A Line of Blood: A Novel - Hardcover

McPherson, Ben

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0062406108 ISBN 13: 9780062406101

Publisher: William Morrow, 2015

Synopsis

Whose secrets cut deeper?
Your family's.

Whose secrets do you fear?
Your neighbor's.

Whose secrets can kill?
Your own.

For Alex Mercer, his wife, Millicent, and their precocious eleven-year-old son, Max, are everything—his little tribe that makes him feel all's right with the world. But when he and Max find their enigmatic next-door neighbor dead in his apartment, their lives are suddenly and irrevocably changed. The police begin an extremely methodical investigation, and Alex becomes increasingly impatient for them to finish. After all, it was so clearly a suicide.

As new information is uncovered, troubling questions arise—questions that begin to throw suspicion on Alex, Millicent, and even Max. Each of them has secrets it seems. And each has something to hide.

With the walls of their perfect little world closing in on them day after day, husband, wife, and son must decide how far they'll go to protect themselves—and their family—from investigators carefully watching their every move . . . waiting for one of them to make a mistake.

A Line of Blood explores what it means to be a family—the ties that bind us, and the lies that can destroy us if we're not careful. Highly provocative, intensely twisty and suspenseful, this novel will have you wondering if one of them is guilty—or if all of them are—and will keep you on edge until its shocking final pages.

You will never look at your loved ones the same way again. . . .

About this title

About the Author:

Ben McPherson is a television producer, director, and writer and for more than ten years worked for the BBC, among other outlets. He is currently a columnist for Aftenposten, Norway's leading quality daily, and lives in Oslo with his wife and two children.

Review:

“An impressive slice of domestic suspense... McPherson is a dab hand at creating realistically flawed characters to whom one just about manages to give the benefit of the doubt, and the ending... is still shocking.” (The Guardian)

“Fascinating. From the first page of A LINE OF BLOOD, I was hooked. I couldn’t put it down!” (Lisa Jackson, New York Times bestselling author)

“McPherson’s mystery is carefully constructed, a literary house of cards. Layer upon layer of revelation increases the tension.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“McPherson’s debut prolongs suspense until the dreadful truth becomes undeniable, raising the questions of how these well-drawn characters will survive and how justice is best served.” (Library Journal)

“A compelling read for its vivid portrait of a family whose secrets are hidden behind a mask of normalcy until a violent act rips it away... This is a novel for those who like their suspense written in dark tones.” (New York Journal of Books)

“McPherson displays a rare skill for creating characters with depth in a world that is splintering around them.” (Daily Mail (UK))

“Gripping from the get-go, A Line of Blood will have readers wondering what they might be capable of in the face of the terrible isolation of self within a family running off the rails.” (Tami Hoag, #1 New York Times Bestselling author of Cold Cold Heart)

“A family drama packed with suspense.” (The Sunday Post (UK))

“Many good novels pose the question: how should you act in certain circumstances? This is the question McPherson puts, and the answer that he finds for his characters seems to me admirable and yet morally dubious. This is how it should be.” (The Scotsman (UK))

“A Line of Blood delves deep into family dynamics for a psychological thriller with realistic twists that builds to a surprising denouement... [An] elegantly constructed plot reveals the secrets that bind these characters as well as pull them apart... An engrossing - and very dark - domestic thriller.” (Washington Post)

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0062406108
• ISBN 13: 9780062406101
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416