"Blue Blood" by Damien Boyd

Acting Detective Inspector Superintendent Nick Dixon of the Avon and Somerset Police has a lot on his mind. It’s his wedding day; his wife-to-be, Detective Sergeant Jane Winters, is seven months pregnant. The wedding goes as planned, but that’s about all that goes as planned. A knock at his door that night is from his boss. A body has been found in the bay, and it’s a serving police officer. His partner is missing. Wedding day or not, Dixon has to deal with the case. 

Another case is added; two drug dealers had been found weeks earlier tortured and then killed. The dead and missing officers were involved. What ties the two cases together is the still-missing murder weapon – a 3D printed gun.

 

Adding to the threats of other deaths and someone printing guns is the investigation keeps leading the team back to the police. And Dixon has to cut through deceit, lies, and possible corruption to get to the truth.

 

Damien Boyd

Blue Blood is the 15^th Nick Dixon crime novel by British writer Damien Boyd, and it’s a thriller of a story. Boyd is a master at riveting the reader’s attention, bringing the novel to a fever-pitch close. 

 

Boyd uses his own experience as a legal solicitor and a member of the Crown Prosecution Service to frame his stories. And that knowledge and experience is telling. He understands how policemen do their work, how prosecutions operate, and what happens when a former tax lawyer (Dixon) brings his very unorthodox thinking to police work. 

 

Blue Blood keeps you guessing right up to the end, and not only who the killer is but also whether some of the good guys and innocent bystanders will survive. And it’s a “I have to get up and walk around” ending.

 

Related:

My review of Damien Boyd’s As the Crow Flies.

My review of Damien Boyd’s Head in the Sand.

My review of Damien Boyd’s Kickback.

My review of Damien Boyd’s Swansong.

My review of Damien Boyd's Dead Level.

My review of Damien Boyd’s Death Sentence.

My review of Damien Boyd’s Heads or Tails.

My review of Damien Boyd’s Dead Lock.

My review of Damien Boyd’s Beyond the Point.

My review of Down Among the Dead by Damien Boyd.

My review of Dying Inside by Damien Boyd.

 My review of Carnival Blues by Damien Boyd.

My review of Death Message by Damien Boyd. 

My reveiw of From the Ashes by Damien Boyd.

Some Monday Readings

Winter and Summer on the Farm – Brian Miller at Notes from an East Tennessee Farmer.

 

Russian Roulette – Dominic Green at The Lamp on Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s Red Wheel.

 

London’s Wonderful East End – Spitalfields Life. 

‘Endurance Comes Only From Enduring’ – Cynthia Haven at The Free Press on Czeslaw Milosz.

Questions

After John 7:1-31 

Questions swirl,

a growing storm

as yet marked

only by clouds,

darkening, Already

some seek his life,

this threat to order,

this rabblerouser 

threatening to bring

down wrath.

Where is he, they ask.

Who is he, they ask.

Is he the one, they ask.

Who seeks to kill you,

they ask. The questions

rage, as if ocean

waves fight against

each other, ebbing and

flowing, cascading and

retreating, the crowd 

a raging sea of questions.

The answers are the same,

for now: his time has not

yet come. And the storm 

subsides.

 

Photograph by Amir Arabshahi via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

Evangelism for Introverts – Greg Morse at Desiring God.

 

Watering Dirt – Ryanne Molinari.

Saturday Good Reads - June 28, 2025

Trivia question: what’s the most sung song in American history, perhaps in all human history? Here’s a hint: it started life as a kindergarten song in 1893, and gradually people started changing the words. The composer was Kentucky-born Mildred Hill, whose sister ran an experimental school. The Hill’s sisters’ ideas about music influenced Anton Dvorak’s “New World Symphony.” And the song? “Happy birthday to you.” 

What punctuation mark seems headed for the ash heap? According to Joel Miller, it’s the semicolon. And he asks, and answers, what happened to it.

 

We think of the end of the Civil War, and we connect to Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. Technically, that’s wrong. Confederate General William Johnston surrendered to Gen. Sherman two weeks later. The Confederate forces in Texas surrendered in June of 1865. But the last shots of the war were fired a long way from the battlefields – would you believe the Arctic Ocean?

 

The novel has been dead, close to death, dying, and on its last legs for nearly a century. If true, it’s the most prolonged death in literary history. Lincoln Michel at Counter Craft takes a long, thoughtful look at the so-called death of the novel, and he has some surprising insights.

 

More Good Reads

 

America 250

 

Key Battles That Secured America’s Victory in the Revolutionary War – Tiffini Theisen at Military.com.

 

Edmund Burke and the Defense of America – Bradley Birzer at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Trojan Horse on the Water: The 1782 Attack on Beaufort, North Carolina – Josh Wheeler at Journal of the American Revolution.

