Blood Work

Blood Work may refer to:

Blood Work (film)

Blood Work is a 2002 American mystery thriller film produced, directed by, and starring Clint Eastwood. The film co-stars Jeff Daniels, Wanda De Jesús, and Anjelica Huston. It is based on the novel of the same name by Michael Connelly.

Eastwood won the Future Film Festival Digital Award at the Venice Film Festival.

Plot

During a homicide investigation, FBI agent Terry McCaleb goes outside to address the media when he spots the killer in the crowd. But the chase ends after McCaleb suffers a heart attack and only manages to wound the killer.

Now retired, he lives in a houseboat on the Long Beach bay. He has been given a second chance at life by receiving the heart of a murder victim. He is approached by a woman named Graciella Rivers, whose sister was killed during a robbery and asks him to solve the case. It gets personal when McCaleb realizes the victim was the woman whose heart was transplanted into him.

McCaleb defies the advice of his physician, Dr. Bonnie Fox, and sets out to find the killer with the help of his neighbor Buddy Noone, who lives on a houseboat near his, and a local police detective, Jaye Winston. It is revealed that Buddy is the killer that McCaleb has been looking for. Buddy wanted McCaleb out of retirement so that he'll be a hero again. He also reveals that he has kidnapped Graciella and her nephew, which ends in a shootout on a fishing boat. After shooting Buddy, his last words to McCaleb: I saved you. McCaleb starts a new life with Graciella and her nephew.

Blood Work (novel)

Blood Work is a novel written by Michael Connelly which marks the first appearance of Terry McCaleb. The book was used as the basis for the 2002 movie of the same name, starring Clint Eastwood. Connelly was inspired to write the story by a friend who received an organ transplant.

Plot summary

After receiving a heart transplant, retired FBI criminal profiler Terrell "Terry" McCaleb is contacted by Graciela Rivers, the sister of his donor Gloria, and asked to investigate her death, which occurred during an unsolved convenience store robbery. McCaleb had become a minor celebrity as the head of the FBI task force on the "Code Killer", an L.A.-based serial killer (similar to the Zodiac Killer) who always signed his notes with the code "903 472 568", but he is now living on his fishing boat and has been inactive to prevent rejection of his new heart (to the extent that he cannot even drive). He reluctantly agrees to help Graciela but finds the police handling the case to be extremely hostile. However, he is able to match the style of another killing to Gloria's and gets a copy of the files for both cases from Jaye Winston, the sheriff's deputy on that case. He surprisingly discovers that the call reporting Gloria's shooting was placed slightly prior to the actual shooting, leading him to suspect that Gloria was targeted for murder. He interviews the only witness to the second crime, a man called James Noone, but fails to learn much.