Customer Reviews

Bleedout. A Novel

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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".

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.

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.

In Springfield, Illinois, someone murders blind lawyer Hugh Freyl in his firm's law library. The police suspect former con David Marion as the killer though motive seems elusive except for his having been convicted for killing his abusive foster-father and foster brother as a teen; Hugh got David freed from incarceration. In fact adulation would be more apropos; besides with the help of his assistant Stephanie Willis getting the inner city young man freed, he mentored David over the objections of his socially conscious upper crust family led by the apt conducting of his mother.

However, David has an iron clad alibi that proves he could not have killed his teacher though the victim's mother harangues the police and local politicians to arrest him as her son's killer. Knowing that the cops still will not look much beyond him, David and Stephanie begin to investigate Hugh's brutal murder starting with some seemingly financial wrongdoings at the law firm. Suspects with motives appear all over the city, but who would turn to murder remains difficult to solve.

The insightful description of David's time in prison starting at fifteen will have even compassionate conservatives screaming for reform as Joan Brady makes no pretensions on where she stands on the subject. David and Stephanie are fabulous lead protagonists; through them and the victim's mom a complete picure though sharp differences rise of Hugh comes into focus. Though much of Springfield to include the shrilling mommy dearest, the police, and the scions of society seem one dimensional, the amateur sleuth investigation conducted by two strong characters into the life of another well drawn player provide a fabulous who-done-it with a deep message.

Harriet Klausner

Joan Brady has been all over the map with her taste in authoring books. She's done Christian-flavored romance, been acidly critical of her former NYC Ballet boss, and explained herself way too personally on why she's still O.K. after not having any children. But in this effort, fueled by a personal experience, she nails this one right on the head!

It's a remarkable story of a hard-as-steel felon who's been in prison all his adult and most of his teenage life. A blind attorney volunteers time trying to help some of these prisoners get their GED. He finds a goldmine in David Marion, who is clearly a gifted learner--they form a curious friendship, and the attorney helps David not only get out of prison when no one else thought it possible, he also prepared David as best he could to survive in the outside world.

When this great mentor is brutally murdered, suspicion falls on our hero, the ex-felon. He is quickly cleared, but he devotes all his strength and intellect into tracking down the real killer.

This book tries to flay open the prison system to expose what it believes is really is--maggots, gangrene, and the tumor of longstanding corruption. It is horrible, and yet just possible, that some prisons really are as Brady describes...and that is a ghastly revelation indeed. How any person could be rehabilitated in such circumstances is virtually impossible.

Brady writes well, and this is clearly shown from page one. Fortunately for us, she has worked out a few kinks in her style with her other efforts, and this leaves us with a veteran writer delivering a tour de force. Bleedout is a little too long, and I thought the title was a little too rough for the thoughtful content of most of the story. The real killer, when she/he is identified, doesn't really have that strong a psychological motive for wreaking so much havoc on David Marion's life--but these are small qualms in an otherwise iron-fisted yet pensive thriller.

Loved the book, loved the characters - interesting, flawed, real - Hugh, his mother, his assistant, and especially David Marion. I would recommend this anyone who likes mysteries. Seriously. I'm going to look for more books by Joan Brady.

before writing a novel set in Springfield, Illinois, try living in Springfield, or at least talking to people who do. Otherwise, you might find yourself writing dialogue that they would never, ever say, and living lives that one would never, ever live there. The author lives in Britian, and her lack of knowledge about mid-western America makes the entire book ring false. I didn't make it past page 150.

This was, quite possibly, the worst written book I have tried to read this year. Except for an intricate structure that is appealing, the characters and the dialogue are all so false as to be unbelievable. The author has a good turn of phrase in description and observation but that is the occasional faint positive note. The dialogue has the structure and syntax of 18th century English novels and is so baldly expository as to be laughable. There are numberous anachronisms scattered throughout and the author creates many unbelievable situations as 'straw men' so she can use them as plot devices. The characters are all crudely drawn - and some - like the maid and the homosexual judge who is the protagonist's mentor - are such stereotypes as to be embarassing or offensive.

This kind of silly over-writing reminds me of the Andrew Vachhs novels at his worst and is much more comic book with lots of words and no pictures than it is a thoughtful novel.

I made it about to page 200 before I quit hoping it would get better. Closing the book for the last time brought the same relief as when heachache medicine kicks in.

This book begins with a bit of wisdom that says: "you must watch your back most crefully when someone you trust steps behind you." And that gives you a pretty good introduction to this novel.

Bleedout is told from the standpoint of two characters. The first is Hugh Freyl, a blind lawyer who has just been murdered. The authorities "know" who did it, and that's the second main character a young convicted killer who had become Hugh's protege.

The third "character" in the book is the system: the police, courts, press, Hugh's family, etc. Innocent until proven guilty is not a viable option when you're an ex-con and the victum is high in the social standings.

This is not one of the standard formula mysteries where you know the leading character will make justice triumph, it's a free standing book and justice just may not win.

From the first page in Bleedout: A Novel, we are caught up in the lives of two men: Hugh Freyl, a blind lawyer from a prominent family; and David Marion, child of the foster care system and then the prison system.

The story is told in the first person narrative of Hugh Freyl, whom we immediately learn was killed brutally one night in his law library; and the third person narrative of David Marion.

At first, the task seems to be finding the killer. But some have already decided that David, despite being Hugh's protégé, is definitely the killer. But apparently he has an alibi. So Hugh's mother Becky, who really seems to look at David as someone beneath her, hires him to find out. For David has acquired some skills in prison: he knows how to get into almost anything locked, including safes.

What I enjoyed most about this story was the author's ability to show us the thoughts and inner motivations of the characters. And the further I got into the tale, the less sure I was about what I thought I knew in the beginning. There was a lot of detail about corporate inner workings, financial "bleedouts," as well as another kind of "bleedout" that could definitely characterize the killing of Hugh.

Just when I thought I had it all figured out, the author threw the reader another curve ball. In the end, I was definitely thrown.

I would have given this one five stars, but there were many intricacies and complexities that left me reeling and seemed redundant. But I would definitely recommend this book for those who enjoy psychological thrillers, which is how I would describe this one. Four stars.