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Blood Whispers
Kaltrina Dervishi is a prostitute on the run from Serbian gang leader Fisnik Abazi. The police want her to give evidence against him: Abazi wants her dead. Only her lawyer, Keira Lynch, can keep that from happening.
What Keira doesn't realise is that this is a case with global repercussions and it's not long before the CIA come calling. If Kaltrina talks and Abazi is imprisoned, then certain information will come to light - information that men will go to any lengths to keep buried.
What they don't realise though is that Keira Lynch isn't your typical Glasgow lawyer. When she was eight years old she killed a man, and as they're about to find out, she's at her most dangerous when threatened.
What Keira doesn't realise is that this is a case with global repercussions and it's not long before the CIA come calling. If Kaltrina talks and Abazi is imprisoned, then certain information will come to light - information that men will go to any lengths to keep buried.
What they don't realise though is that Keira Lynch isn't your typical Glasgow lawyer. When she was eight years old she killed a man, and as they're about to find out, she's at her most dangerous when threatened.
- GenresThriller
Kindle Edition
First published June 3, 2014
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67 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
June 6, 2014
Blood Whispers – Its Bloody Good!
John Gordon Sinclair has always been to me an actor of some substance who was in Gregory’s Girl and Hot Metal in the 80s yes I am old enough to have watched and enjoyed both. As he has got old his Glasgow burr smoothed out a little and a jobbing actor and like most Brits an on call bad guy for Hollywood movies but I have now learnt that he is a novelist too. Blood Whispers has all the things an experienced crime thriller reader would expect of any novelist which it delivers in spades with the panache of a Glasgow kiss to finish it off!
Keira Lynch is a criminal defence lawyer in the City of Glasgow with a gaining reputation amongst the criminal fraternity as the best got to lawyer when the chips are down. She has been appointed the defence lawyer for Kaitrina Dervishi who has knocked out a CIA agent in a hotel where he was her client. At the same time the Serbians want to silence her so she cannot spill the beans on any aspect of their businesses or alliances.
There is an added problem in the mix of trying to keep her client alive and away from the Serbians the CIA have an interest in the case and in stirring the pot of misinformation. As the bodies are dropping all over Glasgow the drugs are flowing nobody knows what really is the truth but everybody wants Keira Lynch. She even becomes a target but nobody knows who’s target she is and who is telling the truth.
The one thing nobody realised is that Keira Lynch is a survivor with a very big secret of her own and she will kill if she has too if that is what is required to stay alive. Lynch is like a chess player always keeping things close to her chest and making sure she has planned all her moves ahead.
This is a fast paced and bloody thriller and that keeps the reader wanting more and rooting for Keira Lynch. The Serbians and CIA seem like strange bedfellows but neither could ever lie straight in bed when it comes to it. At times ending life seems so cheap and as anyone will tell you where drugs and prostitution are concerned life is cheap and there are always replacements available. This really is about the survival of the fittest but who has the intellect to dodge the incoming bullets all meant to be killers.
This is a great crime thriller well worth reading, well researched and the prose makes it so readable you could imagine John Gordon Sinclair’s burr reading to you. Do not dismiss this as another actor who is trying to write, because he can writer and has written a bloody good thriller. Blood Whispers is a book you just cannot put down and even gives you a sense of loss at the end. You are willing Lynch all the way through and really engages the reader and that alone is an excellent skill in any book. Read this book and you will not be disappointed.
John Gordon Sinclair has always been to me an actor of some substance who was in Gregory’s Girl and Hot Metal in the 80s yes I am old enough to have watched and enjoyed both. As he has got old his Glasgow burr smoothed out a little and a jobbing actor and like most Brits an on call bad guy for Hollywood movies but I have now learnt that he is a novelist too. Blood Whispers has all the things an experienced crime thriller reader would expect of any novelist which it delivers in spades with the panache of a Glasgow kiss to finish it off!
Keira Lynch is a criminal defence lawyer in the City of Glasgow with a gaining reputation amongst the criminal fraternity as the best got to lawyer when the chips are down. She has been appointed the defence lawyer for Kaitrina Dervishi who has knocked out a CIA agent in a hotel where he was her client. At the same time the Serbians want to silence her so she cannot spill the beans on any aspect of their businesses or alliances.
There is an added problem in the mix of trying to keep her client alive and away from the Serbians the CIA have an interest in the case and in stirring the pot of misinformation. As the bodies are dropping all over Glasgow the drugs are flowing nobody knows what really is the truth but everybody wants Keira Lynch. She even becomes a target but nobody knows who’s target she is and who is telling the truth.
