Bleedout [Hardcover]

Joan Brady (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 4, 2005

Hugh Freyl is a blind lawyer, scion of Illinois' most influential family. He recounts this story from the grave. David Marion is Freyl's protege and a young convicted killer whose release from prison Freyl has orchestrated. He now stands accused of Hugh Freyl's murder. None from Freyl's powerful inner circle will stand up for David's innocence. The perfect scapegoat for their misdoings, he alone bears the burden of proof. Revealing the inner-workings of an untouchable elite with all their tricks, entitlements and intricate financial schemes, Brady shows us a place that could be any small American city - a place where innocence can backfire and where fear is the only effective weapon against a corrupt government.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Whitbread Award–winning novelist Brady (Theory of War) has crafted an action-packed, densely woven thriller set in Springfield, Ill., about a blind attorney and the young man who may or may not have murdered him. David Marion, 33, who spent his teens and 20s in prison for the murder of his foster brother and foster father, is now the prime suspect in the brutal murder of Hugh Freyl, the lawyer who reformed Marion in prison. As a trusting relationship blossomed between the two men, Hugh realized how smart, decent—and innocent—David really was; the story of their friendship is told in flashbacks. At the start of the present-day narrative, "gate-crasher" David ducks into Freyl's funeral tent to pay his respects, much to the horror of the other guests, mostly condescending high society types like Hugh's mother, Becky. But as Hugh and his personal assistant Stephanie Willis had discovered before Hugh's death, David was probably never a killer. More digging reveals prison torture, child abuse and serious flaws in the original case against David. Meanwhile, positive evidence proves David had nothing to do with Hugh's death, and he shifts into fierce detective mode with Stephanie's help and some cash incentive from shifty Becky, discovering "overcultivated orchards of corporate fraud" within Hugh's slick law firm. After Stephanie and David sift through several backstabbing crooks, the real killer is flushed out at the conclusion of this satisfying if somewhat long-winded novel. Agent, George Lucas. $100,000 ad/promo. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Review

"A gripping page-turner...psychologically insightful and deeply moving." -- Jeffery Deaver

"A tense, dense, spiraling story...spellbinding...a master class in suspense." -- Val McDermid, author of The Distant Echo

"Like Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent, this is much more than a can't-put-it-down thriller." -- Library Journal, starred review --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (April 4, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743267893
• ISBN-13: 978-0743267892
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.3 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,870,693 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A New Anti-Hero, April 23, 2005

By 

S. J. Sutherland - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bleedout: A Novel (Hardcover)

There are two authors named Joan Brady, so watch out. It you want intelligent, creative, compelling writing, this is the Joan Brady to read. I have been hooked on this Joan Brady ever since I read her Whitbread Award winner, "Theory of War" and eagerly await each new novel. "Bleedout", which is categorized as a "thriller" (a total departure for Brady) has been worth the wait, even if, like me, you do not usually gravitate toward thrillers.

The book consists of two cleverly interwoven narratives, one, quite convincingly, from beyond the grave. That narrative is blind (and murdered) lawyer Hugh Freyl's. The other is David Marion's, a young convicted double-murderer Freyl had befriended. "Ah!," you say, "I can see it coming." Don't be too sure. As the novel develops, David becomes one of the great anti-heros in recent memory.

It is not just the main characters, Hugh and David, who are well crafted. So are most of the secondary ones. My favourite is Hugh's imperious, yet strangely endearing, mother, Becky. Perhaps it is because I have known two Beckys in my life, and Brady seems to have captured both of them in one.

With her usual meticulous research and passion, Joan Brady has taken on the prison system, corporate fraud and the American legal system. Also, it would seem, the city of Springfield, Illinois. This however, may be more of a love-hate relationship than is immediately evident.

But then, nothing is as it seems in "Bleedout".

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Grim Tale in Springfield, April 13, 2005

By 

Maryly La Follette (Annapolis, Maryland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bleedout: A Novel (Hardcover)

Rarely have I finished a book and thought: I shall never visit that town. However, that is how the colourful description of Springfield, Illinois contained in Bleedout effected me. It is not only the people in Bleedout who provide a fascinating study in evil, but also the town in which it is set.

I have read all of Joan Brady's previous books and was waiting with great anticipation for this latest demonstration of her talents. While certainly a deviation from Theory of War, Death of Peter Pan and Emigre, it nevertheless demonstrates Brady's talent as a story teller and an observer of human nature.

Not only is the book well structured and well written, the research into various factual and scientific matters shows the author's wide range of interests and knowledge. The study of the characters of David Marion and Hugh Freyl are believable and realistic. As so often in life, I had varying reactions to these characters throughout the book. From a starting point of finding Marion quite repulsive, I grew to liking and grudging admiration. The presentation of the characters and their interaction from two points (Marion is alive and Freyl speaks from the grave) is clever and it works.

The book's conclusion is not one I would have expected. In that I was held to the end, wanting to know who had killed Freyl and hoping that it would not be Marion. I do not want to comment further on the conclusion as part of the pleasure of this read is the author's ability to keep the reader in suspense.

I would happily recommend this book to friends and family. No doubt it would make a good thriller movie.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Trust no one., March 31, 2005

By 

E. Bukowsky "booklover10" (NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bleedout: A Novel (Hardcover)

David Marion has had a miserable life. As a boy he was beaten, neglected, and moved around from one horrible foster home to another. He committed a variety of crimes and spent time in juvenile detention. At the age of fifteen, he was convicted of murder and landed in a federal penitentiary. "Bleedout," by Joan Brady, is the story of David's painful road to redemption.

Hugh Freyl is a blind attorney who takes David under his wing. He visits the young man in prison, educates him, and devises legal strategies that will eventually free him. When Hugh is beaten to death, David attempts to track down the killer of his friend and mentor. His odyssey leads him down a circuitous path of corruption, insanity, betrayal, and death.

Brady has a gimmicky narrative style. Part of the book is told in the first person by the dead attorney, Hugh Freyl, who talks poignantly about his blindness, his profession, the woman he loves, and most of all, his obsession with helping David. The rest of the book takes place in the present, and follows David's investigation of Hugh Freyl's death and his own journey of self-discovery.

"Bleedout" works better as a psychological novel than it does as a crime thriller. Brady vividly describes the horrors of prison life and the manner in which David acquires the skills that help him survive. Thanks to Hugh, David has acquired an education, but he has trouble learning to trust anyone, even himself. He forms an uneasy alliance with Hugh's mother, Becky Freyl, a formidable woman who is imperious, wealthy, and powerful, and with Stephanie, Hugh's former assistant.

"Bleedout" starts out intriguingly, but it meanders more and more as the narrative progresses. David gets involved in forensic accounting, which is a stretch, and there are distracting subplots involving a Supreme Court justice, a crooked attorney, and an ambitious and opportunistic politician. The denouement of the book is shocking and not entirely believable. "Bleedout" has some moments of undeniable power, and I was genuinely interested in David and Hugh's unusual friendship, but the book is not cohesive enough to make the grade as a first-rate thriller.