 

Major John Van Dyk and the Bones of Major John Andre, Part II – Jeffrey Collin Wilford at Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

 

Faith

 

The Nicene Creed in Old English, translated by AElfric.

 

An Agrarian Prayer – Hadden Turner at Front Porch Republic.

 

Writing and Literature

 

The Scariest Question for Non-Fiction Writers – Thomas Kidd.

 

Thoreau and the Eco-Puritans of Concord – Ryan Salyards at Front Porch Republic.

 

Alasdair MacIntyre on the Writing of History – Michael Baxter at Church Life Journal.

 

Dostoevsky and the Cure of a Culture – Br. Barnabas Wilson at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Israel

 

Iran’s Flying Monkeys – Tony Badran at Tablet Magazine.

 

Transforming Tactics to Strategy – Michael Oren at Clarity.

 

American Stuff

 

Custer’s Last Stand: The Epic Battle of the Little Big Horn – Jason Clark a This is the Day.

 

Trump’s tariffs didn’t unleash inflation – Robert Hutton at The Critic Magazine.

 

British Stuff

 

Samuel Johnson’s Last Word – Malcolm Forbes at Engelsberg Ideas.

 

The South Africanisation of Britain – Tom Jones at The Critic Magazine.

 

Poetry

 

“Sea-Fever,” poem by John Masefield – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

“Preludes,” by T.S. Eliot – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Lauds – Matt Miller at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

Life ad Culture

 

Bringing Up Emil – Nadya Williams at Front Porch Republic.

 

What Both Sides Get Wrong About Immigration – Martin Gurri at The Free Press.

 

The Truth – Megan Woods

 Painting: Young Woman Reading by a Window, oil on canvas by Delphin Enjolras (1857-1945).

 

Down to the sea

After John 6:1-21 

Down to the sea we went,

down to the shore

down to the sea to sail,

to sail to Capernaum once more.

 

Dark it was, and stormy,

waves crashing at our ship;

we rowed against the waves and wind,

expecting we would flip.

 

Waves were smashing, winds were thrashing,

as misery gives way to fear,

and then we see him walking

on the sea, drawing near.

 

Do not be afraid, he says,

as he steps into the boat;

the winds die down, the waves subside,

once again we’re gently afloat.

 

Photograph by Forrest Moreland via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

Lord of Earth, Thy Forming Hand – poem by Robert Grant at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin).

 

The Death Culture of the UK – Stephen McAlpine.

 

O For a Closer Walk with God, by William Cowper – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

Divine Epigrams by Richard Crashaw – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

Poets and Poems: Paul Pastor and “The Locust Years”

The first thing I noticed with The Locust Years: Poems by Paul Pastor is that it is a physically beautiful book. The cover illustration and interior art are by Michael Cook, an artist and gallery owner who lives in Derbyshire in England. This is the kind of book I find a pleasure simply to hold in my hands. I’m attracted to books like this; books that are as much a work of art as what they contain. 

The second thing I noticed, or rather learned, is that the poems were written over a four-year period that the poet says were the most difficult of his life. He doesn’t explain, except to say the poems themselves will provide the reader with few if any clues. The collection is not a memoir; it is a collection that grew from personal difficulties.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Thursday Readings

 

“The Shrouding of the Duchess of Malfi,” poem by John Webster and “O hour of all hours,” poem by Owen Meredith – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Giant statues to return to Notre Dame spire in latest stage of restoration – Kim Willsher at The Guardian. 

 

At the Monument – Spitalfields Life.

"Glorious Courage" by Sarah Kay Bierle

In my research for my novel Brookhaven, it was difficult not to run across references to one particular officer. 

John Pelham was an Alabama boy, the third of three sons and born in 1838 in a small wooden house in rural Benton County. His father was a doctor and farmer, enjoying both community respect and economic success. The family’s reputation was such that John’s father was able to get an appointment for his son to the U.S. Military Academy. The young man arrived at West Point in 1856, enrolling in a five-year degree program.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Dancing Priest.

Some Wednesday Readings

 

The Language of the Master – Paul Kingsnorth at The Abbey of Misrule.

 

How Warriors Prepare – H.R. McMaster at The Free Press.

 

Don’t Come Back In Until Dinner – Brian Miller at Notes from an East Tennessee Farmer.

 

Humanity in Wartime – Nadya Williams at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

Five Takes on Bombing Iran – Glenn Harlan Reynolds.

What Happened to the Fireside Poets?

When I first envisioned my novel Brookhaven, I focused on a family story passed down through generations, which turned out to be a legend, as in, almost entirely untrue. But two things shifted my focus. 

