Blood Money by Doug Richardson

Greg Beem has a foolproof plan to strike it rich.  He has stolen a tractor-trailer load worth of frozen blood supplies, which he can sell overseas for a cool million.  All he has to do is get from the robbery site to the Los Angles port where he can offload.  It seems like an easy gig, but Murphy's Law reigns supreme.

In the desert, Beem comes on a deputy investigating an accident.  Not wanting witnesses, he kills both the deputy and the accident victims.  Little does he know the trouble he has just unleashed.  Now forces are trained on him and there are suddenly lots of people who want to stop him before he can make delivery.

Lucky Dey is the Kern County deputy whose brother Beem has just killed.  He tracks him to LA, determined to get justice.  Lydia Gonzalez is a six-foot LAPD officer, a single mom assigned to babysit Dey.  Rey Palamino is the contact in LA who is supposed to arrange the shipment overseas, but decides instead to turn in Beem to the FBI when things get hairy.  There is Lilly Zoller, a federal prosecutor who sees a chance at making a name for herself.  There is Conrad Ellis, the father of the accident victim, who turns out is famous herself, and famous for being Conrad's daughter, as he is a billionaire in the film industry.

Everyone converges in Los Angeles in a climax of stunning violence and terror.  Some are lucky, some are not.  Who wins and who loses is a matter of who wants it most and who has planned the best.

Doug Richardson has written a compelling, gritty novel that grabs the reader by the throat and doesn't let go until the heart stopping end.  Richardson is known as a screenplay writer on films such as Money Train and Die Hard 2, Die Harder.  Readers who were fascinated by the action in these films will also love Blood Money and its fast-paced action.  This book is recommended for readers in the thriller/suspense genre.