Bloodfire

Fred Carver #5

by John Lutz

When a nervous husband asks him to track down his heroin addict wife, Fred Carver learns that not every client can be trusted When he meets Bob Ghostly, it’s hardly the first time that Fred Carver has been asked to find a missing spouse. But Ghostly’s tale about a beautiful woman who fled for no apparent reason doesn’t quite convince Carver, who presses for more detail. Finally Ghostly admits it. His wife was beautiful, intelligent, and kind, but she was also a heroin addict. She fled their Florida home with half their savings—nearly $10,000—and he’s afraid she’s going to put it straight into her veins. Carver goes looking for the troubled young bride, but when she shows up on her own—terrified and looking for protection—a routine case becomes one that could prove lethal for the well-meaning PI. This ebook features an illustrated biography of John Lutz including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection. Bloodfire is the 5th book in the Fred Carver Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Genres: Mystery, Mystery Thriller, Detective

230 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

John Lutz has captivated suspense enthusiasts for over four decades. He has been one of the premier voices in contemporary hard-boiled fiction. His work includes political suspense, private eye novels, urban suspense, humor, occult, crime caper, police procedural, espionage, historical, futuristic, amateur detective, thriller; virtually every mystery sub-genre. John Lutz published his first short story in 1966 in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and has been publishing regularly ever since. He is the author of more than fifty novels and 250 short stories and articles.

His novels and short fiction have been translated into virtually every language and adapted for almost every medium. He is a past president of both Mystery Writers of America and Private Eye Writers of America. Among his awards are the MWA Edgar, the PWA Shamus, The Trophee 813 Award for best mystery short story collection translated into the French language, the PWA Life Achievement Award, and the Short Mystery Fiction Society's Golden Derringer Lifetime Achievement Award.

He is the author of two private eye series, the Nudger series, set in his home town of St. Louis, and the Carver series, set in Florida, as well as many non-series suspense novels. His SWF SEEKS SAME was made into the hit movie SINGLE WHITE FEMALE, starring Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh, and his novel THE EX was made into the HBO original movie of the same title, for which he co-authored the screenplay.

Lutz and his wife, Barbara, split their time between St. Louis and Sarasota, Florida.

Reviews

[Mim-Is-Reading · Rating 1 out of 5]

Book 5, and I can’t get past the number of reprehensible characters in a single book! I also didn't think Carver was the stand-up guy he had been in the first book.

[Magpie67 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Character Fred Carver was a likable guy for starting at book 5. Yes, I was duped when I picked it up at the library and the bind of the book said book 1. Oh well, I think I will go backwards to book one and see if I want to continue this series or not. The story itself was pretty good for a drug lord/DEA situation. I just saw some holes in the game plan and I think too many other characters were added at mid-term. Plus, there seemed to be too many dirty characters to be credible.

[Eliana]

Keeps you hooked til the very end every time. P.I. thriller/mystery.

[Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carver was hired to find a missing wife, turned out the wife was trying to get away from a drug dealer.

[Mikebee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Solid, excellent characters, nice unpredictable plot. Taps a veil of loss, and explores relationships. A worthy match to Robert Parker's work.