YMMV / Blood Work

• Complete Monster: The Code Killer counts in both versions:
  • The Novel: After being rejected from the LAPD for antisocial behavior, Daniel Crimmins, obsessed with being a "somebody" and proving his superiority, became the "Code Killer." Crimmins murdered numerous people in his rampage, sending taunting messages to the police about their inability to stop him. When Terry McCaleb, Crimmins's appointed "nemesis," experiences a heart failure, Crimmins, refusing to let him die so simply, begins killing organ donors with McCaleb's blood type, knowing this will get him a heart transplant faster. When Crimmins's plan to frame McCaleb for the crimes fails, Crimmins kidnaps Graciela, McCaleb's Love Interest, and her young nephew, planning to starve them to death by burying them alive, just to torture McCaleb. Even when dying, Crimmins refuses to take the blame for his crimes or reveal the hostages' location to McCaleb. While implied to have an Inferiority Superiority Complex, Daniel Crimmins was ultimately a sadistic and homicidal lunatic who cared about his own "legacy" more than anything else.
  • The Film: Jasper "Buddy" Noone, aka the "Code Killer", viewed himself as the villain to Detective Terry McCaleb's hero. When McCaleb suffers a fatal heart attack, Noone, refusing to let their "battle" end, begins killing off organ donors with the same blood type as McCaleb, knowing he will get a heart transplant faster. After McCaleb recovers and begins looking into the donors' murders, Noone, having inserted himself into McCaleb's life as his best friend, assists him with the investigation, killing off anyone who could implicate him in the killings. Failing to frame a criminal for the murders, and then being found out by McCaleb, Noone reveals he trapped Graciela, McCaleb's Love Interest, and her young nephew, on an abandoned boat, tries to use them as leverage to allow himself to escape, and then plans on resuming his killing spree and his "fight" against McCaleb. Stopped by McCaleb, Noone leads him to the hostages' whereabouts, then tries one last time to kill them all.
• Creator Thumbprint:
  • As with many villains in Harry Bosch stories, the bad guy here dies with the words "Fuck you" on his lips.
  • Also, Connelly enjoys protagonists with unusual homes and/or offices. Harry Bosch lives in a cantilever house in the Hollywood Hills, and we'll soon learn that Mickey Haller does business almost exclusively out of the back of his Lincoln. McCaleb's houseboat serves as both here.
• He Really Can Act: Jeff Daniels as the Code Killer. While drama is no stranger to him, up to this point Jeff has been known for playing the nice guy. Which had us all fooled at first. It helped that another character was the killer in the book.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Despite all the intentional ShoutOuts to The Godfather, Connelly couldn't have known when writing the scene where McCaleb and the L.A.P.D. cops watch Gloria Torres's murder video, that just a year after this book came out, the phrase "Bada bing!" would become forever associated with another classic mobster story.
• Spiritual Adaptation: This is probably the closest we can get to a sixth Dirty Harry movie.