CFBA: Pattern of Wounds by J. Mark Bertrand

Song Stuck on the Brain: The Light Within by Janice Kapp Perry

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing:





Pattern of Wounds

Bethany House (July 1, 2011)





by





J. Mark Bertrand


MY TAKE:

Pattern of Wounds is another sequel I've been (not so) patiently waiting for. J. Mark Bertrand truly impressed me with his first Roland March mystery. It was gritty, fresh and yet a little bit of a throw back to the original hardboiled kind of detectives of older novels. Spot on perfect blend.

He did it again. Pattern of Wounds is gripping, a real page turner for me. I was completely caught up in solving the crime, and yet found the forays into March's personal life and thoughts just as compelling.

With mystery/crime novels especially, I try not to discuss the plot too much because I hate it when someone gives away something good. I won't risk ruining a great read for you, I'll just stamp it with a big thumbs up approval. Oh, and be sure you have time to read, because once you start, you aren't going to want to be interrupted.




ABOUT THE BOOK:

It's Christmas in Houston, and homicide detective Roland March is on the hunt for a killer. A young woman's brutal stabbing in an affluent neighborhood bears all the hallmarks of a serial murder. The only problem is that March sent the murderer to prison ten years ago. Is it a copycat -- or did March convict the wrong man?

Alienated from his colleagues and with a growing rift in his marriage, March receives messages from the killer. The bodies pile up, the pressure builds, and the violence reaches too close to home. Up against an unfathomable evil, March struggles against the clock to understand the hidden message in the pattern of wounds.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Pattern of Wounds, go HERE.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

J. Mark Bertrand lived in Houston, where the series is set, for fifteen years, earning an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Houston. But after one hurricane too many he relocated with his wife Laurie to the plains of South Dakota. Mark has been arrested for a crime he didn't commit, was the foreman of one hung jury and served on another that acquitted Vinnie Jones of assault. In 1972, he won an honorable mention in a child modeling contest, but pursued writing instead.