And things are about to get worse. Much worse.

Cat is a forensic odontologist, a dentist whose specialty is identifying teeth and the damage made by teeth in crimes. There have recently been several middle-aged men murdered in New Orleans; each has been killed in the same way then bitten by the same set of teeth. Sean is a lead detective on the case, and the FBI has become involved in the hunt for the serial murderer. There are indications that these are sex crimes, but the men don’t fit the usual pattern of victims. A connection between two of the victims leads police to Dr. Nathan Malick, a psychiatrist. Malick treats patients who have repressed memories, memories so terrible that they’ve been repressed.

Malick asks to speak with Cat. He speaks of his work with the victims of sexual abuse during childhood then tells her that she shows signs of having repressed memories. Cat returns to her family home in Natchez, Mississippi. When she was eight, her father was killed; her grandfather Dr. William Kirkland told her that he was killed by an intruder. A chance accident reveals remnants of blood in her bedroom carpet – two footprints: one is a child’s footprint, the other a bootprint. Cat begins to suspect that her father was not killed outside as she’d been told but in her own bedroom.

This is another of those “something is rotten in the South” dysfunctional family plots. That territory is familiar to those who’ve read William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, and more recently Sandra Brown. The story begins with a barely civil veneer over events but by the end of the book the true depths of depravity and wickedness will be revealed.

The story unfolds through the eyes of narrator Cat Ferry who has enough problems for a busload of characters. As the terrors that shaped her are slowly disclosed, she is becomes more sympathetic–her self-destructive behavior is in reaction to her past.

Blood Memory is notable for its dark, threatening tone. From the first scene, the narrative is fraught with an ominous atmosphere, and there’s no comic relief in sight.

The plot has a few holes. Malick becomes a focus of the investigation with little foundation. FBI Special Agent John Kaiser seems poised to be a more important character then fades into the background. Cat herself becomes a suspect for not much reason. It is to be hoped that the police are putting more effort into the investigation than merely waiting for Cat to come up with the solution. The pacing is sometimes frenetic as Cat runs around trying to make sense of clues and her old nightmares, and she suffers from some symptoms of Gothic heroine syndrome – rushing into danger when a little caution is strongly indicated.

Nevertheless, this is a book that will appeal to readers who enjoy high intensity suspense novels. It’s a gripping tale that’s difficult to put down from the first page and is likely to be a favorite at the beach this summer. Blood Memory earns a strong recommendation.

--Lesley Dunlap