Review - Blood Money by Zen DiPietro

Mild-mannered trader Cabot Layne agrees to under-take another mission for Chief of Security Fallon of Dragonfire Station. The task seems simple enough: locate someone who is also a well known trader, who was helping Fallon’s team, yet has dropped out of communication. To help him out, Cabot once again enlists the aid of his old friend Omar, and reluctantly Omar’s sister Nagali, who is also Cabot’s ex-wife. Fallon sends one of her team, Peregrine, as well, making for a rather strange quartet.

Although it relies heavily on characters introduced in the previous book, Selling Out, as well as the Dragonfire Station series, this is something of a stand-alone book that doesn’t directly pick up any story line from the last volume. It does, however, end on a note that suggests the next edition will be more closely tied to this one.

Like the previous book in this series, this was a good read but didn’t really fire the imagination like the original Dragonfire series. While the story features characters previously introduced, it doesn’t do much to advance our understanding of them. Peregrine rather pointedly remains a blank slate, revealing almost nothing about herself or her history. Cabot and Nagali get most of the attention, and while their scenes together are sometimes interesting, there’s something about their relationship that seems forced.

I really like the writing of these books, and the Dragonfire universe they create, but this current series seems somewhat directionless. I’m hoping that the ending of this installment indicates there will be a stronger story arc going into the next volume. Otherwise, the stories aren’t strong enough on their own to merit continued reading.

“Blood Money” is available from Amazon.