In this first of a new series, Edgar Award winner Handler (The Man Who Loved Women to Death) weaves a complex web of mass murder and romance set on a private island off Connecticut's gold coast. Thirty years after a notorious rape and murder/suicide, blood flows anew on Big Sister isle, where New York film critic Mitch Berger rents a cottage hoping to escape the big city following his wife's death from cancer. His landlady, Dolly Peck Seymour, lives a troubled existence after losing two husbands, the second of whom Mitch discovers buried in her garden. Scandals past and present erupt in this social enclave with all the expected character types: "bluebloods" of the awkward title; effete snobs; a bitter, drunken redneck handyman; a tough local cop; and two gays living in the island's lighthouse. Black police detective Desiree Mitry, who leads the investigation, proves an intriguing heroine, with a fondness for stray cats and a gift for drawing, although her subjects are exclusively grisly crime scenes. By enlisting Berger's help, Mitry gains both an observant friend and a potential lover. An overnight trip Mitch makes to his grimy New York pad gives us a feeling of the hot city in summer, and we're as glad as he is to get back to the island, with its cooling breezes, despite its being under siege from the tabloid press. Handler has created an engaging odd couple, whose further adventures promise to win the same strong following as his Stewart Hoag series.

From Library Journal

Film critic/author Mitch Berger rents an old carriage house on a small island near Dorset, CT. Among the blue-blooded few who live there are his landlord, a somewhat ditsy woman whose second husband deserted her for a younger woman; the woman's stuffy brother and wife; and her gay son and his much-older lover. When Mitch discovers the corpse of the supposedly decamped husband, local police call in tall, black, and cool Lt. Desiree "Des" Mitry, who, with a little help from Mitch, solves the case. Film references, unique characterizations, and focused prose bode well for this new series by the author of the Stewart Hoag mysteries (The Man Who Loved Women to Death).
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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3.0 out of 5 stars Ran Hot and Cold, Dec 26 2001

By	Rhonda (Windsor, CA United States) - See all my reviews

The prologue of this mystery about a series of murders in a small community started off fabulous. Unfortunately, the rest of the book never quite lived up to that excitement. It simply slowly unfolded. Mitch is a despondent film critic who has lost his wife and can't bring himself out of the ensuing depression. His boss sends him off to do a travel article in hopes that a change of scenery will do him good. He finds himself renting a carriage house there on the small Connecticut Island of Big Sister. A dead body turns up and Desiree, a Lieutenant in the Major Crimes Squad, is summoned to investigate. There were several interesting facets to the main characters. Since Mitch is a film critic, the frequent comparisons he makes between old films and real life were right on target. Desiree's constant search for homes for her rescued stray cats was amusing and also showed her need to produce the happy outcomes that she couldn't in her job. However, I felt the attraction between Mitch and Desiree was forced and didn't feel real. It could have easily been left out entirely. Mitch has an idea on how to resolve the murders that works well with his character but I thought there could have been more of a twist at the end.

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3.0 out of 5 stars Fifty-fifty, Dec 13 2001

By	Charlotte Vale-Allen (CT USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I really wanted The Cold Blue Blood to be the start of a great new series, because I was a big fan of the Stewart Hoag books. But while film critic Mitch Berger is a well-conceived character, unfortunately Desiree Mitry is simply not believable. The fault lies primarily in Handler's attempts to have Desiree sound like a black woman. It doesn't work and, sadly, she comes across sounding like an aging valley girl, repeating the word "way" w-a-y too often, calling other women "girl" regardless of their ages, and talking about her "bootay" (read that as butt.) As well, her reactions to Mitch seem more teenage than adult. And this is a shame, because the plot is not without merit and the other characters in the book are well-drawn and believable. Handler is a seasoned writer who knows how to retain control of his material, and how to move the narrative along at a good pace. As well, his descriptions of Connecticut are accurate and appealing; he captures very successfully the flavor of the state and its great social contradictions. But for this projected series to work, he's going to have to make Des more real, more human, and less of a caricature. I'll go for the next book in the series, in the hope that he can pull it off.

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5.0 out of 5 stars The start of a delightful new series, Oct 11 2001

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

Though only thirty-two years old, New York City film critic and author Mitch Berger feels his life ended the day his beloved wife died from ovarian cancer. His editor Lacy Mickerson worries that Mitch rarely leaves his Greenwich Village home, passing time watching classic films. He even rejected a trip to Cannes for the festival. Because she cares, Lacy sends Mitch to Dorset on the Connecticut Gold Coast, allegedly to write an article, but more to get him out of his apartment.

Surprisingly, Mitch finds the town charming and even rents a home from Dolly Seymour on exclusive Big Sister as he sees this as an opportunity to start over again. However, his need for a new type of tranquillity is disturbed when he finds a corpse in his garden. Police Lieutenant Desiree Mitry of the State Major Crimes Squad leads the official investigation even as Mitch makes his own brand of inquiries. As they run into one another, Mitch and Desiree form an attraction, but he feels guilty and she hurts from the abandonment of her first spouse, making it obvious that once the case is solved the relationship is over or is it?

Renowned for his Hoag novels, David Handler begins a new series starring two attractive and complex individuals. A die hard New Yorker, Mitch remains in mourning until he arrives at Big Sister while Dolly is a beautiful Amazonian African-American who mistrusts males except if they are cats. Thrown together in an interesting police-procedural-amateur sleuth who-done-it, they form the basis for a wonderful opening novel.

Harriet Klausner

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5.0 out of 5 stars The start of a delightful new series
Though only thirty-two years old, New York City film critic and author Mitch Berger feels his life ended the day his beloved wife died from ovarian cancer. Read more

Published on Oct 11 2001 by Harriet Klausner