What would you do if one night your whole life changed?
If everything you thought you knew was suddenly turned on its head?
If you had to take your child and keep moving.
Away from the questions, away from the prying eyes, away from everyone you knew.
Because it’s your job to make sure that your daughter can survive.
Even if it means becoming someone you never thought you'd be.
And you know that whatever you do, wherever you go, people will be looking for you both.
Because wherever you go, bodies are left behind.
But you have no choice.
Because you’d do anything to protect your child.
Even if she’s a monster . . .
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Blood Like Mine by Stuart Neville is published on 15 August 2024 by Simon & Schuster. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review.
Back in February 2022 I read and reviewed Stuart Neville's The House of Ashes. In that review I mentioned that those who prefer cosy crime, with little to emotionally challenge them would probably struggle with the book. I will say that again about Blood Like Mine. This is a tense, often horrifying road-trip novel that dishes up crime, horror, a touch of supernatural and a whole lot of nightmares.
I loved it! I haven't stopped thinking about it since I finished it and have wanted to talk to everyone about it.
Rebecca and her daughter Monica, known as Moonflower are on the run. They are travelling in an old, battered van, with little money or food. Desperate and aware of the dangers of being found, Rebecca will do anything to ensure that her daughter is kept safe. Some of the things that this loving mother finds herself having to do are so alien to her, and to the reader, yet the overwhelming depiction of a mother's love for her daughter ensures that the story rings so true.
Meanwhile FBI Agent Marc Donner is the man who is most determined to catch these women. Despite the views of his peers and his bosses, he is convinced that Rebecca is responsible for a string of murders that have taken place over the past two year. The victims are always male, the majority of them have a history of being violent and abusive, and they've all died in horrific circumstances. Donner's quest has taken him to the verge of ruin; his job is on the line, his marriage is dead, his children never see him. The only real relationship that he has is with the bottle, and even his work partner is beginning to tire of his relentless quest to find these women.
This is most certainly a crime novel, with heinous and bloody deaths, it is also a supernatural horror story, with Moonflower's current state being explained cleverly through letters written to her from her mother over many years.
It is Rebecca's own story that drives this plot, it is the touching depiction of the way that her life changed as a young woman, and the unquestioning love that she has for Moonflower. It is her total willingness to sacrifice her entire life to ensure that Moonflower survives, that total undisputed love of the mother for a child.
There's an increasing desperation that grows throughout the story, as both Rebecca and Donner become almost unhinged in their individual goals. Both of them begin to take risks, both of them realising that however this ends, it will not be how they wanted it to.
This is an ambitious, sweeping, character driven story that utterly consumed me. It's really quite magnificent. Highly recommended
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