A free book deal persuaded me to download Blood Lies, by Andrew Cunningham. It’s the fifth in his “Lies” series.

The main characters are Del Honeycutt, the narrator, and his girlfriend, bestselling mystery writer Samantha Spencer. As the story starts, Samantha is shot on the street, and rushed to the hospital. The main concern is not with the gunshot wound, which is minor, but with possible brain damage from hitting her head on the sidewalk. In a suspicious twist, someone claiming to be a policeman comes to claim the bullet that shot her. Only he’s not from the police.

Del’s investigation of the crime soon leads him to suspect that the bullet was not intended for Samantha, but for him. Which makes no sense, because he’s not the famous one in their relationship. However, he begins learning new things about his own family secrets. He always knew his father was a scoundrel, but he never guessed that he was a spy. For the Chinese.

The story is convoluted, and not particularly plausible. It reminded me a lot of television writing from a bygone era – especially in the main characters’ ability to recover quickly from injuries. Also, deadly perils are averted through improbable lucky breaks – in one memorable scene (and I don’t remember a lot of scenes from this book after a few days), the hero manages to kill an attacker with a cell phone. By accident.

Blood Lies was an entertaining book, but doesn’t bear the weight of much thought. Not highly recommended. Cautions for language and adult themes.