Locus Magazine: Susan R. Matthews’ Blood Enemies is the long-awaited conclusion to her Under Jurisdiction series.
Matthews remains fundamentally interested in the problem of atrocity: the nature of bad bargains and complicity; the cost of self-knowledge and the price of atonement. She remains, too, interested in exploring the nature of honour and loyalty, of right action and indeed of love in situations where people are pulled in multiple different directions.
Matthews’ characters have always been the biggest draw of her books for me. I find Andrej Kosciusko perhaps a little more compelling than any torturer really ought to be, and the other characters that populate this series are equally interesting. Matthews’ language is well chosen, and Blood Enemies rattles along towards its conclusion with admirable tension despite its scattered threads. It’s really gratifying to finally see how it all turns out.