Church of Spilled Blood by Jesse Miles

218 Pages
Publisher: AuthorBuzz, Jesse Miles
Release Date: August 30, 2016

Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Private Detective, Russian Ballerinas, Kidnapping

Jack Salvo is a private detective in California. His friend Gabriel Van Buren of Western Investigative Services gives Jack a bodyguard job. He needs to watch over three Russian ballerinas. Before he knows it, one of the dancers is taken and he has been punched and tased. When she shows up unharmed, he wonders why she was taken. He needs to clear his name, so he begins to investigate who was behind the kidnapping.

The book has a steady pace, the characters were somewhat developed, and it was written in the first-person point of view. If you like detective stories, you may enjoy reading this one.

Private Investigator Jack Salvo, who also teaches philosophy at a local community college, is hired as a body guard for a group of Russian ballerinas visiting Los Angeles. One of them is kidnapped in front of him as he is immobilized by a taser. When she is returned unharmed, he is determined to find the kidnappers. During his investigation, he grows close to one of the other ballerinas, Yelina. After he discovers the dead bodies of the kidnappers, he is even more curious. Yelina returns to Russia where she is, in turn, kidnapped and Jack is hired to travel there to be the intermediary in paying the ransom. The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, a well known church/museum in St. Petersburg, is the scene of the payoff which goes deadly wrong.

The writing style in Church of Spilled Blood is noirish and what I like to describe as Dragnetesque…just the facts. The plot is decent, fast paced, with some twists. For action fans, there is some of that as well. Jack is an honorable man, but willing to work around the law to solve a case.

This is actually the second novel featuring Jack Salvo, but it worked well as a stand alone.

Wanted to like it....suspense, intrigue, and ballerinas...but it just wasn't for me. .................................

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book. This was an excellent read.
Thoroughly recommended

This was an enjoyable private investigative novel full of action and adventure. I liked the main character Jack and the remaining characters were very interesting. It was a fast paced, quick read.
Many thanks to Jesse Miles and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Not a bad mainstream mystery/thriller. Good for pleasure readers.

Jack Salvo is a part-time philosophy teacher at a community college in Los Angeles and a part-time private investigator. When he signs up to work as bodyguard for the Russian Ballet who've come to Los Angeles, he figures he's in for some pretty easy work and the bonus is that he'll get to hang around some beautiful women - and get paid for it. But when one of those women is kidnapped on his watch, he takes it personally. Salvo ducks the FBI and dodges bullets in order to take on the Russian mafia, risking his life repeatedly to return one woman - a woman he happened to have been developing a relationship with.

His search brings him to Russia where he's arranged for a swap - the woman for a set of valuable diamonds. The swap is to take place in a town that is most noted for <em>The Church of Our Savior Built on Spilled Blood</em>. And 'spilled blood' is precisely what happens when the swap goes wrong.

I really enjoyed author Jesse Miles' writing style. The book was smooth and I bought in to the characters right away - which is essential to buying in to the story (which I also did).

The book had a classic PI/Thriller feel about it. Tough but smart American PI and Russian ballet dancers kidnapped. This could have come straight from the 1970's crime fiction section! In fact the book made me think about Robert B. Parker's Spenser series - in a very good way.

This is just a good PI Crime Thriller and I really liked the character of Jake Salvo . I will happily read more of these stories.

Looking for a good book? <em>Church of Spilled Blood</em> by Jesse Miles is a throwback to the classic tough-but-intelligent Private Investigators (like Spenser) and a thrilling read.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Church of Spilled Blood had been in my NetGalley for so long. This book has interesting plot and characters. Jack Salvo is a PI that took a job as a bodyguard for three visiting ballerinas from Russia and one of them got kidnapped. I like how this book was full of action and analyzing the situation based on the clues that Jack gathered. Church of Spilled Blood is page-turner though there are unanswered questions after. Overall, I recommend this book to anyone who likes reading mystery/thriller.

Not enough going on to keep my attention. It reads like a basic suspense or a first book. Nothing new here.

Jack Salvo takes a job as bodyguard to world class ballerinas and one of them is kidnapped. Then the LA PI ends up in St Petersburg, Russia.

A roller coaster of a story with many twists and turns that leaves the reader guessing until the end. There are interesting characters and a most unusual private eye who is a part time teacher of philosophy with a sharp wit. Hired as a body guard he is unable to stomach his failure when his charge is kidnapped. In his pursuit for justice and the tracking down of the criminals he only just manages to escape with his life before all is revealed and nothing is what it seems.

Good action packed thriller, I like that it was told from the point of view of the main character and not a bunch of other characters. straight forward and not confusing.

The book had me at ballet dancers and a PI who teaches philosophy. Straight forwardly written action and entertainment. No gimmicks. How refreshing

I did not know at first that this book was the second one in a series, but I had already began reading it and was hooked. Jack Salvo was a a good and interesting protagonist, and the story moved along at a fast clip. To me the twist was not really that big, but I enjoyed the ride right up until the end.

I could only make it part of the way through this book before I put it down and thought of many more better uses for my time. Poor characterizations and writing. Overdone plot and cardboard characters that lack any semblance to real people.

I requested to review this book because of the title - we had visited St. Petersburg and toured the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood so I though it would be interesting to see how this magnificent structure could be the background for a crime novel. And eventually the story got there. But I am ahead of myself. Jack Salvo is a private detective who is engaged by a friend to guard three female Russian ballet dancers who are staying on the Los Angeles estate of a wealthy arts patron. What seemed like a no-brainer assignment quickly becomes an issue when one of the three dancers is kidnapped - and Jack is right there but cannot stop it. Nursing his bruised ego, he discerns that the kidnappers are Russian, and begins a search for them. When the girl who had been grabbed walks into his office unharmed, he is undeterred, avoiding (or staying one step ahead of) the FBI and the LAPD. Salvo, who also has a part time job teaching philosophy at a community college, is very intuitive while he searches for the kidnappers. He is a likable guy, with likable friends, but some of the conclusions he reaches are a little too much. Nonetheless, it was a quick, enjoyable read which would have been a lot better if the writing itself were better. Oh, and I almost forgot, Jack does wind up in St. Petersburg and the Church does enter the story about 3/4 of the way through the book.

I like Jack Salvo, the nonsense PI main character. The story was fast paced and kept me interested to the very end. I will read more Jack Salvo books in the future. a nice quick read.

Let's start out with the fact that there is an actual church by this name. Jack Salvo is a PI. To help a friend, he decided to protect three Russian ballerinas. What should be busy work, becomes major work when one of them is kidnapped. In a rather noir classic feel, Jack is the gifted and golden PI who can solve any case he is given. I love the ballet, and this book has a trip to Russia in it. Over all it was a good read, even if a bit see-through.

My copy came from Net Galley. I decided to leave a review. My thoughts and opinions about this book are my own.

It was a interesting book. I would recommend it for thriller readers

Could not get invested in the storyline. Did not find it interesting, fun or thrilling