School Library Journal (Starred Review)
Jasper “Jazz” Dent is locked in a storage locker with two dead bodies, trying to nurse his own bullet wound in the dim light of a fading cellphone. Picking up (without pause) from the cliff-hanger ending in Game (2013), Lyga’s series about the 17-year-old who was first introduced in I Hunt Killers (2012) as the son of escaped killer Billy Dent continues as he tries to aid the police in his father’s recapture. Unaware that his girlfriend Connie has been lured by Billy to a Brooklyn tenement house and imprisoned with Jazz’s mother, and that his hemophiliac friend, Howie, has been attacked, Jazz faces his demons alone—including repressed memories with sexual undertones, and the creepy voice of Billy educating his son on the acumen required to be a good serial killer (appearing in italics). The worrisome genetic factor plagues Jazz yet propels him in the right direction to foil some copycat killers and elude authorities long enough to solve his own life’s mysteries. Obstructing the law, the teen follows clues that take him back home to Lobo’s Nod for the chilling climax and surprise ending, despite red herrings thrown in the readers’ path at every turn. Connie and Howie continue to play major roles in this episode, often providing their own points-of-view, as do officers Hughes and Tanner as bumbling but likable authorities. As a trilogy wrap-up, this gory winner with raw appeal requires having read the first two titles.
Booklist (Starred Review)
Lyga’s burial of the I Hunt Killers trilogy cements it as one of the most ambitious thriller series in YA history, and the absolute best cliff from which teen readers can dive into the grueling world of adult crime procedurals. Given the violence of Game (2013), it’s no shocker that Jazz, Connie, and Howie begin laid up in the hospital. But there’s no rest for the wicked: in short order—this novel’s time frame is brutally truncated—Jazz busts out, determined to do away with, once and for all, his serial killer pop, Billy Dent. First, though, he’ll need to divine the truth behind “the Crows,” which appears to be a cult of murderers in thrall to the elder Dent. Jazz’s central conflict of using his dad’s sociopathic tricks without himself sliding into sociopathy is writ large here, with Jazz’s every evasive move against encroaching cops more morally questionable than the previous. You can’t stop reading, though—as before, Lyga’s strength is a plot that rockets with blood-slicked assurance and with the intercut speed (and splatter) of Thomas Harris’ The Silence of the Lambs (1988). Will Jazz end up a Crow or just another “prospect”? Here’s hoping the Edgar Awards retroactively presents Lyga a trio of statuettes for his chilling three-book answer.
Horn Book (May/June 2012 edition)
This trilogy-ender begins with a bang. Jasper “Jazz” Dent (son of infamous serial killer Billy Dent), his best friend Howie, and his girlfriend Connie have been investigating a “game” played by serial killers that resulted in a double-digit body count. Now the friends are separated, with each in danger and in pain: Jazz has been shot and is trapped in a storage unit; hemophiliac Howie is in the ER; and Connie is being held captive by Billy himself. Though Jazz is clearly the protagonist, the breakneck-paced, omniscient narrative follows each of the three teens as they fight to reunite and take down Billy. Along the way, Jazz and readers uncover more gruesome secrets about Jazz’s family and learn just how dark Jazz’s Billy-influenced heart may be. The previous two books raised tantalizing questions—what is the identity of Billy’s partner-in-crime, Ugly J? What happened to Jazz’s mother? What will Jazz do when he catches up with Billy?—and Lyga delivers with a vengeance. Not for the faint of heart.
The I Hunt Killers series is the story of Jasper Dent, son of the infamous serial killer Billy Dent. It asks the question — is the son condemned to follow in the footsteps of his father? If nature (the son of a killer) and nurture (raised by his father to hunt and kill) conspire to create a path for a child, will the child follow that path? And what is the cost of not doing so?
What I liked best about Blood of My Blood is that it showed the trilogy to not be three connected stories about Jazz solving crimes, using his first-hand knowledge of serial killers (though it is that) but one story, told in three volumes, about Jazz coming to terms with his past and figuring out what his future should be. And, yes — solving murder mysteries.
Also — and I almost hate to say it — twists! That I didn’t see coming! And that were so satisfying as a reader! (I hate to say it because sometimes saying a twist means one expects and looks for any twist so it no longer is a surprise twist.)