Synopsis (from
the publisher):
For a son, every funeral before his father's death is a rehearsal and
every funeral thereafter is a memorial.
Kyle Byrne, the illegitimate son of a prominent Philadelphia lawyer,
had to sneak into his father's funeral when he was fourteen years old.
Twelve years later, his father's death still casts a shadow upon his
heart.
Now amiable and handsome, Kyle finds himself drifting through a life of
slack. With his house in foreclosure and his part-time job lost, he
spends his days playing Xbox and his nights in Philly bars, drinking
way too much and sleeping with the wrong type of women. Life is, well,
actually pretty damn sweet.
But when his father's former law partner is brutally murdered, the cops
see Kyle as a possible suspect and start asking uncomfortable questions
about his father's death. And after a strange encounter with one of his
father's former clients, Kyle enters into a search for answers that
leads from his father's past to the highest pinnacles of
power—and forces Kyle to lay bare the deceptions and losses in
his own life.
Just when it seems he's close to learning the truth about his father
and the murder, Kyle is reminded of that old adage "be careful what you
wish for." Because Kyle Byrne's most fervent wish is suddenly about to
come true—with a vengeance.
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Blood and Bone
Non-series
William
Lashner
William Morrow (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 0-06-114348-0 (0061143480)
ISBN-13: 978-0-06-114348-9 (9780061143489)
Publication Date: February 2009
List Price: $24.99
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Review: At age
12, Kyle Byrne attends the funeral of his father with his mother and
his Uncle, Max. Given that Liam Byrne has a wife, not Kyle’s
mother, they receive a less-than-friendly reception. After they get
tossed out of the church, Kyle retaliates by running back in, grabbing
the urn of his father’s ashes and tearing off into the graveyard.
He still has some of the ashes in the glove box of his car.
Fourteen years later, Laszlo Toth, Liam’s former law partner,
dies from a gunshot wound in his office. Police detectives Ramirez and
Henderson don’t quite agree on what happened that night. Ramirez,
a young Hispanic female success story, thinks a robbery went wrong.
Henderson, a black cop considering retirement, believes the office
remained a bit too neat to be the work of a drugged-up gang member on a
tear.
Kyle coasts through life, playing Xbox by day and drinking and
carousing with the wrong kind of women by night. He keeps thinking
he’s seen the top of his father’s gray head from time to
time, most recently while running between first and second at a pub
baseball game. He wonders a lot how his life would have turned out if
his father hadn’t died. The murder of Toth and an odd discussion
about a missing file of Liam’s with one of his former clients at
the funeral causes Kyle to wonder if his father really died of a heart
attack. This peaks Kyle’s curiosity like nothing has since he
lost his father. He begins to investigate and realizes he might be over
his head, but he’s determined to find out the truth about his
father. The problem is he might find out things he didn’t want to
know.
Lashner, well-known for his Victor Carl series, has opted for a
stand-alone novel this time out with Blood
and Bone. At its heart, this novel delves into the
relationships: between fathers and sons, detective partners, men and
women and between friends. One of the things I liked most about this
novel is the depth of reality to these characters, and thus their
imperfections. Kyle has a lot of issues, but he has a lot of charm as
well. Many might feel frustrated as his life seems aimless until he
hits on the goal of finding the truth about his father. But he also has
a vulnerability that to me brought compassion and a sense of wanting to
help him. I’ve also known a few people in similar situations, and
while I certainly have wanted to knock some sense in them from time to
time, it didn’t stop me from caring about them. Lashner hooked me
on the first page with a lost twelve-year-old Kyle on the way to his
father’s funeral. It doesn’t matter that his father
wasn’t around much. He still has lots of answers. And Kyle might
ask others the questions if he only knew what they were.
Lashner has terrific secondary characters as well, from the squabbling
Ramirez and Henderson to Kyle’s best friend, Kat (or Shin, Katie
Shin—in tough girl mode) to Max, Kyle’s uncle who spends
way too much time drinking at the Old Pig Snout. Lashner also lets us
into the head of the killer who is a puppet of someone else. The
killer’s introspection and relationship with the manipulator
fascinate as well.
Lashner has crafted a fast-moving plot that alternates between the two
viewpoints to maintain suspense, but the reader wouldn’t lose
interest anyway. In addition to writing a terrific suspense story,
Lashner succeeds on an emotional level as well. He brings to life
locations as well as he does characters and emotions. For anyone who
enjoys a mystery that has much more than just a superficial plot, Blood and Bone is a must read.
Special thanks to Katherine Petersen for contributing her review of Blood and Bone and to for providing of the book for this review.
Review Copyright © 2009 — Katherine Petersen — All Rights Reserved — Reprinted with Permission
Have you read Blood and Bone? How would you rate it?
Non-series novels by this author …
Blood and Bone
William Morrow (Hardcover), February 2009
ISBN-10: 0-06-114348-0 (0061143480)
ISBN-13: 978-0-06-114348-9 (9780061143489)
Omnimystery keywords for Blood and Bone ...
Location(s) referenced: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
