Donne's Reviews > Return to Blood

Well the gangs all back for this second installment. Hana, who is now a private citizen working part-time for her community and a private investigator friend since leaving the force after the last case (from the last installment). Her daughter, Addison, is back too, and is living with her non-binary roommate, Plus 1, now that Hana has left Auckland and moved back to her hometown, Tata Bay, to be closer to her aging father, Eru. I loved the conversation between Eru and Plus 1 about the definition of non-binary. LOVE ERU!!! It was a nice bonding moment between the two. Ex-hubby, Jaye, is also back, and struggling to save his marriage after what happened in the last installment. There is also Stan, Hana’s former partner, who is on desk duty after he lost part of his leg in the last installment.

One of the things that I really enjoyed about the first installment was all of the Māori history and how Bennett weaved it into the storyline. I’m happy to report, there is more of that in this installment. I also liked how Bennett footnoted the Māori words and definitions. I love learning new stuff about the stories I read and enjoy. As the book summary states, there are really two storylines going on here: what really happened to Paige Andrews, 20yrs ago and what happened to Kiri Thomas four years ago? Are they related? This is what Hana and Addison want to know and they do some investigating of their own now that the police don’t want to really devote the time and resources to do a thorough investigation.

The story flips back and forth between the present and the past, four years ago. It also flips back and forth between Kiri (when she was alive) and in the present with Hana and Addison and their separate investigations that they’re trying to keep from each other – at least at first. There is also a storyline around one of Hana’s reluctant students from Hana’s community program where she and Eru teach the youth of Tata Bay to drive. I say reluctant because while the student, Timoti, does not know how to drive, he thinks he doesn’t need a teacher to teach him because he is smart enough to learn on his own. Timoti is Hana’s nephew, the son of a cousin, Eyes, who can’t stand Hana and talks crap about her every time she sees her.

It’s well into the second half that the two different cases begin to merge into a shocking end that I did not see coming. The conclusion to the Timoti storyline was also really intense and scary. However, the very ending, and that last comment from Jaye to Hana, was the ending that I had been hoping for throughout the whole book. I love it when that happens.

I can’t wait until the next installment to see where Michael Bennett takes the series and what he has in store for Hana and the rest of her loved ones. The characterization was really good for most of the MC’s and the pacing was fine. Even though the first half didn’t have as much action as the second half, one of the joys of the appeal of crime thrillers are the investigations; that’s my favorite part. The storylines and writing were wonderful. Once again, I love all the Maori stories and history and even the footnotes of the definitions of the Maori words, phrases, and places. Some people might find that annoying, but I don’t. I’m looking at a rating of 4.3 and am rounding down to a 4star read. I want to thank NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for sending me this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

#NetGalley #GroveAtlantic #ReturntoBlood