A Tale Inspired By Real Events
Description
Perfect town. Perfect homes. Perfect families. It’s enough to drive some women mad…
In a tale inspired by real events, pregnant journalist Joan Harken is cautiously excited to follow her fiancé back to his Minnesota hometown. After spending a childhood on the move and chasing the screams and swirls of news-rich city life, she’s eager to settle down. Lilydale’s motto, “Come Home Forever,” couldn’t be more inviting.
And yet, something is off in the picture-perfect village.
The friendliness borders on intrusive. Joan can’t shake the feeling that every move she makes is being tracked. An archaic organization still seems to hold the town in thrall. So does the sinister secret of a little boy who vanished decades ago. And unless Joan is imagining things, a frighteningly familiar figure from her past is on watch in the shadows.
Her fiancé tells her she’s being paranoid. He might be right. Then again, she might have moved to the deadliest small town on earth.
Detail
- Rating: ☆☆☆☆
- Title: Bloodline
- Author: Jess Lourey
- Genre: Psychological Thriller, Kidnapping, Mystery
- Audience: Adult
- Length: 347 pages
- Publisher: Thomas Mercer
- Release Date: January 1, 2021
- Recommended for fans of: Fast moving psychological thrillers that blur the line between fact and fiction
My Thoughts
After journalist Joan Harken gets mugged, her boyfriend Deck finally convinces her to move from Minneapolis to Lilydale, Minn. Deck’s father is mayor and head of the country draft board. So for Joan’s safety and Deck’s ability to avoid military service in Vietnam, they move back to Deck’s hometown.
The year is 1968, Joan is pregnant, but will the town be acceptant of pregnancy pre marriage? And will this unique community be in favor of Joan continuing her career?
Joan quickly discovers that Lilydale, Minn. has secrets. And one of the most notable being the disappearance of a boy on his first day of kindergarten 24 years ago. So when a young man shows up in town claiming to be just that boy, Paulie Aandeg, the reporter in Joan comes to life. And since her father-in-law saw to it she got a small job at the local newspaper, Joan is assigned the story.
She soon discovers even more strange facts about the town, including unusual smallpox vaccination scars.
This is a mystery, a town with secrets, and a fast-paced story that will hold your attention to the last page.
Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for this ARCI was free to post my opinion.
What Concerned Me
Though the true disappearance of a kindergarten child on the first day of school, prompted this book, the fictional part created by author Jess Lourey, concerned me. Even though the setting is the 1960s where attitudes were much different, and the availability of technology not what it is today, I still needed to suspend disbelief.
Final Thoughts
The writing was terrific and the story captured my attention quickly. Characters were developed enough to feel appropriate and believable.
As I mentioned earlier, there were places in the story that I thought really? But the pace and suspense made it easier to overlook things that I questioned.
This is the first book I’ve read by Jess Lourey, but she will now be on my watch list.
Rating
About the Author
She is the Amazon Charts bestselling author of nonfiction, YA adventure, magical realism, and crime fiction. She’s a tenured professor of writing and sociology, a recipient of The Loft’s Excellence in Teaching fellowship, a Psychology Today blogger, a TEDx presenter (check out her TEDx Talk to discover the surprising inspiration behind MAY DAY, her first published novel), and a leader of writing retreats for women.
She lives in Minneapolis with her family and foster cats (and occasional foster puppies, but man those goobers are a lot of work). You can find out more at jessicalourey.com.
