Country: USA
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 407
Order FROM BLOOD here
Author and crime fiction erudite Heath Lowrance set a special category for novels like FROM BLOOD in his Historical Guide to Hardboiled/Noir. He calls them ''doorstop thrillers'' and qualifies them as ''longer works, with a greater literary concern'' that contrasted with the short tightly wrapped nature of the early thrillers era. FROM BLOOD is a doorstop thriller done right, that casts a light on a troublesome era of 20th Century America. The sixties, the counterculture and ultimately the violent uproar of leftist groups like The Weather Underground. Edward Wright being a talented storyteller, he doesn't give a history lesson through his novel, but rather intertwines historical fact with a long-winded, layered multi-generational plotline that swallows both characters and reader into its depths.
Shannon Fairchild is a graduate school dropout. She was a history PhD student and dropped everything suddenly to open her own house cleaning business. She's doing great at it, got multiple contracts in rich households of small upscale community of San Malo. She's wrestling with feelings of emptiness and unfinished business, but she sees her troubles as petty. One night, she's called in a panic by her sister Beth. Her parents' house is on fire and they were find beaten, tortured and shot. Her mom survive long enough to give her cryptic last words that will lead Shannon into their parrallel existence. The Fairchilds, a respectable couple of scholars, used to live a different life in the sixties, where they lived for an ideal greater than themselves. They have been carrying a dangerous secret for decades and the torch is now passed to Shannon.
Like I said earlier, Edward Wright's plotting is about flawless. Wrapping up a two-generations epic tale of jealousy and power struggles must've took patience and planning and the final product draws you in. Chapter after chapter, Wright adds up variables to his story, like it was a Jenga tower and it takes a greater and deeper meaning by the page. One thing thought, FROM BLOOD struck a bull's eye on one of my literary pet peeves. Shannon Fairchild is a fun, flawed character, but she's not given much breathing room. Her flaws are told by the narrator and other characters, but she's too often swept away by the events of the novel to show them in her character. That rubbed me the wrong way. Most novels are or character or plot-driven and the special novels are both. There was the potential to FROM BLOOD to rise above, but in the end, it didn't. It was a very good novel that is a credit to doorstop thrillers, but it didn't transcend the genre.
If I had to express my feelings towards FROM BLOOD in the most concise fashion, I'd say : ''Well-crafted, but not my cup of tea''. I found the plot to be spectacularly wrapped, but the sheer ambition of it crushed the character depth under its weight a bit. I'd have settled for less epic search of long-hidden truth and more of Shannon and what makes her who she is. That's a personal point of view. Some readers will be all over FROM BLOOD and understandably so. Edward Wright is a gifted storyteller and this novel has a fun, scorching pace to it. Wright could easily give plotting lessons to aspiring writers classes. FROM BLOOD is a perfect book to read during the Holidays or over a vacation as it offers a well-drawn, compelling form of escapism. It's something you have to read in moderations, but if you have to pick one to spend a day with, you should target FROM BLOOD.
THREE STARS