Blood Memory

By: Greg Iles

Narrated by: Joyce Bean

Length: 18 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

Catherine "Cat" Ferry is a forensic odontologist, a specialist in bite marks and the clues they provide. But while Cat's colleagues know her as a world-class scientist, she secretly attempts to manage her fragile psyche with alcohol, delving into the minds of rapists and murderers yet never allowing her own frightening past to creep into the foreground.

Cat's latest case involves a disturbing murder in New Orleans. Banishing her personal demons, she focuses on the potential killer, until one morning she's paralyzed by a panic attack at a grisly murder scene. Praying the attack is a onetime event, she continues her job as a consultant to the New Orleans Police Department, but when another victim dies in the same shocking way - raising fears that a serial killer is at large - Cat blacks out over the victim's mutilated corpse.

Suspended from the FBI task force, plagued by nightmares, and at odds with her married lover - a homicide detective - Cat finally reaches her breaking point. In a desperate effort to regain control over a life spiraling out of control, Cat retreats to her hometown of Natchez, Mississippi. But her family's secluded antebellum estate provides no sanctuary.

When some of Cat's forensic chemicals are spilled in her childhood bedroom, two bloody footprints are revealed. This sight shocks her more than any corpse she has seen in her career. Cat's father was murdered when she was eight years old, but she always believed the crime occurred in the garden outside their home. The bloody footprints suggest otherwise.

Driven by this fragment of her past, Cat attempts a forensic reconstruction of the decades-old crime, even as developments with the New Orleans task force pull her back into the case she left behind.

©2005 Greg Iles (P)2005 Brilliance Audio

Terrifyingly story based on real life trauma

A story that chills to the bone, made much more terrifying by the truth that exists behind it!

Great story and narration

The narrator is excellent in this story. Very engaging. The story itself moves at a good pace and easily keeps your interest.

Great from start to finish

Very well narrated, strong storyline. Managed not to be bored at any point in the story.

Hard subject but great book

What made the experience of listening to Blood Memory the most enjoyable?

This book drew me in and kept a pretty good pace. I liked the narrator.

First Greg Iles book I ever read....hooked!!

Greg Iles is easily my favorite author, his books everyone I've ever listened to takes you by the hand and pulls you into a world only he can create. completely immersed in every story leaving you wanting more. So amazing, and Blood Memory is the first book I ever read from Greg and I figured I would give it a listen to see if it was as captivating performed as it was in my head years ago. Did not disappoint! Can't wait for the next novel!

Constantly had me guessing

The book is great! Greg is so good at making you not be able to guess what is happening next. Most books I can guess before I get to the end who did it or what will happen. Not this book. Must read/listen.

Wealth, Incest, Murder in the American South

First, the good: an author that doesn't shy away from the dark thematic realism of our country. There are awesomely gritty elements to the protagonist's uncovering of her past that would make your more sheltered reader cringe. Personally, I didn't bat an eye at the abuse and incest elements, which are horrible but real parts of our world I'm familiar with - but the segregation and racism depicted in modern American are jaw-dropping. Even the idea that this story was told in our modern world, not in an alternate timeline, was so difficult for me, although I know the Southern US is very different when it comes to race relations, especially in rural areas. That said, the most difficult part of the experience was listening to the narrator's accent, which grated on me like nails on a chalkboard. I wouldn't have minded the southern accent in the dialogue since the characters were southern, but the narrator herself had the accent which I personally find unpleasant.

Awesome read

Loved this book. Lots of twists and turns. Not for the feint of heart. But u will not be able to put it down.

Fantastic!!

I loved it! So many different layers, so captivating. I enjoyed it immensely. Thank you.

So enthralled in story I left my car running!

I got so involved in listening to this book I got out of my car while listening and went off and left it running! I loved this book. Cat is a flawed woman who many of us will relate to. Though she lives with issues that could be crippling to some (alcoholic and bi-polar) she has incredible strength to live her life intelligently and with courage. Though the story line is a nail-biter the real lesson for me was that if we can honestly evaluate our own condition and fully understand how it affects our emotional responses and our situational reactions we can function in a positive and at times heroic way. One of the previous reviewers was critical of the reader, and I couldn't disagree more. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and the reading of it.