Rush of Blood
A Novel
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3.9 • 8 Ratings
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- $25.99
Publisher Description
Perfect strangers. A perfect vacation. The perfect murder. . . . “Hugely effective and entertaining [with] many twists and shocks” (TheTimes, London).
Three British couples meet around the pool on their Florida holiday and become fast friends. But on Easter Sunday, the last day of their vacation, tragedy strikes: The fourteen-year-old daughter of an American vacationer goes missing, and her body is later found floating in the mangroves.
When the shocked couples return home to the United Kingdom, they remain in contact, and over the course of three increasingly fraught dinner parties they come to know one another better. But they don’t always like what they find. Buried beneath these apparently normal exteriors are some unusual kinks and unpleasant vices. Then, a second girl goes missing, in Kent—not far from where the couples live. Could it be that one of these six has a secret far darker than anybody can imagine?
Ambitiously plotted and laced with dark humor, Rush of Blood is a “sizzling thriller” by the international bestselling author of the Tom Thorne Novels (The Globe and Mail, Toronto).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Three British couples meet by chance during a vacation in Sarasota, Fla., in this intricate psychological thriller from Billingham (Die of Shame). They share fruity drinks and promise to keep in touch after their holiday, the kind of promises reminiscent of summer camp that never really pan out. Their vacation takes a dark turn when a mentally challenged 14-year-old, Amber-Marie Wilson, wanders away from the resort and vanishes. Back in England, somewhat awkward dinner parties ensue, with each couple hosting the others and the topic inevitably returning to Florida. When another girl with similar attributes goes missing in Kent, police on both sides of the Atlantic take notice and start paying much closer attention to this seemingly harmless group of people, one or more of whom is harboring something unpleasant. Billingham does a clever job shifting the setting from his usual turf, even if the tension isn't always ratcheted as high as it could be, and his characters aren't fully realized as usual.
