Blood by
Patricia Traxler
pbk out October 02
(Piatkus)
at £6.99
"Though it's true there's a killing in my story, its principal violence is, I think I'd
have to say, the violence of love." So begins Blood, the story of Norrie Blume, a
painter who has traded her job as a commercial graphic designer to take up a
prestigious fellowship at Harvard's Radcliffe college for a year. Norrie is deeply
involved with a married man, Irish-American author Michael. Their secret affair
threatens to wreak havoc on their own lives and those around them. At Radcliffe
Norrie makes friends with two other fellows: a journalist and a poet. One friendship
brings her pleasure and intimacy, the other makes her feel guilty and uneasy. As
Norrie works on a series of paintings, the tensions between the different relationships
mount and murder results.
Suspenseful and intriguing, Traxler's first novel is a fine literary thriller, eloquent on
the power of desire and the dangers of obsession. She creates a claustrophobic world
and writes vividly about the creative process as well as observing the nuances of love,
repulsion and fear.
M.E.N. 30.11.02
(
Cath Staincliffe
author of the popular Sal Kilkenny mysteries set on the mean streets of Manchester)
