Ellie Batista is a Los Angeles cop who wants nothing more than to join the Blood Crimes Unit. She spends all of her free time studying the victims and the elusive blood trade. When she and her partner happen upon a transfusion taking place in an upscale Beverly Hills home, tragedy ensues, but Ellie gets the opportunity to display her knowledge to the BCU head when she identifies two victims on the fly, and can also describe the primary gunman in the deadly shootout. It's not long before she is recruited to do undercover work in the field she has dreamed of for all these years... ever since her little brother, a carrier named J.C., was kidnapped and never seen again.
Meanwhile, Sebastian Kane has his hands full since his deceased girlfriend's unstable son, Paul, is the not only involved in the shootout above, but he's also discovered a formula that summarily outperforms Pandora and he has decided to challenge Sebastian's position in the blood world with it. To make matters worse, Sebastian's former love, Ava, has come to him because her daughter, Grace, has been kidnapped, because she is a carrier.
Sebastian is flanked on all sides by events destined to destroy him, while Ellie, now known as Faye Simpson, has become immersed in the blood trade as a "stick man" finding prospective carriers in the public. Her goal is to get close to Anton, the Armenian she works for, and eventually make her way into the organization and hopefully discover the location of a blood farm. When she embarked on this undercover gig, she had no idea how far down the rabbit hole she'd travel. And that's about all I am going to say about this book's storyline because it's too good not to discover it yourself.
Blood World is a thrilling ride into the dark underbelly of the (fictional, thank God) Los Angeles blood trade. The characters are interesting and layered and, at times, I found myself rooting for people I typically wouldn't. It's a very well-written and engaging book and readers who enjoy a good crime novel will want to check it out.
