The Swords of Blood and Gold ~ JCR Paulino

The Swords of Blood and Gold by JCR Paulino is a fantasy mystery. Jon is a deep-sea treasure hunter, or he is until a nasty argument with his boss leaves him unemployed. Not long after, his ex-colleagues salvage five chests from the bottom of the ocean and are all murdered in a highly mysterious way. The police automatically start looking at Jon as a suspect, whilst the real killer, a supernatural serial killer, targets all of Jon’s loved ones. 

I received an electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

Initially, I was intrigued by the concept of this novel. Deep-sea treasure hunting sounded like so much fun combined with mystery/thriller aspects and a touch of fantasy – sounds just like my cup of tea. Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed.

Jon and Natalie, the protagonist and the love interest could have been such interesting characters. Jon had all his history at sea treasure hunting and in the rare moments that past showed itself, Jon was a brilliant character. However, half the time it felt as if ‘deep-sea treasure hunter’ was just a title tacked on. I had a real issue with Natalie; we were told that she was a lawyer and that her father was Jon’s boss. Unfortunately, these two facts never made it past that, facts. We were introduced to Natalie as the object of someone’s sexual desire and not much changed even as we got to know her. Any moment of brilliance she may have had was interrupted by her thirsting over Jon.

The plot was actually pretty good. I felt like it had decent pace and I definitely kept reading. It wasn’t the most unpredictable mystery, but I quite liked that. Chasing the real killer allowed JCR Paulino to explore different cultures and I liked how they were similar yet different. For something that was advertised as being about deep-sea treasure hunting, the actual treasure hunting was far too limited and I’d have liked to know a lot more about it, but I’m aware that including that may have slowed the pace of the mystery.

Overall, the book just ended up not being my cup of tea. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to read this book for free. It was a solid read, so I gave it three stars.

C🌙