Blood Trails, by the prolific, enterprising Diane Capri, is the first in a series of Michael Flint novels. Flint is a sort of private investigator, though he’s really more of a person-finder. He locates missing people for his client and lifelong friend/big sister figure, Scarlett. Both orphans, Flint and Scarlett met at a foster home in rural Texas. Ever since she mashed his face in the dirt, Flint knows who’s the boss.
Flint is a familiar type: He’s tough, what with being an orphan in foster care and all. He then “worked for Uncle Sam” in some unspecified series of jobs, most likely in the military and intelligence, which have given him enviable fighting skills and survival instincts. He works alone. He does things his way. He has a code. He’s a bit like Jack Reacher, if Jack Reacher were a highly paid person-finder with unlimited access to private jets.
We first meet Flint in London, where he’s trying to retrieve a painting stolen by the Nazis. This mission goes sideways, however, despite Flint’s abilities in hand-to-hand combat. He barely avoids going to jail. A Texas oil titan named Shaw requests a meeting with Flint. It’s not an invitation he can turn down, even if feels like it. You don’t say no to Shaw. Plus, Scarlett is already working with Shaw, so he meets with the man to keep her happy.
Shaw wants Flint to find a woman named Laura Oakwood, who owns the mineral rights to an oil field he wants to buy. He wants her to sign over her rights in exchange for $50 million. The problem is that no one has seen or heard from her since she took part in a deadly convenience store holdup 27 years earlier. If Flint can find her, she’ll be rich, but she might also go to prison. Flint’s reaction to this reality is quite revealing of his character. He is “no kind of cop,” but he still doesn’t feel right about letting her get away with murder. He’ll have to deal with that moral question when it comes up, but first he has to find her.
A job is a job, so he sets to work tracking her down. Before he even starts, however, another oil baron named Crane, Shaw’s rival for the oil field, tries to buy him off. He’ll pay Flint double not to find Oakwood. Somehow, the oil field will become his if Oakwood cannot sign over her rights to Shaw.
Flint sets out on a detecting odyssey, first by helicopter, then by private jet, to trace the very cold trail left by Oakwood. His travels take him to some very remote, desperate parts of Texas. People remember the convenience store holdup, but no one has any idea where Laura went. Scarlett is fairly certain that Oakwood is still alive, however, so Flint keeps looking.
By coincidence, the convenience store that got robbed is pretty close to the foster home/boarding school where Flint and Scarlett grew up. He stops by to see his old teacher and foster mother. She offers him some ideas on Laura Oakwood’s whereabouts, but he’s striking out.
Meanwhile, he’s being shadowed by Crane’s goons. It’s unclear whom he can trust, even those who also work for Scarlett. He finally pulls on the right thread, and starts to make progress toward locating Laura.
Blood Trails is a pretty good read. The action and suspense are effective, even if the characteristic is a bit flat. But, you don’t read a Michael Flint novel if you’re hoping for characters who ponder the absurdity of the human condition. You read it for a certain kind of predictable thrill for guys who want to imagine they can carry themselves like Flint, that they would know how to defend themselves and handle a Glock with deadly accuracy. It’s a male fantasy of toughness, but also of principle. Flint will not be bought! If that’s your thing, then this book is for you.