I really enjoyed the newest novel from Matt Phillips. I read him back with his short stories a number of years ago. This was a marvelous thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat.

A Good Rush of Blood is great noir book and reading how the writing by Matt Phillips has evolved was a very rewarding experience. You’ll enjoy it too.

Full Murder in Common review here:
https://murderincommon.com/2023/12/10/matt-phillips-a-good-rush-of-blood/

A Good Rush of Blood was exactly that. It felt as if I was shadowing Creeley, not just reading.

At 39, Creeley Nash, unwed and poor, is a drug runner. She is lonely and faces nothingness in her life. As a 14-year-old, she ran away from her home in Palm Springs 26 years ago. Running away from her mother, Blossom, a prostitute who had no love to give her daughter.
When Animal, her handler, sends her on a run to Palm Springs, Creeley goes unwillingly. In Palm Springs, she learns that her mother has been imprisoned for life for having killed a 17-year-old boy, Levi Mackey. Blossom says, she didn’t kill him and Creeley believes her. So begins her effort to find the real killer and exonerate her mother.
Meanwhile, Animal is threatening her to bring back his stash and the money she’s collected for him. When she refuses, he sends goons to ‘take care’ of her. Also, it becomes increasingly clear that there’s a huge coverup, at a high level, behind keeping Blossom in jail.
How’s a girl supposed to go about getting her mother exonerated in the face of such huge challenges? Will Creeley succeed in her goal? Will she make peace with her mother?

It’s amazing how Creeley picks up her own tribe, particularly when her own mother isn’t much of a real mother to her. The members of this tribe are a host of interesting characters, Amber, a queer librarian with a mohawk; a Kimmie, a gay man who befriends Creeley; Monty, a corrupt cop, and Paul, an old friend who’s now a violent criminal.
The writing was potent and urgent. It kept me on edge throughout. The style of the writing, described as neo-noir, revels in the sleazy and shady side of life, where dark tendencies might find comfort. You get the dreary sense that any wins in this world are hard won, and Creeley will always be looking over her shoulder, never at peace.
The focus of the book is the murder and Creeley’s investigation to find the real killer.
We find ourselves sympathizing with Creeley, even though she is a drug runner, part of a crime syndicate, and her choices and actions destroy innocent lives. The action is so continuous and intense that we aren’t afforded any time to philosophize about the wrongness of what Creeley does for a living.
The lines between good and bad, right and wrong are blurred here. So we have Animal, the wannabe drug kingpin, making sure that Creeley is safe and not subject to any sexual harassment, not out of concern for her but because she’s the best drug runner he’s had.
We learn more about Creeley’s life through the flashbacks, aptly titled History Lessons, that the author shares with us.
The only characters I felt for, besides Creeley, were Ross, Paul, Amber, Levi and Kimmie, perhaps because they showed us their weaknesses and vulnerabilities. I didn’t care much for Blossom.

So this was my first introdution to Matt Phillips. and it was so good this is such a page turning thriller with lots of twist and turn.the MC in this book Creely Nash is searching for answers,behind the murder of her estrange mother behind bars. there is corrupt cops,motorcycle gangs drug dealers.

A good crime fiction novel that is filled with grit and intense characters. I liked the setting and everything else, but I read a lot of crime novels and maybe just slightly wanted a new twist or something else, but this is well written and if you like a desert setting this is for you.

Thanks to Run Amok Press and NetGalley for the ARC of Matt Phillips' 'A Good Rush of Blood.'

This is a very enjoyable character-driven crime novel encompassing present day criminals and criminality with very strong ties to an old murder for which we're led to believe the wrong person was convicted and jailed.

I thought the first half of the book was really strong and very well paced. The main character, Creeley, is well set up and developed and we're dropped very quickly into the meat of the action in terms of story and place. We're introduced to the key characters throughout this part of the book and it rolls along. I felt it began to flag somewhere between the halfway and two thirds point and it became more of a struggle to retain interest. The relationship between Creeley, Amber, and Kimmie was a wee bit overplayed, I think and trimming that a bit would have benefited the pacing. Thankfully it picked up again towards the end and I felt that the conclusion was very realistic and satisfying.

Creeley's recent and distant history keeps catching up with her literally and figuratively as we move through the book and that part is very well handled.

What kept occurring to me throughout was this was a very televisual novel and would make an excellent streaming series.

Good fun.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review A GOOD RUSH OF BLOOD. The book started out strong. It reminded me a lot of Elmore Leonard’s work. Phillips style has that grit and tempo needed when writing crime.

Overall, I enjoyed it, but there were some elements that felt contrived, specifically Creeley’s relationship with Amber. I don’t think the romantic elements were necessary as they didn’t really add much to Creeley’s character arc. I also felt that Creeley’s seedy world wasn’t as developed as it could be. If you watch any type of crime drama, it’s always the same. Corrupt politicians and cops, drug dealers, motorcycle gangs, etc. It would have been nice to go into more depth with less predictability, whether that be from character motivations or plot twists, instead of just scratching the surface and relying on what the reader already knows of the genre. The social commentary that was added through the lenses of Monty and Amber also felt a little too preachy.

I’ll probably read more of Phillips work because I do like his style.

A Good Rush of Blood (Expected publication November 1, 2023) (312 pages) is Phillips’ latest entry into the crime fiction universe. Here, Phillips combines two strands of crime fiction, the noir atmosphere of the desperate losers at the edge of society and the who-done-it enterprise of detective fiction. What’s more the combination of these two strands is done so seamlessly that you don’t even realize what he is doing until you are deep into the narrative.

Creeley Nash is the kind of loser that modern crime fiction feasts upon. She is a drug-runner for “Animal” who is based in Portland. Her mother was a Palm Springs prostitute and Creeley ran away (hopping freight cars) as a teenager and never looked back. She never knew her father. She’s good at her job and trusted (until now), but has no goals and no future other than survival and there are times even that doesn’t seem important. Her character is authentic and believable.

But, as you might have guessed, returning to the Desert brings Creeley into contact with ghosts from her past and suddenly she has someone she has not given a damn about in decades in prison for a crime perhaps she did not commit. It’s hard for Creeley to know the truth and harder still for her confront what her delving into her past means. Naively, drug-runner Creeley, with the help of a punkish librarian and a transvestite motel neighbor, sets out to play junior detective, unearthing things that were perhaps better left alone.

For a 312-page book, A Good Rush of Blood has the feel of a much shorter book. It is fast-paced, adrenaline-charged read.

This is my first introduction to Matt Phillips. But it will not be my last.
Phillips sets the tone fast here with this crime noir, slow burn novel of letting loose to find the real killer Creely Nash's long forgotten Mother is in prison for. There is a few stretches of the plot but Phillips makes up for this in his gritty desert noir.