The one thing nobody realised is that Keira Lynch is a survivor with a very big secret of her own and she will kill if she has too if that is what is required to stay alive. Lynch is like a chess player always keeping things close to her chest and making sure she has planned all her moves ahead.
This is a fast paced and bloody thriller and that keeps the reader wanting more and rooting for Keira Lynch. The Serbians and CIA seem like strange bedfellows but neither could ever lie straight in bed when it comes to it. At times ending life seems so cheap and as anyone will tell you where drugs and prostitution are concerned life is cheap and there are always replacements available. This really is about the survival of the fittest but who has the intellect to dodge the incoming bullets all meant to be killers.
This is a great crime thriller well worth reading, well researched and the prose makes it so readable you could imagine John Gordon Sinclair’s burr reading to you. Do not dismiss this as another actor who is trying to write, because he can writer and has written a bloody good thriller. Blood Whispers is a book you just cannot put down and even gives you a sense of loss at the end. You are willing Lynch all the way through and really engages the reader and that alone is an excellent skill in any book. Read this book and you will not be disappointed.
May 5, 2018
a good read.
June 29, 2014
Following his blistering crime debut Seventy Times Seven, actor John Gordon Sinclair returns to the crime fiction scene with his new thriller Blood Whispers. Delving into the murky world of Eastern European gangsters, CIA operatives, and one lawyer’s fight for justice for her client who is inextricably entangled with both, how does Sinclair’s difficult second novel fare?
At first the plot is straightforward enough with Glasgow lawyer Keira Lynch trying to protect her client Kaltrina Dervishi, a prostitute on the run from the Serbian gang leader Fisnik Abazi. Dervishi is the lynchpin in the prosecution’s evidence against Abazi, whilst Abazi simply wants Dervishi dead. What Keira doesn’t realise is that this is a case with global repercussions and soon the CIA comes calling. If Dervishi talks and Abazi is imprisoned, the Agency’s links with Abazi will be exposed, and this information must be protected at any cost.
So far so good in terms of plot, but then Sinclair does something annoying. In order to make his central character a tad more interesting, he gives Keira Lynch a background that’s a little too far fetched. It turns out she is living under an assumed identity having killed a man when she was eight years old. This is connected to her father’s involvement with the IRA. Hence, Keira becomes an intense, solitary one-woman justice-seeking missile who, with other aspects of the plot, stretches credibility.
Having attracted the dual attentions of the Serbian crime gang and the CIA’s crooked agents, her escape from various moments of peril are a bit contrived. Following the great pace and genuine excitement of the first third of the book, and even allowing for artistic license, some of the plot devices and the use of coincidences are irksome. The unconvincing plot is disappointing after the consistent thrills and spills in Sinclair’s debut novel. There are few surprises in terms of the ‘hunter versus hunted’ theme used in many previous thrillers and it doesn’t seem like there’s anything fresh here.
The characterisation of both Abazi and Keira is a little unconvincing too. However, I found some of the bit players much better defined. Kaltrina Derveshi, the escort at the centre of the criminal conspiracy, is incredibly empathetic, especially in the light of what befalls both her and her family in her role as stool pigeon. I also rather took to Jay-Go, the small-time criminal and addict who is Keira’s eyes on the street. A former client of hers, he’s hoping to pull off the drug deal of his life with the Serbs. He reminded me very much of Lonely from the classic series Callan, with his loyalty to Keira creating a similar oddball partnership, underlined by his unfailing optimism in achieving that one big score. I quite liked the understated role of the sinister Serbian hitman who shadows Keira’s every move. The dumb and dumber corrupt CIA agents do add a certain frisson to the plot, even if it does feel like it’s one conspiracy theory too far.
Overall, Blood Whispers is a mixed and ultimately disappointing read after Sinclair’s thoroughly enjoyable debut Seventy Times Seven. That difficult second book has perhaps unleashed its curse on him. Hopefully the author’s initial promise will be recaptured in his third novel, with a little less reliance on the familiar tropes of the thriller genre, and a more credible plotline.
At first the plot is straightforward enough with Glasgow lawyer Keira Lynch trying to protect her client Kaltrina Dervishi, a prostitute on the run from the Serbian gang leader Fisnik Abazi. Dervishi is the lynchpin in the prosecution’s evidence against Abazi, whilst Abazi simply wants Dervishi dead. What Keira doesn’t realise is that this is a case with global repercussions and soon the CIA comes calling. If Dervishi talks and Abazi is imprisoned, the Agency’s links with Abazi will be exposed, and this information must be protected at any cost.
So far so good in terms of plot, but then Sinclair does something annoying. In order to make his central character a tad more interesting, he gives Keira Lynch a background that’s a little too far fetched. It turns out she is living under an assumed identity having killed a man when she was eight years old. This is connected to her father’s involvement with the IRA. Hence, Keira becomes an intense, solitary one-woman justice-seeking missile who, with other aspects of the plot, stretches credibility.
