Bloodline

by Gerry Boyle

Overview

Missy Hewett was a success story in the small town of Prosperity, Maine. She was smart, pleasant—and pregnant in high school. Giving the child up for adoption was the answer, but then Missy decided she wanted her baby back. Both she and reporter Jack McMorrow, writing a story on teen parents, find it’s not that simple. And in Missy’s case, hunting a baby is a risky business.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781939017468
Publisher:	Islandport Press
Publication date:	11/01/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	328
Sales rank:	843,789
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Gerry Boyle began his writing career working for newspapers—a start he calls the best training ground ever. After attending Colby College, he knocked around at various jobs, including stints as a roofer, a postman, and a manuscript reader at a big New York publisher. He began his newspaper career in the paper mill town of Rumford, Maine. There was a lot of small-town crime in Rumford and Gerry would later mine his Rumford time for his first novel, Deadline After a few months he moved on to the Morning Sentinel in Waterville, where editors gave him a thrice-weekly column and he wrote about stuff he saw in police stations and courtrooms in the towns and cities of Maine. All the while he was also typing away on a Smith-Corona electric typewriter, writing Deadline which marked his debut s a novelist in 1993. Since finishing Deadline, he has written eight additional Jack McMorrow stories with a tenth, Once Burned, scheduled for release in May 2015.

What People are Saying About This

Judith Kelman

Swift, smart, and suspenseful. A compelling read from a big, new talent.

Editorial Reviews

Boyle's effective, low-key sequel to Deadline brings back ex-New York Times reporter Jack McMorrow, who is making a habit of getting in trouble in his new home in Prosperity, Maine. Jack has taken a high-paying assignment from New England Look magazine to write an article on ``Kids Having Kids.'' Poking about a nearby high school leads him to Missy Hewett, who gave up her baby for adoption before moving to Prosperity where she intends to finish her schooling. Questioning local teenagers gains Jack an enemy who shoots up his house and sets fire to his truck. After Missy is found murdered, the police make the nosy journalist their prime suspect. At the same time, Jack is getting involved again with his ex-girlfriend, who left him because of the craziness he got into in Deadline. Boyle deftly establishes mood and setting, clearly defines his characters and offers lots of reflection from Jack, whose subdued first-person narration gives this solid mystery an intimate, small-town air. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

YA-``Kids having kids'' is not a subject with which Jack McMorrow, a 38-year-old former New York Times writer transplanted to rural Maine, is familiar. Living a solitary existence off a steadily dwindling retirement fund in a bat-infested house and spending his days bird-watching and drinking beer, however, make the offer of a freelance job look pretty good. Jack accepts, thus setting out on a road that leads to harassment, violence, cover-up, and murder. Boyle writes evocatively of rural life in all of its manifestations and, along with his very real characterizations and sly, subtle humor, offers readers much more than simply a good story. Robert B. Parker enthusiasts will welcome the advent of Jack McMorrow.-Pamela B. Rearden, Centreville Regional Library, Fairfax County, VA

School Library Journal

Jack McMorrow is a former "New York Times" reporter mending his soul in rural Maine. But a man's gotta eat, so when an offer comes to do a story on teenage motherhood, Jack accepts. He starts with Missy Hewitt, a local girl who recently gave her baby up for adoption. She supplies Jack with several sensible reasons for her decision, but a couple of days later, she leaves Jack a message saying she wants to get her baby back. Then she turns up murdered, and before you can say phone trace, the cops are viewing Jack as a suspect. Meanwhile, Jack's investigation--it's a big-time story now--puts him in contact with all the various agencies and lawyers in the area who operate in the potentially lucrative adoption market. There are bucks in babies, and where there's money there's motive. This second entry in the McMorrow series is an improvement over the first, "Deadline" (1993). McMorrow is less a collection of traits and quirks and much more a fully realized character. There's also an intriguing cast of secondary characters who bode well for future McMorrow adventures.

Wes Lukowsky