Product Description
Dr. Andrew Carpenter is a pediatric cardiologist and a researcher, whose most promising work involves using embryonic stem cells to repair heart damage in infants. He's been receiving threatening messages from the `Party of God', a fundamentalist group militantly opposed to such `Godless labors'--and now he's dead, killed in a hit-and-run on the streets of Manhattan. His devastated wife is sure it was murder, but the police think it was an accident.

Enter private eye Nathaniel Singer, a detective with a literary bent and a penchant for honesty. While once Singer dreamed of being a poet, he has discovered that his true calling is the art of saving lives. He soon finds out that the Party of God were not the only enemies Dr. Carpenter had, as the list of suspects grows to include jealous colleagues and a brutal cop who insists that Singer drop the case...

An Irving Howe with an uppercut, this literate, funny detective takes his place within the great tradition of the PI novel--a worthy successor to Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe and Robert B. Parker's Spenser.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 5.0 based on 2 reviews)

another one please!

MR. MILLER, please please write another! i cannot wait any more.
this book is so great! i urge everyone to read it!
February 01, 2008

Superb crime noir

Raymond Miller's P. I. novel, The Scent of Blood grabbed me by the throat with the first sentence: "She was a woman who had once been beautiful and would someday be beautiful again." That one sentence thrust me back into the crime-noir novels of old that have been missing from bookshelves for many years. Maybe it's just me, but I swear I heard Humphrey Bogart as the voice of Nathaniel Singer, P. I.

Like all good P. I. novels, it opens with a beautiful woman crying in a gumshoe's office and pleading for help. And the P.I., who's always in need of cash and is a soft touch for a pretty lady, takes the case.

The case involves the death of the celebrated pediatric cardiologist, Dr. Andrew Carpenter, whose work with embryonic cell research has caused quite a stir in the world's scientific community. The widow Carpenter doesn't believe that her husband was the victim of a hit-and-run on a Manhattan street. She's convinced that hubby was murdered and manages to convince Singer that there may be some unanswered questions.

Singer isn't just an ordinary gumshoe. He's an ex-poet who has a way with words and similes and a way of getting information and getting into trouble. He learns that Carpenter is not everything his reputation makes him out to be, and a fundamentalist group, the Party of God, has been sending him threatening messages.

Critic Lee Child described The Scent of Blood: "A fresh new take on a classic structure--like hearing a twelve-bar blues played by a great new talent."

We don't know the real name of this great new talent because Raymond Miller is a non de plume. I wish did, but more important, I wish the next case was solved and ready for publication.

Armchair Interviews says: If you loved the old-style crime noir, and just good writing, this is for you.
April 03, 2007

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