In the Blood

By: Ruth Mancini

Narrated by: Kelly Adams

Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

In southeast London, a young mother has been accused of an unthinkable crime: poisoning her own child - and then leaving him to die. The mother, Ellie, is secretive and challenging - she's had a troubled upbringing - but does that mean she's capable of murder?

Balancing the case with raising her disabled five-year-old son, criminal defence lawyer Sarah Kellerman sets out in desperate pursuit of the truth. But when her own child becomes unwell, Sarah realises she's been drawn into a dangerous game.

Unsettling and compulsive, In the Blood is a chilling study of class, motherhood and power from a new star in crime fiction.

©2018 Ruth Mancini (P)2018 W.F. Howes Ltd

Fantastic! A unicorn of a book...

That one book you need when you have genre fatigue. The narration is stellar... i could find no flaws in this book. No major plot holes or leaps of logic i had to ignore. It starts strong and stays strong. It's about a mother with a profoundly disabled son. She is a lawyer although i guess she would be a solicitor since the book takes place in England.
Her work is demanding and she has no family no husband to gali her. My heart went out to her trying to navigate her career and be there for her son's needs.
She gets a case of a young woman accused of almost killing get baby with salt poisoning.
She takes the case and through her days of dealing with obstructive people who refuse to talk to her and a demanding boss wanting more billable hours were feel her exhaustion. She is easy to empathize with especially for those of us who are mothers.
She meets " the perfect man " who loves her child, is kind to her, and it seems like at least her personal life will be looking up.
That's all i can tell because this book is not a psychological thriller but there is twist which is just the cherry on top of a great read.
Hope you enjoy as much as I did.
I also read "woman on the ledge" it was also great. Looking forward to reading more from this author who by the way is a solicitor in real life.
Thank you for reading.

Excellent legal suspense thriller

This is a great story and the narration was impeccable. It really added to the overall feeling of immersing oneself in a wonderful novel. The plot was interesting and I was drawn in from the very beginning. The ending was very satisfying but it felt like there were a lot of close calls, closed doors, and then ingenious legal work by our protagonist Sarah Kellerman. This is the first in a series and I look forward to devouring the rest of Mancini’s excellent work. Highly recommended!

Name-dropping author...

I've only just begin this book and hope I won't be disappointed: In one of the first few chapters the author uses the brand-name of a very expensive UK baby stroller (push chair)—Maclaren Major ($300 - $400 for most models) approx 6 times in rapid succession. I wanted to scream - "We get it!!
Authors, please don't beat us over the head with your 'IN-ness'!
It's enough to given the name once - to demonstrate that you know the name of expensive/exclusive consumer goods - and thereafter refer to it (after that ONE instance) as the generic name for the item.

Sloppy

This was a big disappointment as it had been well reviewed on Amazon. However I found the badly written, sloppy prose and the whiny tone of the book deeply irritating and I soon gave up the fight, the reading was also bad. The narrator slipped from Posh to a northern accent mid sentence and was clearly trying too hard to establish any fluency. I would call this bad chick lit rather than thriller. I will return the book.