I picked this book up because I've been meaning to try out Laird Barron. I've heard he was an excellent horror author and I found a used hardcover cheap. Excellent! I'll give him a try.I realized very quickly that I was not in fact reading a horror novel. This was a noir, a dark and gritty one, but very much in the realm of probability (with obviously exaggerations for fiction's sake). Even still I could see a horror influence from the author. He's known for cosmic horror, which if there is a mo...

FINISHED! Look for the read-along, live chat video with author, Laird Barron and your hosts, me & C. S. Humble on the 26th :)Review to follow

This is the first book in a new hard boiled detective series featuring Isaiah Coleridge, a mob enforcer who was working in Alaska until being exiled to upstate New York (near the home of his estranged father) after a problem involving walruses pissed off the wrong man. Isaiah is half Maori, has a fondness for classic literature and can't stand seeing animals abused. Isaiah has been given a cover story to explain his arrival at Hawk Mountain Farm and Center for Symbolic Studies, run by the elderl...

This ARC is an uncorrected advance proof. Publication date is May 29, 2018.

With Blood Standard, Laird Barron takes a break from his trademark cosmic horror stylings to pen a straight crime/thriller novel. And you know what? It was really a lot of fun to read. Pondering this evolution in the author's literary career, it really is not too drastic a leap... even Barron's earlier Weird tales have a tinge of noir to them, a unique mix that sets them apart from stories by many of his contemporaries. Also, the author himself has stated he reads more crime fiction for enjoymen...

Time to get fucking excited people! This was an excellent read. I read it in one sitting and only wish I could read it again for the first time. My ridiculously high expectations were met and now I just want that second book in the series. Isaiah Coleridge is a great protagonist and the kind of well developed hard-boiled character I love to see cinder blocks chucked at. What I mean is, when your hero is this well drawn from the start, like Isaiah is, and you know you're in the hands of a writer

Laird Barron's "Blood Standard" is a top-notch crime fiction story that has a great narrative voice even from the beginning. Take a half-Maori (a Polynesian ethnic group who is indigenous to New Zealand) mobbed-up enforcer at odds with his ex-military father (who killed his mother) and finds himself exiled by the Outfit from Alaska to the Hudson River Valley. Talk about two wildly different neighborhoods. Isaiah Coleridge is a tough guy with a heart of gold, keen about wreaking mayhem among his

When he sees his fellow gangsters killing walruses for fun, Isaiah Coleridge chops one of them in the throat and winds up exiled to a work farm in upstate New York. A teenage girl also staying at the farm disappears and Isaiah means to find her, stirring up a hornet's nest of gang members and corrupt law enforcement...2017 was the year of Laird Barron for me. I managed to read every book he had in print so it was a no-brainer that I'd pick up this one, his first foray into crime fiction. Barron'...

I'm on team Coleridge. Until he punches me in the ribs (I'm kind of delicate). Brimming with memorable characters, action, nastiness, and well, fun (that's my kind of fun, and I imagined Laird cackling wildly as he wrote parts of this book).

BLOOD STANDARD is an outstanding crime novel immersed with style, wit, and pages filled with a tipped-over-barrel of violence. Barron succeeds in telling a compelling page-turning mystery while simultaneously (and most entertainingly) filling out the character of Isaiah Coleridge, a massive bulldozer of brute force with a penchant for wisecracks to cover an underlying river of cunning.Coleridge does not fear the things most men fear, and the anomaly drives his reputation for being one of the bad...

Laird Barron is one of my favorite writers, and I always snap up every new thing he publishes. Some Barron fans might be nervous, seeing him shift genre focus a bit (though crime lords and gangs and rough dudes and the seedy underbelly have always comprised the greater part of his world), but I say there's nothing to worry about on that count. This still feels like Laird Barron, just a streamlined and slightly more wry or sarcastic version. Blood Standard is completely engaging and satisfying al...

”I was Oppenheimer’s dread in microcosm, a miniature atom bomb. A destroyer of small things. Not worlds, nothing so grand, but individual bodies, individual lives. In little more than a week I’d crossed purposes with mercenaries, gangsters, white supremacists, hillbilly moonshiners, gangbangers, and Feds. Blood had spilled. As ever, blood was the currency of my existence. Blood was the standard.” Coleridge--defender of animals.Isaiah Coleridge bears the name of a poet, but he doesn’t express

I received a free advance copy from NetGalley for review.Apparently the American mob is just like Starbucks in that they’ve got franchises everywhere, including Alaska.Isaiah Coleridge is an enforcer who has been working this frozen turf for a while, but he gets in big trouble after crossing a deadly local boss. That earns him a vicious beating as well as a dangerous enemy. He’s also exiled from Alaska and sent to live on a farm in upstate New York as part of his punishment. Isaiah is content to...

The concept of this mob-enforcer turned fixer pseudo detective novel is fascinating. Throw in a diverse lead (half Maori, but 100% badass) who has a weakness for dogs, action the like you would see in a Jason Statham-style movie, violence, gangs, politics, dirty cops, and occasionally laugh out loud dialogue, and BLOOD STANDARD probably deserves all the stars. But I felt pretty removed from the story, perhaps due to the style of writing, or perhaps because for all the seriousness of the plot, no...

Whatever else I think about this book - the first in the crime-thriller category by this author - I cannot deny his way with words. Even when the going takes gruesome turns, the main character, Isaiah Coleridge, has the chutzpah of a Raymond Chandler private eye combined with the philosophical musings of the late Robert B. Parker's Spenser. And that's a good thing; otherwise, Coleridge - once a mob enforcer - wouldn't be a particularly appealing guy. Big, brawny and half Maori, he manages to get...

This is a tough guy, somewhat noir mystery thriller. While it's in the vein of Spillane's Mike Hammer, it's much better done & takes place today. I'm going to give this 4 stars, although it's more of a 3.5, but it does seem like the beginning of a beautiful relationship. Isaiah is tough as nails, strong as a bull, about ordinary intelligence, & subject to moods. He also gets beat up a lot & the plot was well tailored for him. It's twisty, unexpected, & takes a tough guy without a lot of scruples...

When I saw that Laird Barron had a hardboiled detective series out, I had a typical fangirl moment of squeaking and running as fast as I could to get a copy of the first book. There are many amazing horror writers out there, but Mr. Barron is definitely my favorite, and I was quite curious to see how he would do with in the noir/thriller genre. And holy cow, he did not disappoint!Because it’s Laird Barron, there is some seriously violent stuff in “Blood Standard”; I don’t read a ton of hardboile...

Blood Standard might be one of the best crime thrillers I've read in recent years, and while I'd put Isaiah Coleridge in the vein of a Jack Reacher-like protagonist, Laird Barron produces a work of violent noir that wins on its own merits and kept me hooked the whole way through. Isaiah Coleridge is a Maori/Caucasian-mixed hitter for The Outfit, a mafioso crime syndicate that has assigned him to Alaska to keep the men there from getting into too much trouble. In the book's opening moments, Coler...

I hate reviews with spoilers so you won't read any here. All you'll get is my humble opinion about the quality of this novel. Loved it! I'm new to this author and was impressed. Mr. Barron introduced me to my new man crush, Isiah Coleridge. Isiah is half Maori and a modern-day warrior utilizing his skills as a mob enforcer. He’s a killer with a soft spot for animals, especially dogs, and wayward women. I was captivated from start to finish. Plenty of action and enough mystery to keep me enthrall...