Having attracted the dual attentions of the Serbian crime gang and the CIA’s crooked agents, her escape from various moments of peril are a bit contrived. Following the great pace and genuine excitement of the first third of the book, and even allowing for artistic license, some of the plot devices and the use of coincidences are irksome. The unconvincing plot is disappointing after the consistent thrills and spills in Sinclair’s debut novel. There are few surprises in terms of the ‘hunter versus hunted’ theme used in many previous thrillers and it doesn’t seem like there’s anything fresh here.
The characterisation of both Abazi and Keira is a little unconvincing too. However, I found some of the bit players much better defined. Kaltrina Derveshi, the escort at the centre of the criminal conspiracy, is incredibly empathetic, especially in the light of what befalls both her and her family in her role as stool pigeon. I also rather took to Jay-Go, the small-time criminal and addict who is Keira’s eyes on the street. A former client of hers, he’s hoping to pull off the drug deal of his life with the Serbs. He reminded me very much of Lonely from the classic series Callan, with his loyalty to Keira creating a similar oddball partnership, underlined by his unfailing optimism in achieving that one big score. I quite liked the understated role of the sinister Serbian hitman who shadows Keira’s every move. The dumb and dumber corrupt CIA agents do add a certain frisson to the plot, even if it does feel like it’s one conspiracy theory too far.
Overall, Blood Whispers is a mixed and ultimately disappointing read after Sinclair’s thoroughly enjoyable debut Seventy Times Seven. That difficult second book has perhaps unleashed its curse on him. Hopefully the author’s initial promise will be recaptured in his third novel, with a little less reliance on the familiar tropes of the thriller genre, and a more credible plotline.
September 2, 2017
Never read any of J.G. Sinclair's books but this was brilliant
December 13, 2019
Best novel I've read for a while. Interesting and fast paced with well drawn characters but who would have thought that the gawky school boy from Gregory's Girl would grow up to write such a good but sometimes brutal novel? Now really looking forward to reading his first book which is reputed to be even better than this one.
January 29, 2018
A good yarn of a book; enjoyed how it draws on mythology from various countries, though knocked off a star because of the inaccuracies of its confusion over which county Newry is in.
December 4, 2021
(3.5) wish il read this before I’d read the sequel!
May 18, 2016
This is a little gem! And it's all thanks to some lovely kind soul who saw fit to take it along to The Griffin pub in Leeds that I got to read it! TBC I'm proud to be part of, had a good'ol get-together a few months back, along with several of the brilliant authors who are a vital part of this prestigious group. Didn't see who popped it onto the table where books of all shapes sizes and genres were up for swaps, but my goodness, so glad I got it! It does exactly what it says on the back. 'Tingles your spine' - 'takes your breath', 'rivets you'. Truly it does. Still cannot believe the author is the once lanky gawky teenager desperately trying to win the heart of the young girl whose name escapes me, in Gregory's Girl - that classic film of the 70's. JGS, you are a very clever man!
September 11, 2014
The characters didn't always ring true, but this is still a fairly good thriller of its kind. Plenty of forward movement, twists and turns and a few surprises. Almost everybody gets shot at some point, including the heroine, who seems to be indestructible.
I don't think it does any more than it sets out to do, which is to provide a good read for a longish trip.
I don't think it does any more than it sets out to do, which is to provide a good read for a longish trip.
January 3, 2016
I enjoyed this - quite - insofar as it was entertaining but I don't have a clue what was going on, so convoluted the plot (when it wasn't taking mighty, unsignposted leaps) and so many the (sometimes twice-named) protagonists and so high the body count - nor do I know why in the first place. And not at all what, in the last.
November 25, 2015
The story is not really clear in some point! I think that the past of Keira could be more in-depth. Some aspects of the story remain obscure. However, I found brillant the description of the sentiments and the thoughts. Keira,the principal character, has a very well-done characterization.
September 25, 2015
Excellent novel, crime, suspense, has it all.
February 12, 2016
Occasionally I did get confused with the story, it didn't seem that well structured but overall I did actually enjoy it.
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May 24, 2016Really enjoyed this book.
He is an accomplished author & I can imagine his books getting better and better.
He is an accomplished author & I can imagine his books getting better and better.
February 26, 2015
Both of this authors books are dreadful.
September 29, 2015
Good yarn, page turner, usual "Why are you doing that?" bits that are part of the genre!
October 21, 2015
Fantastic book - really gripping. Definitely his better work!
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July 30, 2018intriguing book , Ull never know what to expect next....
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews