BLOOD OF PARADISE
DAVID CORBETT
ISBN# 978-0-8129-7733-2
April 2007
Ballantine Books/The Random House Publishing Group
1745 Broadway, 18th Floor New York, NY 10019
Paperback
$9.95U.S./$12.95Can.
406 Pages
Contemporary-History
Rating: 4 Cups

Jude McManus put his training in the Army to work when he became executive protection for rich high level people and currently he was the bodyguard for a hydrologist, one Axel Odelberg, working in Playa Elzonte, El Salvador. Having witnessed his father’s shame at being arrested as a rogue cop when he was a teen, he was quite surprised when one of his father‘s old partner‘s contacted him out of the blue. Bill Malvasio had also been sought at the time his father had been indicted but he had fled to El Salvador before they could apprehend him and although suspicious of him, he also had a lot of questions that he needed answers to.   What would he Learn?

Bill Malvasio had made plenty of friends that would protect and help him while training the police force down in El Salvador. Having friends in low places worked out well while supplying him with jobs that kept him in money. The political climate in El Salvador was such that the disparity between the haves and the have-nots usually had many youngsters only too eager to work for little, while the government troops took to bullying the peasants at their whim. When he found out that his friend’s son was working in the country, he had wanted to speak with him and try to make amends. Reluctantly, Jude agreed to meet him and what he ultimately found out left him with more questions than answers. After talking with Jude, he realized that he had grown into a world wise traveler with little trust in virtual strangers and especially him.

After gaining Jude’s skeptical loyalty, Bill immediately decides to test that loyalty by asking him to return to the states for his father’s other partner in crime, Phil Strock under the guise of wanting to repay him with a job. Unbeknownst to Jude, Bill had discovered that Hector Torres had targeted Jude’s ward for elimination and Bill wanted to protect Jude. Jude,thought long and hard about Bill’s motivations in wanting his old partner down in this country with its storm ravaged cities and downtrodden civilians. Would he regret trusting Bill Malvasio?

Mr. David Corbett has written a chronicle of political intrigue and puppet governments riddled with dirty politicians and former revolutionaries. I was captured immediately by the many characters, shady and otherwise, making it quite a puzzle to figure out who to trust which made it impossible to put down. I loved it!

Kathy
Reviewer for Coffee Time Romance
Reviewer for Karen Find Out About New Books