Blood in the Past by Jordanna East

For all of you waiting…it’s Wednesday!  For those of you not in the know, today is my review and Jordanna’s favorite excerpt for Blood in the Past and a contest to win a signed book by Jordanna East! For contest instructions, keep reading…

First off, Blood in the Past was ranked #5 on Amazon’s list of serial killers. Read her book, and you’ll see why.

Blood in the Past – An Excerpt

Lyla eased her car to a stop a few blocks away from his house. A low-hanging branch scraped the roof. Lyla cringed at the sound, almost as if it were begging Lyla to return her foot to the gas pedal. But she did not. She parked, drew 10 ccs of succinylcholine into the syringe, and slithered out of the car into the wet night. She hurried to her destination in a half-crouch, trying to blend into the darkness of the asphalt.

She sneaked around the back of her father’s house through the shadows of the maple trees. They still clutched their leaves in denial of the approaching autumn. Every now and again, the rain would tear a leaf from its branch and the fluttering shadow would frighten Lyla. But instead of cursing the rain, she thanked it. It softened the ground, cushioned her footfalls, and tethered the neighbors to their couches. Few, if any, people would witness her arrival.

Searching for signs of life in his house and finding only the soft flickering of a TV in the living room, Lyla entered through the back door. Despite burying his wife hours earlier, her father had gone on a date that night. She’d overheard him bragging about it to a group of his colleagues at the funeral. A few were impressed by his gall, but most were repulsed.

However loathsome Lyla found it, she’d learned from her mother that, following a date night, her father would drunkenly pass out on the couch, which was good for Lyla, logistically. She imagined his stench: sex and a perfume so cheap the woman probably purchased it at the cosmetics counter of the nearest drug store. For a second, she marveled at how he at least had the decency not to bring the girls to the house where his wife—her mother, for God’s sake—had lost her life.

She knew the bristles of the doormat made a scritch–scritch noise, so Lyla bent each leg and thoroughly and silently dried the soles of her sneakers on her pants’ legs. Without squeaking, wet shoes, she tiptoed down to the basement, pausing to grab a candle from the emergency kit at the top of the stairs. The old house’s circuit breakers were notoriously fickle, so she switched off the main breaker, drowning the house in complete darkness. Lyla paused in the spot where she’d overheard her aunt’s suspicions only days earlier. With her ear toward the ceiling, she strained to hear any indication of her father’s stirring over the din of rain pelting the house. She heard nothing, so she removed the hypodermic needle from her over-sized bag, almost piercing herself as she fumbled for it.

“Here I come, Daddy,” she said in a singsong whisper, creeping back up the stairs.

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Isn’t that excerpt spine-tingling? Gah…what does she do next? Buy the book to find out! As of today, Blood in the Past is also in print! Check out Jordanna’s site for instructions on how to buy!

Now, my review…

Blood in the Past is a prequel novella introducing us to three people—Jillian, Lyla, and Jason—along with the people in their lives. It examines how Jillian’s involvement with a married man breaks down into vines that snake around and forever change the lives of others, actually driving one person, Lyla, into a state of murderous, vengeful psychosis.

Ten years ago…

Jillian Atford falls for an older man, a handsome Philadelphia cop, whose mystery is that he’s married, a reality Jillian refuses to accept. Lyla Kyle finds her mother dead on the floor from an apparent suicide. She blames her philandering father and wastes no time taking her revenge. Detective Jason Brighthouse Sr. is in the wrong place at the right time to attempt to save a colleague from his burning home. When neither of them make it out alive, his son can only harp on their last argument. He shoots himself in the head…with his father’s gun.

Three lives. Three deaths. One story of consequences, revenge and obsession.

To understand the future, you must visit the past. Blood in the Past: an introductory novella to the upcoming Blood for Blood Series, coming Winter 2013.

Blood in the Past is a well-written debut by Jordanna East. It’s fast-paced and gets right into the heart of the story early on, and the ending leaves you reeling…wanting more, discovering just how psychotic and sociopathic Lyla is. Even though this is a novella, it gives us just enough insight into who the characters are and what their individual motivations are for the upcoming series. In some aspects, it would be nice to have the story fleshed out more, but then it wouldn’t be a novella and it would be harder to go from this story and leap ten years into the future for the next.

There are parts that jump a few months into the future, but again, it is a novella. The chapters show each character’s point of view, so it does go back and forth in time—again, to show the different viewpoints. Even so, it is fairly easy to follow.

The beauty of this novella is that Jordanna makes you feel Jillian’s desperation, Lyla’s hatred, and Jason’s desire to be more through a combination of action, dialogue, and introspection rather than all narration. I can’t wait for the upcoming series.

To enter the contest to win a signed book by Jordanna, check out Jordanna’s blog about her upcoming Blood for Blood series and her serial novel The Word and The Way, follow her blog, and then hop back on over here, like this page and follow my blog, and leave a comment about why you want to read Jordanna’s book and upcoming series! That’s it!

Good luck!

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