Rebecca Carter is back from the dead. Lost and terrified, she is gripped by two desperate urges – to find her daughter, and to sate her ravenous hunger.
Alone in the wild, Monica Carter survives on whatever small prey she can hunt down. But she needs more. One night, drawn by the maddening scent of human blood, she encounters two young brothers, who call to her as Moonflower and tell her that if she comes with them, they will keep her safe.
But Jacob and Willard Hendry are not what they seem. They know all about dying and disappearing – after all, it’s been almost three decades since they did the same.
Rebecca’s hope for a reunion with her daughter turns to terror when she realizes that the brothers aren’t like Moonflower – they chose to be what they are, relishing the slaughter and leaving an increasingly bloody trail in their wake.
But as she chases them west, she isn’t alone on the road. FBI agent Sarah McGrath, haunted by the death of her partner Marc Donner moments after he killed Rebecca, is hot on her tail. McGrath wants answers, and she will stop at nothing to get them. But she never expected them to come from a shadowy figure within the Bureau…
Blood Like Ours by Stuart Neville is published on 28 August 2025 by Simon & Schuster. I was lucky enough to buy an early copy at the St Hilda's Crime Fiction Weekend in Oxford earlier this month, and get my copy signed by the author.
I read and reviewed the first in the Blood trilogy; Blood Like Mine, in August last year. It was one of my favourite books of last year and I raved about it to anyone who would listen.
First, I advise anyone who is thinking about reading this one to read Blood Like Mine first. This is most definitely a follow-on and you get the full and complete back story from reading book one first. Blood Like Mine is out in paperback now, and readily available in all good book shops, and online.
Rebecca Carter has been separated from her daughter Monica, known as Moonflower. Moonflower has fled, leaving her mother for dead. Rebecca is not only having to deal with a totally new situation for herself, making sure that she's fed (pie and chips will not do), she is also still on the FBI wanted list. So, she's facing a whole host of issues; tracking down her young daughter, keeping herself well and avoiding capture by FBI Agent Sarah McGrath.
Moonflower has never had friends, she and Rebecca always kept themselves isolated, concentrating on keeping Moonflower sustained. Now she's alone and has met two brothers. These are not ordinary boys, they feel like they know so much about her, they understand her. However, their motives are not great and it soon becomes clear that Moonflower is in a lot of danger. Neville expertly weaves the two boys back story into the narrative by using diary entries from a woman in the 1980s, it's clever and often emotional, adding depth and a new dimension to what is already a multi layered and complex story.
Crime meets horror, meets the occult. Once again Stuart Neville has produced a novel of the finest quality. He never holds back, there's gore and there's violence, but there is also stories of humanity and of love and devotion.
Magnificent and will be up there on my list of my books of the year. Already desperate for book three.
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