The Weight of Blood by Laura McHugh

Published by Spiegel & Grau on March 11, 2014

The Weight of Blood is a novel about two women who did not choose their lives but did their best with what they had. It is also a novel about families -- the "Blood" in the title -- and the heavy weight people are sometimes required by kinship to bear.

It would not be politically correct to refer to the characters in The Weight of Blood as hillbillies, but most of them fit the stereotypes that the term evokes. The two exceptions are Lila and her daughter Lucy. They generally tell their stories in alternating chapters, although a few chapters fill in gaps by focusing on other characters. The two storylines take place at different times, Lila's in the past and Lucy's in the present.

After turning 18 and leaving foster care, Lila takes a job with a fellow named Crete in Henbane because it offers room and board. Crete wants to take advantage of Lila but his nicer brother Carl is the one who wins her affection. Jealous admirers of Carl think Lila must be a witch who cast a spell on him. In any event, Lila has a rough time at Crete's until Crete and Carl work out a deal that changes Lila's life.

Lucy is earning money for college by working for her Uncle Crete's canoe rental business during the summer. While cleaning a trailer, she finds a necklace that she once gave Cheri, a mentally disabled woman who was murdered and dismembered at the age of 18. Before Cheri's death, the disappearance of Lucy's mother while Lucy was still a baby was the biggest mystery in Henbane.

The twin mysteries that occupy Lucy's mind -- what happened to her mother and what happened to Cheri -- provide the novel's dramatic tension. Some aspects of the novel are unconvincing. The circumstances of Cheri's demise are a bit over-the-top, although they are consistent with the book's gruesome tone, which piles evil upon evil in the monstrous town of Henbane. The explanation of Lila's disappearance seems anticlimactic. I never entirely bought into the story and I didn't buy the ending at all -- it's just too convenient.

Despite being lukewarm about the plot, I loved the character development. Many of the characters are unusually creepy but Laura McHugh creates them in such vivid detail that I was left with the unsettling feeling that the vile characters were real. Other characters gain the reader's sympathy. I also like the way the story is written. The characters speak in authentic voices. McHugh builds suspense skillfully although she lets it fizzle away before the story ends. She also writes with a good sense of pace. The Weight of Blood has its problems, but not so many that I was tempted to stop reading before it reached its conclusion.

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Border War by Lou Dobbs and James O. Born

Published by Forge Books on May 6, 2014

A central character in Lou Dobbs' novel is Ted Dempsey, the "most popular commentator" on a news network. Dempsey, who has the "best sources" in new broadcasting, prides himself on educating Americans about illegal immigration and porous borders. He annoys politicians because his commentary is unassailably correct and urgently important. Gosh, I wonder who Lou Dobbs had in mind when he fashioned Ted Dempsey?

Of course, nearly all Americans love Dempsey because they realize his few detractors are wrongheaded dimwits who are unfairly criticizing a brilliant and patriotic American. While other news commentators are "empty suits," Dempsey is a well-educated man of "substance" who always make his points "clearly and rationally." He is, we are told, one of the Americans who "make this country great." The novel's other characters -- even the Mexican drug lords -- talk about the "larger than life" Dempsey constantly. Dobbs' use of this novel to engage in unabashed ego-stroking is relentless.

Border War begins with a conversation between FBI Agent Tom Erickson and Customs (ICE) Agent John Houghton. They know each other well but they nevertheless tell each other all about their job histories and educational backgrounds. Houghton also announces that he is black, something Erickson had probably noticed. They even tell each other what they're doing together on the border near El Paso. All of this is for the reader's benefit but since the friends are telling each other things they already know, none of it sounds natural. It's a writing technique that signals a lack of sophistication. The rest of the novel is equally amateurish.

The "dapper" Dempsey shows up in Texas so he can lecture characters about his favorite issues while reminding them that he is a responsible and well-connected journalist. Of course, everyone in Texas wants his autograph and he is "unfailingly polite and pleasant" to common people, but he's happiest when he is talking to "another Harvard man." Dobbs makes sure we know that Dempsey is a regular guy who happens to make a ton of money but he's also generous and giving (he rents a limo for his producer on his producer's last day) because that's just the kind of wonderful man he is.

Every few chapters, Dobbs takes a break from praising his fictionalized self so that he can provide the reader with a stern lecture about his favorite topics. Whether you agree or disagree with his political point of view (I'm indifferent to it), pontification doesn't make for good story-telling.

On occasion (but not often enough), Dobbs stops talking about himself long enough to advance the meager plot, although for the first two-thirds of the novel the random collection of shootings and border crossings does not deserve to be called a plot. Part of the story involves the attempt by various parties to capture a computer geek who hardly seems worth the effort. The last third of the novel focuses on a drug cartel's laughable attempt to assassinate someone. The contrived scenario leads to a preposterous "surprise" that is no surprise because it is so consistent with the rest of the novel. I could forgive the lack of credibility if it made the story interesting, but the assassin is such a bumbling fool that the final plot thread adds another layer of boredom to a dull story. I cannot forgive Dobbs' constant infusion of self-love into a novel that is apparently intended only to glorify Dobbs.

NOT RECOMMENDED

Past the Shallows by Favel Parrett

First published in Australia; published by Washington Square Press on April 22, 2014

Miles works on his father's fishing boat, from which his father and another man dive for abalone off the coast of Tasmania. Miles hates the work, hates his life. His mother died in a car accident that Miles and his younger brother Harry survived. More recently, his grandfather died. His older brother Joe is building his own boat and intends to sail away to a better life. Miles wants to go to school but that plan is shattered when his father's helper is injured, forcing Miles to take his place on the boat. If he can't earn a living by fishing, he may be destined for the cannery, where most of his former classmates work.

