Red Hearts

What I think this book is really about is a man trying to hold his life together as it is coming apart around him. While cancer slowly destroys police lieutenant Dakota Blackwood's wife, a serial killer resurfaces after a two-year silence. Because he led the task force during the first investigation, he feels compelled to make up for his past failure. I thought the fact that he is an Apache Indian only made the story more enjoyable. Having to face the very real prospect that he might have to raise his two daughters without his wife, Dakota Blackwood, still feels a responsibility to the people of Albuquerque, despite the fact of the prejudicial undercurrents in the story. I loved the story's opening. I'm from Sacramento, CA where the original real life drama occurred that appears in the opening chapter. If you want to read something that deviates from the standard serial killer slasher yarn, read this one.

From Chapter 1 you are gripped by the action of this extraordinary thriller. Barlog sets up a cat and mouse with a serial killer and Dakota Blackwood, an Apache indian police lieutenant heading up the task force to catch the killer. As the tale unfolds you get a sense of the kind of pressure the police and FBI are under to hunt down these monsters. This story swirls inside your head as you move from one chapter to the next. I loved the ending. This book will keep you reading late into the night. It did for me.

I am a relatively new Barlog fan, and this is the best book of his that I have read so far. I plan to read more of his books.

J.M.Barlog has given us a love story within a gruesome tale of murder and mutilation. On leave of absence from the Albuquerque Police Department to care for his dying wife and two little girls,a homicide detective is horrified to learn that a serial killer has resurfaced after a two-year silence. Dakota Blackwood, the original investigating officer, was never able to solve the earlier murders. He is torn between the needs of his family and his desire to resume charge of the investigation. Barlog's writing weaves the pieces of the story together like the dreamcatchers Dakota made for his daughters. We share in the passions and fears of Dakota and his family, searching for a cure to the monster (cancer) that is destroying the body of his wife.Through Dakota's thoughts, we follow the search for another monster that is destroying the lives of innocent people. The tale bogs down slightly in the middle right before a second victim is discovered, but picks up intensity again. Though reference is continually made to the Apache heritage of the main character, the association to the book title was never fully expressed. (My opinion is that the "red hearts" mean those who love and support the Apache culture and understand Dakota's need to hunt the killer. I felt the reference to it by the wife was like a last minute attempt to explain the title,and didn't). The book was referred to me by another reader, and I was thrilled to have found a copy signed by the author. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I highly recommend it to anyone with a passion for murder and a penchant for the macabre. "Thanks, Jack! "

Dakota Blackwood , the character in this novel deserves a series and he is as good a character as John Sandford's Lucas Davenport and Michael Connelly's Harry Bosh. Fans of serial killer novels shoud rush for this one.