Bombay Blood – a Review

Imagine having a very rare type of blood flowing through your veins. Now imagine that someone very high up is in need of what you have. How smart would you be to put yourself on an organ donor list?

The title of this book puzzled me. I had never heard of Bombay blood, a blood type that is not very common. It is also called the HH group. The peculiarity is that they do not express the H antigen. As a result, they cannot form A antigens or B antigens on their red blood cells. Thus they can donate blood to anybody with ABO grouping but can receive blood only from Bombay blood group people.

In Bombay Blood, there is a group who now pays you as soon as you sign up to be an organ donor. Unknown to those who sign up, when your organs are needed, you are killed.

Lynn is one of the few with this rare and much-coveted blood type. She did her job as a Secret Service agent well. Then she signed up to be an organ donor, and her life fell apart.

She is framed for conspiring to kill the President of the United States.

Several attempts were made on her life. She actually died for a moment, and the only reason she was resuscitated was because a friend held a gun to the doctor’s head and forced him to do so. But she was dead. Does that mean her organs now belong to those who were waiting to get them? Or do they still belong to Lynn?

She woke up in a hospital in Guatemala while on an operating table. The CEO in charge of this industry based on blood was about to harvest her organs to satisfy his own perversions. Through sheer will and determination that gave her strength, she escaped. Now unless she can make it back to the U.S. and prove her innocence, she will be on the run for the rest of her life.

This medical thriller is full of gun chases, political corruption, love, and intrigue. Even if one has been considering becoming an organ donor, the stuff that happens in this book could make you think twice. I have nothing against organ donation; I think it is a good thing. But I do not want to be killed for my organs, and I doubt anyone else does either.

I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. If you would like a copy of this book for your own reading pleasure, I have provided an Amazon link below.

Amazon link: Bombay Blood

Favorite Sentences:
What was it like to feel the pulse of someone else’s heart inside you, to live and share your life with someone else’s body part—to be a hybrid?

Midnight had passed hours ago, but exhaustion was outpaced by anxiety and sleep remained a distant prospect.

Every aircraft climbing gracefully into the sky was taking with it some truth, a piece of her career, her life, and perhaps her freedom.

Lawyers had a nasty, irritating habit of pulling rabbits out of their briefcases.

Trying to occupy her mind by watching live footage of this and the events outside her home was like watching torture porn, and she was the captive.

New Words Learned:
altruistic – unselfishly concerned for or devoted to the welfare of others

bemused – bewildered or confused

Diprivan – an anesthetic that causes relaxation and sleepiness before and during surgery and other medical procedures

fiduciary – involving trust, esp. with regard to the relationship between a trustee and a beneficiary

litigious – concerned with lawsuits or litigation

Malecon – a word used in Spanish-speaking countries, and especially in nations of Latin America, for a stone-built embankment or esplanade along a waterfront.

vanguard – the leading position in any movement or field, or the people who occupy such a position

 

From the Author, Ray Ronan:
When did I start to write? Always. It didn’t matter what my day to day was.

From professional cycling in France to flight attendant with British Airways on the beach fleet and now airline pilot on jumbos, writing has carried me as well as those planes and bicycles. I improved (I hope) from all the life experiences as did my writing.

I try not to watch TV unless it’s Game Of Thrones, The Wire or a cool documentary. That way I get to write and as I live in Ireland where it tends to rain, it makes sitting inside with a keyboard easier.

When I write, I tend toward characters with situations that thrill me. The sensation deepens if there is a paranormal aspect to their plight. Hence the thrillers with hints of the preternatural.

I spent a lot of time researching all my books, months to years all total. Bombay Blood and the Lynn Clarke series is a step away from towards the dark side of the human psyche. The renegade Secret Service Agent didn’t want the life she has been dealt but isn’t going to give up what she has left. Historian, he drags you back into the paranormal world, kicking and screaming whether you like it or not. He’s the creepiest character I’ve had to live with while I wrote Molding Men. When I was in Dresden, Germany, I expected to see him at every turn.

Natalie is fighting not only to stay alive in Escape, the first in the SUB C series and will try to convince her long lost love, Michael, to help her do just that. All three books in that series are written and ready, but on drip release. Tension, anticipation! I can’t wait for the world to meet those two.

The only non-fiction book I wrote took two years of my writing life: Seconds To Disaster deals with the darker side of the aviation world and was endorsed by Sully Sullenberger.