The Blood Doctor
The eleventh Barbara Vine novel published by Viking in 2002
After being awarded a CBE in 1996, Rendell was made a Labour life peer in 1997 and she thrives on her work in the House of Lords. She chose polar bears—her favourite animals—for her coat of arms. She says of the Lords,
At first I felt absolutely trapped and imprisoned. I really didn’t know what to expect and I wondered how I would be able to cope. But gradually you get used to it and you come to love it. It’s a very friendly place and I quite miss it during the long summer recess.
A novel about blood - blood in its metaphysical sense as the conductor of an inherited title and blood in its physical sense as the transmitter of disease.
The current Lord Nanther, experiencing the reform of the House of Lords, embarks on a biography of his great-grandfather, the first Lord Nanther, favoured physician to Queen Victoria, an expert on blood diseases, and particularly the royal disease of haemophilia.
What he uncovers begins to horrify him as he realizes that Nanther died a guilty man who carried a horrific secret to the grave.
Notes
Queen Victoria’s Gene: Haemophilia and the Royal Family.
The alarming issue of blood: Jane Shilling reviews The Blood Doctor.
Phil Whitaker examines a mystery of genetics.
Contemporary Reads 2
Karin Fossum - Black Seconds
Julian Earwaker & Kathleen Becker - Scene of the Crime
Sarah Waters - Fingersmith
Arnaldur Indriðason - The Silence of the Grave
Haruki Murakami - Kafka On The Shore
Michael Dibdin - And Then You Die
Footnotes
Book links may earn this site a small commission. ↩︎