Review: A Line of Blood: A Novel

A Line of Blood: A Novel by Ben McPherson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was an Advanced Reader Copy generously provided to the library in exchange for a fair review.

A Line of Blood, the debut novel from Ben McPherson, is a dark look at the hidden side of relationships, and the lies we not only tell others, but ourselves. Alex and Millicent Mercer live in a small London neighborhood with their son, Max. For Alex, this life is everything he could have hoped for; his family--his little tribe--provide him with everything he wants in life. When Max and Alex find their neighbor dead in his bathtub, Alex is forced to confront the tough truth that his life is not as picture perfect as it seemed to be, and that his sense of himself isn't as honest as he'd like to believe.

This is an excellent debut from McPherson. While the basic premise has certainly been done before--"strange death uncovers dark family secrets" is well trod ground by now--McPherson's prose breathes real life into the world of this troubled family. The story is told entirely from Alex's perspective, which brilliantly lets us see, not only how he views his family, but how he views himself. This creates a wonderful tension, as McPherson so adroitly captures those moments where the person we tell ourselves we are comes into conflict with the things we do when we're really being ourselves. It's particularly impressive that Alex never comes across as cliche or unreal. His pain, anger, confusion feel very honest. McPherson perfectly captures not only the obvious thoughts and actions of a person in pain, but many of the subtly, harder to spot reactions.

Alex's relationship with his wife is brutally, brilliantly tragic. McPherson manages to impress upon the reader both the love they have for each other and the anger and resentment. Throughout the book, both characters do profoundly hurtful things and experience intense suffering, but McPherson allows each character to react and act, without falling into the trap of villainizing either of them. Both of them come across as people doing they best they can in life, but who have made intense, serious mistakes.

The weakest element of the story is the portrayal of Max. While there are times where Max was endearing, charming, and amusing, there were as many times where I had a hard time believing that this was a real child, or believing the ways that the adults around him were reacting to his behavior. In a book where the other main characters felt so real, and where I was sucked so completely into the drama of their lives, the flatness of Max was jarring.

Still, this was a tremendously engaging read, and I look forward to seeing what else McPherson comes out with. A Line of Blood is a thrilling trip to a dark place, and if it isn't completely unpredictable, it's still a tremendously well executed take on a familiar theme. The believable and moving exploration of Alex and Millicent's relationship, and the strains that the discoveries takes on it, more than make up for the weaker execution of Max.



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