Pigeon-Blood Red Book Review @duffythewriter

Pigeon-Blood Red. A term used to describe the most valuable and rare rubies with a depth of colour said to be the same as the first two drops of blood to come from a pigeon when it’s killed.

Pigeon-Blood Red by Ed Duncan

A rare and valuable ruby necklace is at the centre of this fast-paced, quick read heist based in Chicago and Honolulu. The first novel in Ed Duncan’s trilogy.

Pigeon-Blood Red has a strong cast of characters, but primarily we follow Rico as he wheels and deals, ducks and dives in the seedy underbelly of Chicago until he is sent to Honolulu on a job to retrieve a stolen ruby necklace at all costs, tying up loose ends along the way.

Evelyn and Paul have been unwittingly thrown into a deadly game of cat and mouse. They end up on the run from Rico, a seasoned gangster and hired gun who has been instructed to retrieve the priceless ruby necklace.  It has unwittingly fallen into the hands of Evelyn via her gambling, opportunist, estranged husband, Robert McDuffie. Rico has his own moral code of conduct. It is Rico alone who decides if you live or if you die. Which side of the coin do Evelyn and Paul’s lives sit?

What did I think?

Pigeon-Blood Red has lots of twists, and there is no lull in the story. In fact, from the first page, you are thrown in, and it took me a while to figure out who was who, as the characters were introduced in quick succession.  Once I got a grasp, I was locked in and followed the heist across Honolulu. Waikiki is my happy place, I’ve been there numerous times so really got into the story and pictured exactly which hotels and bars the characters wove in and out of; cruising down Kuhio Avenue, cutting through the International Marketplace and even sipping a cocktail at Dukes (I know that menu inside out!). Pigeon-Blood Red has an old school gangster vibe with classic characters; the hit man with a heart, an unforgiving crime boss, a charming gambler who rolled one dice too many and beautiful women with street smarts.

If you love a quick read cat and mouse suspense and love Waikiki, you will enjoy Pigeon-Blood Red.

Buy it here. Just under $5 on Kindle!

3 out of 5 stars, I look forward to the next installment.

The Book Jacket

For underworld enforcer Richard “Rico” Sanders, it seemed like an ordinary job. Retrieve his gangster boss’s priceless pigeon-blood red ruby necklace and teach the double-dealing cheat who stole it a lesson. A job like a hundred before it. But the chase quickly goes sideways and takes Rico from the mean streets of Chicago to sunny Honolulu, where the hardened hit man finds himself in uncharted territory when a couple of innocent bystanders are accidentally embroiled in the crime.

As Rico pursues his new targets, the hunter, and his prey develop an unlikely respect for one another and Rico is faced with a momentous decision: follow his orders to kill the couple whose courage and character have won his admiration, or refuse and endanger the life of the woman he loves?