Blood Enemies

Jurisdiction Universe, Book 7

By: Susan R. Matthews

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki

A new entry in the legendary, critically acclaimed under jurisdiction series!

To end a genocidal menace, a retired torturer must again take up his hated trade.

Andrej Koscuisko is a former Fleet Medical Officer for the enormous totalitarian star empire, the Jurisdiction. But when he served in the Fleet, Andrej's real job was not medicine, at least not primarily medicine, but to act as a torturer of prisoners, whether they had information to give or not. To help him in his duties, Andrej was attended by "bond involuntaries" - slaves - men he'd come to look upon as friends and family. Finally, enough was enough. Andrej absconded with six of his Fleet-provided security slaves and sent them into the no-man's land of Gonebeyond Space - beyond the reach of the Jurisdiction's tyrannical Bench.

Now the Angel of Death, a savage terrorist organization from Andrej's system of origin, means to make Gonebeyond its own. But its ancestral enemy - the secret service of the Dolgorukij church, the Malcontent - has planted a double agent on the inside of the Angel of Death. Finally this interstellar menace might be destroyed forever.

But there is trouble. Andrej Koscuisko wasn't expected to escape from protective custody at Safehaven Medical Center and come looking for his freed bond involuntaries, and now the Malcontent faces Andrej's unplanned intervention at the worst possible time. Now the only way to save the mission and bring down an organization that has slain whole systems of men, women, and children is for Andrej to embrace the savagery in his own heart and once again take on the role of Judicial torturer - a role that he had fought long and hard to escape. He must deploy every dirty trick and brutal stratagem he knows against the Malcontent agent whose secret he has unwittingly betrayed.

©2017 Susan R. Matthews (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

Great narration

I really enjoy this narrator. As well I do love just how Matthews writes. I did feel that this book was slightly less complex, but still well done in the series. Definitely recommended if the reader has a stomach for such things. And no, it should not be read out of sequence. The building of horror and tension in the whole saga is what makes the book.

Blood Enemies by Matthews

This author and her stories never disappoint and this book is no exception. Matthews not only provides a wonderfully detailed world for her series but does a masterful job of creating deep and intriguing moral dilemmas for her flawed yet admirable characters to wrestle with. There are space battles, political intrigue, torture, redemption and the discovery of how true friendship can save a man’s soul. Rudnicki does a superb job of giving voice to all the various characters and conveying the emotional ups and downs as well as the excitement and controlled chaos of space battles. I highly recommend this book as well as the rest of the titles in the series.