{"id":2321,"date":"2019-05-28T15:02:26","date_gmt":"2019-05-28T19:02:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/?p=2321"},"modified":"2022-12-12T19:39:34","modified_gmt":"2022-12-13T00:39:34","slug":"review-blood-standard-by-laird-barron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/review-blood-standard-by-laird-barron\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Blood Standard by Laird Barron"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vi<\/a>olence Was His Day Job<\/strong><\/span>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Review of<\/p>\n

Blood Standard <\/strong><\/p>\n

by Laird Barron<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

4.5\/5 Stars<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Blood Standard<\/em> by Laird Barron Is a violent, noir-esque mystery where the \u201chardboiled detective\u201d is a mixed race (Maori\/Caucasian) ex-mobster\/hitter from Alaska.<\/p>\n

Isaiah Coleridge\u2019s love of animals gets him in trouble when he attacks a made-man of \u201cthe Outfit\u201d who was heading up an illegal Walrus hunt to indulge in the black market ivory trade. Coleridge finds himself exiled to Upstate New York as a result and becomes a farm hand at a small, independent horse ranch. Where trouble is never less than a step behind the former hit man. When a local young woman with a troubled past goes missing, Isaiah quickly finds himself caught between local law enforcement, the Feds, mobsters, and street gangs–Familiar territory for Coleridge.<\/p>\n

Barron does his normal Steller job creating deep characters who all walk in the grey areas between light and dark. His horror story background is used well in building tension and in creating a narrative full of twists and violence.<\/p>\n

Laird Barron has crafted a terrific new series, and his fans from the horror genre should enjoy this fast-paced yet introspective tale typical of his writing. With the second in the series out now, I look forward to my next adventure with Isaiah and the quirky characters of rural New York.<\/p>\n

Personal note: I had a wonderful hour-long conversation with Laird at the Merrimack Valley Halloween Book Festival\u00a0last October, where we discussed his Coleridge series. He was the one who convinced me to take my upcoming novel\u00a0Bayou Whispers\u00a0<\/em>and change it from a horror novel to a Supernatural Thriller.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Violence Was His Day Job Review of Blood Standard by Laird Barron     4.5\/5 Stars Blood Standard by Laird Barron Is a violent, noir-esque mystery where the \u201chardboiled detective\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2323,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2321"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2324,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2321\/revisions\/2324"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}