First, in 2022, I had the old family Bible conserved. It had seen better days; my father gave it to me wrapped in grocery store bag paper and tied with strong. My contribution had been to remove the paper and string, wrap it in acid-free paper, and store in an acid-free box. It sat on a closet shelf for years, until I brought it to a book conservator in St. Louis. He discovered something tucked in the Book of Isaiah that both my father and I had missed – a yellowed envelope containing a lock of auburn hair.

 

For various reasons, I believe the hair belonged to my great-grandmother Octavia. She died in 1888 at age 44. Unusual for the time, my great-grandfather Samuel never remarried. He died in 1920. And I thought to myself, “There’s a love story here.”

 

Second, also in 2022, we saw a movie entitled “I Heard the Bells.” It’s a snapshot of the life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) during the Civil War, including both the tragic death of his beloved wife and the near death from a war wound of his oldest son Charles. Both events contributed to Longfellow’s writing the poem that became a Christmas hymn, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.” 

To continue reading, please see me post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Illustration: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Some Tuesday Readings

 

Trembling Aspen – poem by Jerry Barrett at Gerald the Writer.

 

“Archaic Torso of Apollo” by Rilke and “Reconciliations” by Goethe – poems translated by Josh Olson at Society of Classical Poets.

 

“Pied Beauty,” poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Mystic Affection – poem by Sharon Powlus Wheeler at Every Day Poems.

 

Sonnet 60 by William Shakespeare – Rabbit Room Poetry.

“Murder Under the Sun” by Faith Martin

I’d been worried. I’d come to the last published DI Hillary Greene crime novel, and there was no word on whether there would be a new one. Each book in the series has been consistently good. I’d even subscribed to the author’s email newsletter, which had been quiet on the subject. That is, until about a week before it was published. I pre-ordered it, and then it arrived. 

Murder Under the Sun is the 22^nd novel in the DI Hillary Greene detective series by Faith Martin, and it lives up to the standard set by its predecessors.

 

For the last several stories, Greene has been retired as a detective inspector for the Thames Valley Police, but she’s been working as a civilian employee at police headquarters looking into cold cases. She has two people on her team – Claire Wolley, herself a retired police officer, and Gareth Proctor, a former soldier disabled by an IED explosion while serving in the army.

 

It’s summer and unseasonably hot for England. Staying cool is something of a second job for just about everyone. And it’s in the heat that a new cold case is assigned to the team. Fifteen years earlier, a woman had been struck from behind in her home and killed. No weapon, other than the ubiquitous “blunt instrument,” had ever been identified. Her body had been found by a teenaged daughter coming home from school. 

 

Faith Martin

Hillary and her team painstakingly review the files, check with police officers involved in the original investigation, and interview family members and any potential witnesses. They’re dogged by an enterprising reporter, who’s determined to make his name in news. And the investigation proceeds slowly, as the team looks for anything missed in the original probe.

 

They may be facing one of Hillary’s vastly few failures, when another, and related, death occurs. And it’s Hillary Greene who will manage to run circles around the new investigating officer and ultimately the perpetrator. 

 

In addition to the DI Hillary Greene novels, Martin (a pen name for Jacquie Walton) has also published the Ryder and Loveday novels as well as the Jenny Sterling mysteries. Under the name Joyce Cato, she has published several non-series detective stories. Both Cato and Martin are also pen names for Walton. (Walton has another pen name as well – Maxine Barry, under which she wrote 14 romance novels.) A native of Oxford, she lives in a village in Oxfordshire.

 

Murder Under the Sun is an excellent read. Martin leaves clues, but she also manages to stay ahead of the reader, making this story (like the others) hard to put down. And the novel contains just enough hints to suggest that a 23^rd is more than possible.

 

Related:

Murder on the Oxford Canal by Faith Martin.

Murder at the University by Faith Martin. 

 Murder of the Bride by Faith Martin.

 Murder in the Village by Faith Martin.

 Murder in the Family by Faith Martin.

 Murder at Home by Faith Martin.

 Murder in the Meadow by Faith Martin.

 Murder in the Mansion by Faith Martin.

 Murder by Fire by Faith Martin.

 Murder at Work by Faith Martin.

 Murder Never Retires by Faith Martin.

 Murder of a Lover by Faith Martin.

 Murder Never Misses by Faith Martin.

 Murder by Candlelight by Faith Martin.

 Murder in Mind by Faith Martin.

 Hillary’s Final Case by Faith Martin. 

 Hillary’s Back! by Faith Martin.

 Murder Now and Then by Faith Martin.

Murder in the Parish by Faith Martin.

Murder on the Train by Faith Martin.

Some Monday Readings

 

Images found on Civil War battlefields: who were they? – John Banks’ Civil War Blog.

