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"A tremendous work of psychological suspense"

Biographer Martin Nanther researches an ancestor, his great- grandfather who earned the family its peerage. The most interesting item Martin finds is a letter written by a daughter five decades after the death of his subject. The woman claimed that her father Henry did evil things. Following up on that intriguing memo, Martin discovers that much of Henry's life remains hidden in gray mystery. He learns that Henry, a physician of Queen Victoria, was considered an expert on hemophilia, and obtained peerage in 1896. Something changed inside Henry when his friend Richard Fox Hamilton died.

Henry kept a mistress for years and a relationship with an aristocrat that seemed heading to the altar, but tossed both out when he became engaged to Eleanor Henderson. When someone murdered his fiancee, Henry simply married her sister. Martin finds no solace as he begins to unravel the mystery of Henry, the engineer of a crime that hits so close to the biographer that his findings only substantiate the gene pool the two men share.

THE BLOOD DOCTOR is a tremendous work of psychological suspense that uses biographical fiction as a tool to tell two stories, one from the past and one from the present. Barbara Vine cleverly insures neither story line falters and both ultimately merge together into a strong tale that is part detective and part relationship drama. Fans of the sub-genre will fully relish this tale that shines a light on the darkest elements of the Nanther souls.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted July 2, 2002

When Martin Nanther, Hereditary Peer in the House of Lords, is choosing the subject of his next biography, he becomes intrigued by the life of his own great-grandfather, Henry Nanther. So grateful was Queen Victoria for Henry?s services as physician to the royal family that she granted him a peerage, making him a lord, the first doctor ever to be so honored. Henry had been especially attentive to hemophiliacs in the royal family, for he was obsessed with blood. As he recounted in his diary, ?Red is my favorite color. To me a splash of blood is beautiful, and I profoundly lack understanding of those who flinch or even faint at the sight of it.?

As his research deepens, Martin begins to uncover hints that his great-grandfather?s fascination with blood may have had its darker side. The murder of Henry?s fiancée, the death of his young son, the remarkable number of relatives and friends who died mysteriously?could all these have been mere coincidence? Martin scours England and America for relatives whose attics or memories might hold clues, until finally the tragic truth stands revealed.