One Drop of Blood

By: Thomas Holland

Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor

As the director of the U.S. Army's Central Identification Lab in Hawaii (CILHI), Robert Dean "Kel" McKelvey has made a career solving some of the country's most complex identification cases. Though fast approaching emotional meltdown, Kel now faces his thorniest case yet: the recovery of Jimmie Carl Trimble, a soldier from Arkansas who died a hero's death in Vietnam 40 years ago.

When a rare DNA sequence turns up at both the Army and FBI labs, it points to the unthinkable: a link between Trimble and a 40-year-old, unsolved racial killing in the Arkansas delta. Partnered uneasily with the volatile FBI Special Agent Michael Levine, Kel must peel back decades of silence to reveal a complex web of stolen identity, betrayal, patriotism, collusion, and lies.

Taking listeners deep inside the fascinating world of military and civilian forensic science, One Drop of Blood is a pitch-perfect thriller by a talented new author who knows the terrain better than anyone.

One of the most respected forensic anthropologists in the world, author Thomas Holland is the real Scientific Director of the U.S. Army's Central Identification Lab in Hawaii (CILHI), the agency responsible for the recovery and identification of all U.S. war dead.

©2006 Thomas Holland (P)2006 Tantor Media, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Forensic investigators don't get more real than Thomas Holland." One Drop of Blood is the first thriller in an exciting new series that looks at cold cases with lightning heat and speed....Fascinating. (Linda Fairstein)

Kept me engaged

I definitely enjoyed this novel. I love foresnsic mysteries and this did not disappoint! I thought I had it figured out until nearly the end - nicely woven plot, interesting characters and decent narration.

Excellent

Even though I sort of figured out the ending early on in this book, that did not detract from my enjoyment in listening to it. The characters are well developed, the plot has lots of convolutions and the author clearly knows forensic science. All in all, a great first novel. I look forward to his next, hopefully also starring McKelvey and Levine.

Tedious

I purchased this book after listening to "K.I.A." by the same author, which was terrific. However, "One Drop of Blood" has almost no plot line, although there are a few interesting science lessons about forensic anthropology, and has a "surprise" ending that is predictable about halfway through the novel. What bothered me most however was the nearly constant bickering between the two main characters, made worse by the reader's tendency to make them sound like characters out of South Park. This is apparently Holland's first published novel, and it's surprising to see how much his writing improved with the later (and much better narrated) "K.I.A."

Great story, even better narrator

This story really pulled me in, and kept me there. I had a hard time putting it aside. The two main characters are a team that I hope find their way together again. The narrator brings them to life, as he does all the various characters that inhabit this novel. I saw the ending coming down the road a bit, but there were still enough surprises to keep me hanging on. Time very well spent.

Disappointing

Not a bad story but not great. From the beginning I waited for the author to tie the plot into an understandable package. In the end he figured the same thing I did from the first chapter. Why would anyone care after 40+ years. I kept listening hoping for a twist which would make me understand why the whole thing was even being pursued and was very disappointed to find that even the author couldn't come up with a plausible answer for caring.