Detective Inspector Paul Harrigan and Detective Constable Grace Riordan of the New South Wales Police Force are introduced in Alex Palmer's particularly strong debut novel. Blood Redemption is a memorable thriller that confronts the reader with a killer's torment and pain as she comes to grips with the realisation that she has performed a terrible act that can't be undone.

The story opens with the aftermath of a shocking, cold-blooded shooting in which a man lies dead, his wife critically wounded and their son a witness to it all. The woman is Dr Agnes Liu, a doctor at the Women's Whole Life Health Centre, an abortion clinic.

Lucy Hurst is a young woman living rough on the streets having left the family home where she had been regularly abused. She is now also a killer, but she was used by yet another adult who has betrayed her trust. Graeme Frederickson, the preacher at The New Life Ministries Temple has nurtured in Lucy a fierce hatred towards doctors who perform abortions, casting them as witches and murderers who must be dealt with. He put the gun in her hand and sent her out on her mission, her head filled with skewed ideas of revenge and justice.

A final betrayal for Lucy sees her fleeing for her life and she winds up at the last place she wants to be, at her family home. Her father is in the final stages of terminal cancer and has asked to see her before he dies. With all sorts of bitter emotions crashing through her, she confronts her father wanting to hear the apology she craves.

As far as DI Paul Harrigan is concerned he is hunting a dangerous woman who in all likelihood will kill again. His promise to young Matthew Liu, that he will find his father's killer, is sincere. For Grace, this is her first case and is prepared to stick close to Harrigan to learn as much as possible. However she displays strong people-person qualities and has an ability to get people to open up to her, something that should prove particularly useful during interviews.

There is one more significant character who will have an affect on the story. His online name is Turtle and he is a virtual friend of Lucy's. In real life his name is Toby Harrigan and he is the son of DI Paul Harrigan providing a crucial and rather poignant link between killer and pursuer.

Alex Palmer paints a tragic story populated with rich characters who demand to be explored further. Paul Harrigan is single father to a very clever teenage boy with cerebral palsy, Grace is marked with a deep scar across her throat, the work of a former lover. They are facing their personal demons in this story, just as Lucy is haunted by her own demons, the only difference is that her coping mechanisms have been completely shot to bits and she's now hanging on by a thread. The opening murder scene that starts us on the trail of Lucy and the twisted sense of moral outrage that has destructively fuelled her to another betrayal becomes completely overshadowed.

The story perspective shifts rapidly between the three main characters maintaining great momentum while still succeeding in introducing the reader to each, helping to build understanding and sympathy. The pace of the story remains uninterrupted too as the investigation flows from the centre of Sydney up to its northern limits and back again.

Blood Redemption was a worthy winner of the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Crime Book dealing with a provocative subject with a subtle blend of sensitivity and brutality. Author Alex Palmer has created complex and interesting characters who are just crying out to be explored further.