The novel's focus divides between Miles and Harry. Joe plays only a peripheral role, as does a man named George who, despite his frightening appearance, befriends Harry and gives him a sense of how a father should behave. With Joe gone, Harry and Miles count on each other for the love that their father withholds, but they are young and they need more than each other.

Past the Shallows is a novel of terrible secrets and lost innocence. It is at times difficult to read. Some scenes are harrowing and others are shocking. For reasons that are not fully revealed until near the novel's end, Miles' father would easily win a trophy for World's Worst Dad. He is drunk and abusive but that's only half the story. This is a book that, years from now, I am likely to remember with a shudder.

Although in many ways depressing, the sadness of the story is partially offset by wonderful scenes of rural people doing what they can (even when it isn't much) to help each other. The characters in Past the Shallows are so convincing and the story is so intense and so honest that, depressing or not, it makes for compelling reading. Favel Parrett tells the story in crisp, quiet language that is evocative without ever overreaching or striking a false note. Past the Shallows is a book by a writer who is in firm control of her story, her characters, and her prose.

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The Eye by Bill Pronzini and John Lutz

First published in 1984; published digitally by Open Road Media on April 22, 2014

The Keeper of the Eye kills a drunken old man for committing the sin of rude behavior. He kills a gay man for committing the sin of being gay. He kills his third victim by mistake, but decides the man committed a sin worthy of death by having casual sex with Jennifer Crane. His fourth victim is a woman who is having an affair with an unemployed artist. The killings all occur on the same block. The killer, Lewis Collier, a/k/a the Keeper of Eye, is educated and articulate, but he has the deranged notion that he is the Lord's Avenger. The Eye sees everything and all that it sees is sinful. One of the novel's mysteries is how Collier sees and knows so much about the people on the block (as well as the undercover cops who are roaming about, hoping to find him).

Catching the serial killer is the job of Detective E.L. Oxman. He finds it hard to focus on the case after he meets Jennifer Crane, a woman on whom all men seem to focus. In the tradition of serial killer novels, Collier reveals himself to Oxman without revealing his identity, causing Oxman to worry that the Eye might have his eye on Jennifer Crane. Oxman's wife, on the other hand, is worried that Oxman might have his eye on another woman.

Although most of the novel is written in the third person, Collier tells his story in the first person as he dictates a recording of his thoughts. Bill Pronzini and John Lutz give Collier a distinct voice, educated and chilling, that imparts a creepier tone to his sections of the novel.

The attempt to catch a deranged killer is a familiar theme in crime fiction. This incarnation of that theme is particularly clever. The story winds its way to a twist at the end that I probably should have guessed but didn't. More importantly, The Eye distinguishes itself with its portrayal of the psychological impact of the murders on the intertwined lives of the block's residents. Relationships sour, friendships end, lives change. The disparate characters who live on the block -- including an aspiring actress who shoplifts jewelry to make ends meet, a burglar, a mentally disabled building superintendent who wants to be recognized for his winning streak at gin rummy, and a number of others -- are carefully drawn and generally sympathetic despite their faults, as is Oxman. The ensemble of credible neighborhood characters make The Eye stand out in the world of serial killer crime fiction.

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O, Africa! by Andrew Lewis Conn

Published by Hogarth on June 10, 2014

Micah and Izzy Grand are filmmakers in the silent age of Keaton and Chaplin. Their star is Harry Till, the appealing "everyman" of silent film comedy. Sadly for them, the age of silent movies is coming to an end. "Talkies" will soon be the rage, although the Grand brothers' producer assures them that talkies are just a fad.

The producer is clearly lacking business sense, which explains his studio's enormous debt. To recover his losses, the producer wants to send the Grands to Africa so they can film stock footage that the producer can lease to other studios. At the same time, two hoods to whom Micah owes a gambling debt dream up a "historical tragical" movie they call "O, Africa!" They are willing to forgive Micah's debt if he makes their movie. Izzy jumps at the chance to make a serious movie while Micah, who fears that they are incapable of making a serious film, is motivated to go to Africa by the need to avoid the potentially brutal consequences of his unpaid debt.

The Grand brothers are joined by their silent film star, a midget, the son of Micah's lover, and a couple of others as they journey to Africa. Apart from tribal leaders in Africa and the Grand brothers' entourage, other significant characters include Madam Queen Stephanie St. Clair, a Carribbean numbers runner who considers herself an investor in the film; Rose, Micah's African American lover; Rose's husband; Micah's wife; the brothers' financially troubled producer; and a variety of relatively benign criminals. All of the characters have the solidity of real people.

The movie the Grands plan to make initially involves the capture of slaves, a serious subject that Andrew Lewis Conn lightens with amusing images of the Grand bothers' interaction with villagers who don't know what to make of the odd people who enlist them as actors. When the brothers return from Africa, the question is whether their epic film will ever be made.

The promotional materials for O Africa! liken the novel to Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. It is similar in that it imagines children of immigrants in the first half of the twentieth century struggling to make their mark in a creative industry. Where Chabon's prose is an exercise in effortless elegance, however, Conn sometimes tries too hard. The resulting voice is occasionally strained. Not that Conn's prose is bad -- it is often quite good, just not uniformly excellent. Still, his writing is of a higher quality than most debut novelists manage.

The story features a litany of prejudices -- religion, race, sexual identity -- as if Conn was going through a checklist. Some of that comes across as forced. The novel's second half, including another trip to Africa, is less engaging than the first, and the ending is weak. There are nevertheless some excellent scenes in O, Africa!, scenes that would play well in a movie, whether silent or a talkie. In the end, the novel strives for a meaning it never quite attains. Its key themes -- filming the world changes it, the passage of time changes the world -- are underdeveloped. None of those flaws prevented me from enjoying O, Africa! The novel left me looking forward to Conn's next effort.

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