 

Civil War Musings: The Battles in My Backyard – Joseph Ricci at Emerging Civil War.

 

Write Soon and Write Often: Soldiers, Letters, Mail, and Boxes – Central Virginia Battlefields Trust.

 

At Old Liverpool St Station – Spitalfields Life.

 

The Liberation of Florence – Frederick Hartt at The Imaginative Conservative.

A hillside Passover

After John 6:1-21 

We are on the hillside

by the Galilean sea,

a respite from the work,

a time to listen and to be.

 

As was always happening,

people come to seek 

healing, teaching, feeding

for the desperate, sick, and weak.

 

We all see them coming,

at the hour it’s time to eat; 

perplexed at what to feed them,

dismayed by such a feat.

 

A boy arrives with food,

five loaves and two fish,

to feed so many with such a meal

is someone’s ridiculous wish.

 

Have them sit, the teacher says,

as we stare at him in shock;

anyone else but him and

we’d be prone to mock.

 

Five thousand sit upon the hill,

waiting to be fed;

he tells us to serve the food

two fish, five loaves of bread.

 

The crowd is fed, and fed so well,

that everyone is sated;

we see our future tied to him,

our life and death are fated.

 

Photograph: Sea of Galilee by Yoav Aziz via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

The Idol of Popularity – Tim Challies.

 

“The Flower,” poem by George Herbert – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

Is Seminary Worth the Cost? – Guy Richard at Ligonier.

Saturday Good Reads - June 21, 2025

It was one of those weeks in Britain where reality caught up with official narratives maintained by the government, the courts, the police, and the news media. A member of the House of Lords, Baroness Casey, issued a long-awaited report on the grooming gangs scandal. The entire nation has been shamed, writes Adam LeBor at The Critic Magazine; Sebastian Milbank calls it Britain’s Gotterdammerung. As if the scandal itself isn’t enough, there’s also a deeper scandal, says The Wall Street Journal in an editorial. And though it’s been known since 2007, the fact that hundreds if not thousands of young girls were groomed, raped, and trafficked by primarily Pakistani immigrants only became a British national issue because of one man: Elon Musk. 

Lots of America 250 news happened this past week. The U.S. Army turned celebrated its birthday; it’s an institution that has shaped America’s history and identity. This week also was the 250^th anniversary of the bloodiest battle in the entire American Revolution, the Battle of Bunker Hill. While the colonists officially lost the battle, they more than held their own, demonstrating that farmers, blacksmiths and shopkeepers could fight professional soldiers. They were also helped by not the most astute British leadership. And one man stood at the heart of the battle. The week also marked the anniversary of George Washington accepting command of the Continental Army. And Michael Cecere at the Journal of the American Revolution has a colony-by-colony assessment of how the other colonies reacted to the Battle of Lexington and Concord.

 

And it’s official: for the first time ever, social media has passed television as the top news source for Americans, according to the Reuters Institute. You can read the entire report here, which includes news patterns in other countries and a swath of related information.

 

More Good Reads

 

America 250

 

Book Review: Under Alien Skies: Environment, Suffering, and the Defeat of the British Military in Revolutionary America by Vaughn Scribner – John Gilbert McCurday at Journal of the American Revolution.

 

Tacitus in the Colonies – Bradley Birzer at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

American Stuff

 

America’s Golden Age: A Return to Permanent Things – Kevin Roberts at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Battle of New Orleans: The American Agincourt – Harrison Mark at World History Encyclopedia. 

 

Life and Culture

 

Blue States Used to Lead in Education. Not Anymore – Neetu Arnold at City Journal.

 

The South is a Neolithic Fort – Brian Miller at Notes from an East Tennessee Farmer.

 

Faith

 

The History & Heresy of Pelagianism – Dean Kooper at the Institute for Faith, Work, & Economics.

 

God’s Good Design for Marriage: 5 Doctrinal Dimensions – Robert Yarbrough at Desiring God.

 

Belloc the Pilgrim – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Kids with Creeds – Seth Porch at Desiring God.

 

Poetry

 

Late Spring Bloomer – poem by Megan Willome at Poetry for Life.

 

“Wynken, Blynken, and Nod,” poem by Eugene Field and “My Heart Leaps Up,” poem by William Wordsworth – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

The Nameless and the Faceless of the Civil War – poem by Lisa Samia at Emerging Civil War.

 

Art

 

How Van Gogh’s nephew exchanged two of the artist’s drawing for butter and bacon – Martin Bailey at the Art Newspaper.

 

“Every Day” by Buddy Holly – PS 22 Chorus

 Painting: Bookworm (1926) by Norman Rockwell (1894-1978).