that I would have loved- that of a criminal profiler. Ziba is one tough cookie but then she has had to be. She was formerly in the Special Forces and worked as a profiler. She may have left the service but the service hasn’t left her. She is on a packed commuter train when the train is involved in an accident. Immediately Ziba’s training kicks in and without a thought for her own personal safety, she dives straight in and does what she can for the injured. Ziba tends to an elderly lady, who says something to her that doesn’t initially make any sense whatsoever. However, like a dog with a bone Ziba doesn’t give up and she starts to investigate. Ziba is open and honest but she is also a tough nut with a vulnerable side underneath her outer shell if that makes sense? Ziba is called into assist with the investigation of the murder, which bears all the hallmarks of being the work of the London Lacerator, who has been ‘dormant’ for about 25 years. Who is the London Lacerator and why has he or she been dormant for 25 years? Is the London Lacerator in any way connected with the elderly woman on the train? Well for the answers to those questions and more you are just going to have to read the book for yourselves to find out as I am not going to tell you.
OMG ‘Blood For Blood’ has to be one of the best books that I have had the pleasure of reading and reviewing in a long, long time. I think that the fact that the main character has the sort of job that I would love just made the book even more appealing to me. I was right there with Ziba the whole way through the story. I was hooked on this book from the first word onwards and I became addicted to read it. I even found that I was making excuses as to why I couldn’t put the book down because I just wanted to continue reading. Fortunately we had snow on the ground and as I didn’t want to fall on my bottom, potentially making my back even worse, I didn’t leave the house. I seemed to charge through the book but I didn’t realise just how quickly I was reading until I looked up and discovered that I had read 40% of the book. I was so focused on the story, the characters and the profiler angle that I lost all track of time. It took me less than a day to read ‘Blood For Blood’, which is very good for me.
For me, ‘Blood For Blood’ is superbly written. The author grabs your attention from the start of the book and keeps you interested all the way through the book. The story certainly starts with a bang (pardon the pun) and in such a way that will ensure that the book stays fresh in my mind for a very long time to come. The characters are so well described that they seemed to spring to life as it were and jump off the page. By the time I had finished reading, I felt like Ziba was a very good friend. I know ‘Blood For Blood’ is fictional but if I am really enjoying a book, I tend to immerse myself in it and I tend to ‘live’ the story as if it were real.
Reading this book was much like being on a scary and unpredictable rollercoaster ride with more twists and turns than you would find on a ‘Snakes & Ladders’ board. There were almost times when I had to read through my fingers because I feared what was going to happen next. The beginning of the book certainly brought back memories for me. Fortunately I haven’t been on a train that has hit fuel tanker carriages but I have been on a train that: has hit a car that was pushed onto the railway line, has been shot at, has hit a concrete post that was on the line, has hit cows and has had their front windscreen smashed by somebody dropping concrete through the driver’s cab window. So the moral of the tale is if you see me at a train station don’t get on the same train as me!!!
In short, I blooming well adored reading ‘Blood For Blood’. For me ‘Blood For Blood’ is one of those brilliantly written, fast paced, gripping reads that only come along once every so often. I can’t wait to read what Victoria Selman comes up with next. Fortunately I don’t have long to wait because the second book in the Ziba MacKenzie series called ‘Nothing To Lose’ is due for release on 26th March 2019. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board for ‘Blood For Blood’ just has to be 5* out of 5*.

Thank you NetGalley and Amazon Publishing / Thomas & Mercer for this arc.

I must say I'm baffled by all the good reviews this has received. I found it to be the usual serial killer hunt & "trap" read with rather erratic pacing and very little "tension". Maybe it's because there were too many "suspects" / dead-ends. But it was the dichotomous mess of Ziba Mac that just kept hitting the sour note for me. She turns from the wobbly, weepy widow woman into the EMT trained heroine performing triage in the middle of a massive train wreck and explosive fire in the blink of an eye. She's this super-trained ex-Special Forces operative knowledgeable of tracking & hunting and psychological profiling and body language expert, yet lacks basic empathy in dealing with her colleagues and friends. The author has certainly done her research into serial killers and has Ziba citing the odd details whenever she can, as further proof of her expertise. That dissonance along with Ziba's precocious arrogance and cockiness just took the book from an okay read to a poor to bad one for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK for providing me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

While talking to a friend about the premise, I described it as the perfect cocktail of Sherlock Holmes, meets James Patterson, meets Paula Hawkins, and I can't think of any other way to put it. This book wastes no time getting into the thick of it and that is definitely something that I appreciate. Ziba Mackenzie, a widowed criminal profiler, is on a train on the way to meet a friend when the train she is on collides with a derailed train and devastation transpires. In the midst of chaos, destruction, and death, Ziba maintains her composure (thanks to her professional training) and tends to the wounded. One of the victims, a woman wearing a cross necklace Ziba had noticed earlier, whispers a cryptic message and it's the last words she will ever speak: "He did it. You have to tell someone".

Shortly after, Ziba is called on by the local police to help solve a series of murders that span over 25 years by a serial killer known as "The Lacerator" who struck again. The timing is too coincidental to ignore. Are the two related? And who is the "he" the woman on the train was talking about?

After reading Victoria Selman's "Blood for Blood", it is easy to see why it was shortlisted so quickly, I read this book in less than 24 hours! "Blood for Blood" was thrilling, hair-raising, twisted, and written with such detail and imagery, it was truly an amazing book. The thing that stood out for me the most (aside from the short chapters) was the way Selman was able to get certain details about the characters across and guiding readers to conclusion instead of just writing what she wanted you to know. For example, she writes "He holds his hands under the flow. Counts to seven. Turns them over. Counts to seven. Turns them over. Counts to seven. Again and again until each side has been rinsed for seven seconds, seven times. Everything will fall apart if he doesn't." Readers can conclude that this character is obsessive-compulsive and that the number seven (7) bears some sort of significance. I appreciate this implicit style of writing more than if she just told readers that this character suffers from OCD.

This is a true page-turner and I am really looking forward to the second book in this series due to be published only a month after this one. If you're looking for a thrilling page-turner to read on vacation or at the beach, this is definitely your read.