Blood Test

by Jonathan Kellerman

Reviewed by Coral

Alex receives a call from Dr. Melendez-Lynch, an old colleague who now needs his help. Woody Swope is a very sick 5-year-old, dying of cancer, yet his parents are refusing treatment and Melendez-Lynch wants Alex to change their minds. It doesn't work and soon Woody has been forcibly removed from the hospital in the middle of the night. Alex volunteers to go to their hotel room and try and work things out, but once there all he finds is dried up blood. Now Alex and Milo are racing against time to find and save this little boy.

This story is pretty good, with a satisfying believable ending. The mystery is well-paced and not overly complicated, which I appreciate. All in all this is a good book, but not a great one. It's not anything big that makes me say that, just a few little things. I didn't like the implication that alternative medicines were all ridiculous and only hippies and druggies could believe otherwise. I think it's pretty close-minded. All our medicines, in one way or another, come from plants, don't they? So why couldn't there be uses for them that science doesn't know yet?

I also didn't like the way they said of a doctor, "Oh, he's Canadian," when explaining his fascination with the multi-religious atmosphere of California. What is that supposed to mean? Canada is not some backwater little place. I don't know if Kellerman knows it but we're pretty multi-cultural and multi-religious up here, too. You don't have to go to California for that.

Lastly, there's just something about Milo's other police case that just made me uncomfortable. I mean, we're just told what's happening in that case, not invited along for the mystery or anything, so I didn't get the point of it. I don't like saying it without any proof, but it felt kind of racist.

Grade: B