It was a great story, well written, suspenseful and interesting characters and story idea. The language is too much. The "f" word is over used to the point of distracting from the story. I won't read more of the series's because of this. It's a shame. ( )

I was looking for a books about trains to get in touch with old memories of bulky trains moving around, but instead I got a book about war, trauma and war-trauma. I'm conflicted now. Forget about the trains, this book is like a heated stone. You look at it and well, it looks ok, nothing betrays it stored energy at the first glance for a few dozen pages but then... you start notice those air heat waves, you get this nagging feeling of danger, of something you know will happen but still not sure what and how.

You just need to touch this hot stone to understand. Nothing in our normal life can prepare us for anything outside this life - war even less so. I can describe all the looks and dangers and statistics and processes involved in simple gesture of touching heated stone by bare hand yet... nothing will make it real but a real touch.

What is that morbid curiosity that makes everyone at some point touch a boiling pot? Live wire? Dead animal? Or a human? There is a ladder in there that goes step by step from experiences we can survive to the experiences we can not. At least not as we are. It does rise a question of validity of such experiences transformation - at what point you are able to accept a tale and at what point you do need to reenact it to feel your experiences validated?

This book in the calm and deceptively normal tone tell a tale that may be not the most original one, but one that can open a door. A simple door to something we only imagine but at the same time did happen in some way and at some point in the real world.

One interesting thing about this book though is how it's written in a way that disallow my usual sentence skipping reading style. I found out that for this particular book its short and concise sentences always contain action, weight and sense. Those sentences are not like some usual rope that reader will be unraveling at own leisure and speed but more like a velcro. Sentences in this book hook each other and collectively always create stronger paragraphs than I usually find in books. Whole text is simultaneously very polished and very purposeful. Even if it does indeed feel a very... well, level-headed, if not outright detached on par with crime report. Very strange combination, I don't think I ever read anything like that. ( )

Once in a while, a book turns up that right from the start sucks me into the story and makes me fall in love with its characters. Blood on the Tracks is a book like that. I was instantly hooked with the story and I could not for my life figure out the truth about the young woman death before Syndey Rose herself figured it out. Railroad police Special Agent Sydney Rose Parnell is a new favorite heroine of mine. Her past in the army has left her with a broken heart and awful memories that plague her every day. And she sees ghosts, they don't talk to her, but they are with her. A constant reminder of the war and not only that soon she sees the murdered woman as well...

Blood on the Tracks is Barbara Nickless debut book and the first in a series and I just can't wait to read the next book. I was impressed both with the story and the writing and I found Sydney Rose Parnell to be such a wonderful character, damaged both from childhood traumas and from the war when her lover Dougie died during a mission. I found myself loving Dougie as well, despite him hardly being in the story, just memories. The link to the war in Iraq is fascinating and I can't wait to find out more in the next book because something isn't right with the "secret mission and events around it" and it seems that there are people who don't want Parnell to investigate it. I also found Parnell's relationship with Detective Mike Cohen interesting, and it will be interesting to see if he will be able to break down her walls. Then, we have Clyde, her K9 partner, I just love books that feature K9 dogs and Clyde just as Parnell has gone through hell in Iraq. In a way, they cling to each other after losing the one person that they love the most; Dougie.

Blood on the Tracks is a truly remarkable book, it's never dull, the characters are well-developed and flawed and I just love that Parnell sees ghosts. It feels like this was a book written for me with all the bookish ingredients I love.

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review! ( )

Sydney Rose is a flawed heroine. The literal ghosts of her past service in Iraq in Mortuary Affairs haunt her. Blood on the Tracks is a page-turner, as a seemingly open and closed murder case sprouts new developments. I found myself rooting for her to solve the case and heal her wounds. This is obviously going to be a series, and there were loose ends left that I assume will be tied up in the next novel. There is a lot of rough language, which fits the story and the characters, but be warned if you find f-bombs objectionable. ( )

Great read. Looking forward to rest in series. Denver railroad Special Agent Sydney Parnell and her K9 partner, Clyde, help Denver police investigate the murder of a woman's murder. Main suspect is her fiancé, a badly scarred soldier from the Iraq war. Sydney Rose Parnell series #1 ( )