Blood and Circumstance
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
A psychological mystery. Joel Stabler kills his beloved brother Danny in what appears to be murder in the name of mercy. When Joel's lawyers assign a psychologist to determine his sanity at the time of the shooting, the full story of Joel's family's past, and the long line of mental illness in that history, begins to unfold. Told mainly through Joel's pre-trial interview sessions with Dr. Andrews, Blood and Circumstance takes on the argument of nature versus nurture. And as Joel responds to his doctor's questions, he begins to evaluate the doctor, stealing glimpses of the session notes and noticing aspects leading to speculations about the doctor's personal life. As the reader listens in on their conversations, it becomes more and more difficult to decide what to believe, who, if either, is trustworthy, what happened for certain, what is truth? With his signature prose and unwavering close-up lens, Frank Turner Hollon's novel examines the uncertain search for identiy through the criss-crossing paths of blood and circumstance.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Reading like an offbeat criminal justice version of the talking-head film My Dinner with Andre, attorney Hollon's latest takes an intriguing look at the nature of mental capacity. The bulk of the novel consists of psychiatric sessions conducted in prison by Dr. Ellis Andrews with inmate Joel Stabler, accused of the murder of his brother, Danny. Joel's uncanny intelligence enables him to turn the tables on his interrogator, manipulating the doctor into empathizing with the accused, who claims that he took his sibling's life to spare Danny from the ravages of mental illness that devastated their father. The reliability of Joel's memories is called into question, leading to a satisfyingly ambiguous ending. The author's gift for understated dialogue makes the conversations between doctor and patient particularly compelling.
