My Thoughts on Kurt Kamm, Code Blood

This book was pretty far out of my comfort zone guys.  I have read some noir/mystery/thrillers, but not many, so I come to this book pretty unfamiliar with the genre.  The story begins with a girl and an accident.  Colt Lewis, a Paramedic in training shows up and finds himself entangled in the very strange story of this girl, with a severed foot.  Oh yeah, and the foot has apparently been stolen.  Kamm weaves together Colt's story with the stories of an albino fetishist vampire, a Chinese immigrant genetics researcher and a gang of Russian thugs in the business of selling body parts.

The book was not nearly as dark as it sounds, although there were certainly some cringe inducing scenes.  What stood out the most to me about the book was the detail in Kamm's writing.  It was very clear that he had researched extensively in many areas in order to produce the narrative.  I learned things about genetics, about the field of paramedicine and about Chinese culture.  This is one of the things that I enjoyed the most about the read, although it was occasionally too detailed and detracted from the pacing of the narrative.

I was disappointed by the ending of the book, although I certainly won't ruin it for anyone else.  I think I was expecting to be more surprised, or for it to be a bit twistier.  The strength of the book for me was really the development of some of the characters, in particular A Li, the young genetics researcher.  I'm not sure how this book stacks up with other contemporary L.A. noir novels, but I would imagine that it has something to add.  I would recommend it for fans of the genre, and for readers comfortable with and interested in the type of material.

Title: Code Blood

Author:Kurt Kamm
Publisher/Price: MCM Publishing, $14.95
Date: 2011
Genre: L.A. Noir, Fiction

231 pages.
Where I got it: I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest review
Challenges: None

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