Lori G. Armstrong Blood Ties
Plot:
Julie Collins is stuck in a dead-end secretarial job with the Bear Butte County Sheriff’s office, and still grieving over the unsolved murder of her Lakota half-brother. Lack of public interest in finding his murderer, or the killer of several other transient Native American men, has left Julie with a bone-deep cynicism she counters with tequila, cigarettes, and dangerous men. The one bright spot in her mundane life is the time she spends working part-time as a PI with her childhood friend, Kevin Wells. When the body of a sixteen-year old white girl is discovered in nearby Rapid Creek, Julie believes this victim will receive the attention others were denied. Then she learns Kevin has been hired, mysteriously, to find out where the murdered girl spent her last few days. Julie finds herself drawn into the case against her better judgment, and discovers not only the ugly reality of the young girl’s tragic life and brutal death, but ties to her and Kevin’s past that she is increasingly reluctant to revisit. On the surface the situation is eerily familiar. But the parallels end when Julie realizes some family secrets are best kept buried deep. Especially those serious enough to kill for.
My Review and Thoughts:
This is a worthy book to be talked about. A disturbing book at times and very realistic. From the first to the last page it captures the readers mind. The characters are well developed. I love the classic mystery style moments of investigation to solve the crime.
I love a good solid book and this plays out like that. The imagination holds the book and the reader to seek out the end of the story. The plot is displayed plus back story. The atmosphere is also mixed in with violence and the dramatic plot mixed thick to create a very memorable book with many great moments for the reader.
Dramatic and powerful at times weaving this tale together. The book has great wordplay at times, the vivid descriptions are amazing placing you there and creating an atmosphere of reality from page to the readers mind. Julie Collins your main star is a great developed character of intense force and emotional reality. She grows on the reader and the reader can understand and relate to her.
A great stand out part of the book is Julie and Kevin's friendship and chemistry as they set out and try to solve the case of Samantha, a murdered young girl. Both are great characters and both come together as true down to earth players.
I enjoyed how the reader can relate to Julie. Her hardships, death of loved ones, past mistakes, not so good up bringing and daily work to survive. This book plays out with a reality based feel that makes the book all the more better to consume.
The main negative to the book is the foul language through out, it's over used. Anyone can write a book with f-this and f-that as dialogue and to me this takes away a lot of quality of the writing and story.
If you look past this over use of words the story is a must read but like I say the trouble with this book is the over use of too many pieces of foul language that does not belong to tell the story. Started on page 18 of this small little over 300 page book I counted close to 70 uses of the f-word and that's not counting all the other language throughout. I am not a prude or some goody two shoes, but enough is enough, it just takes away from the story and makes the reader think the writer can't write dialogue.
One of the greatest written moments in the book, is on page 28, it shows you the amazing word play and awesome imagination created throughout this book. Here is a few lines that blew me away:
"According to the newspaper, the body had emerged miles from where he'd abandoned it. Memories from that day fluttered to the surface like aspen leaves caught in a windstorm, only to decay, rotten and dank, in the badlands of his mind. Her hair, a dull, mousy brown, had shimmered beneath the silvery water. In death she'd possessed purpose she'd lacked in life."
Interesting to note is that it felt at times that this book was written by two different people or at two different settings of style. The first part of the book grabbed you, held you and sent you into a wonderful amazing story and word play reality but then like half way through it was like a different reality set in. Julie your main star became a different persona.
The structure of the book changed in away that's hard to explain. The book is to long, I felt there was a lot of side stepping to stretch the book out. The book could have lost about 30 or 40 pages to make the story tight and not linger. With that negative talk it still is a great read, the book has a perfect character development, awesome action and suspense and a depressing story at times building it as a great little mystery.
Loved the final showdown even though I guessed who it was it still did not take away from the story itself. I think its a worthy book to read even with it's flaws.
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