One Drop of Blood » (Unabridged)

Holland, for over twenty years, has been a pastor and scholar. He has taught courses on the subject of biblical textual criticism and preservation, theology, and Christian apologetics at various Bible Institutes. He is an ordained minister with the American Baptist Churches (ABC-USA).

As the director of the U.S. Army's Central Identification Lab in Hawaii (CILHI), Robert Dean "Kel" McKelvey has made a career solving some of the country's most complex identification cases. Though fast approaching emotional meltdown, Kel now faces his thorniest case yet: the recovery of Jimmie Carl Trimble, a soldier from Arkansas who died a hero's death in Vietnam forty years ago.

Publishers Weekly

Holland, scientific director of the Defense Department's Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii (CILHI), is the latest forensics expert to attempt to translate an intriguing day job into engaging fiction, but unlike Carved in Bone from Bone Farm founder Bill Bass, his debut falls short. Kel McKelvey, who like Holland, is director of the CILHI facility, has just returned from a grueling assignment in Southeast Asia when he's dispatched to Arkansas to assist Michael Levine, a disgraced FBI agent. Levine is probing unsolved 1960s civil rights murders that occurred in McKelvey's hometown and may be linked to a death in Vietnam of a local hero. The mismatched pair encounter hostility from those who prefer to forget the past, including the sheriff and members of one victim's family. Holland writes decently, but the plot is too predictable and coincidence-laden to sustain interest. In addition, McKelvey needs more rounding if he's to carry an ongoing series. (May) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.