Fish, Blood, and Bone [Hardcover]

Leslie Forbes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2001

Claire Fleetwood, an American forensic photographer, is ardent about love and scientific work -- in this she is a characteristic Leslie Forbes heroine. When Claire inherits a large house and garden in London from relatives she never knew she had, she imagines it will be a slice of the English dream, but after the brutal murder of her best friend, she learns that her inheritance involves more than she wanted or bargained for.

Desperate to find a motive for her friend's death, Claire is impelled to join a scientific expedition led by her cousin Jack Ironstone, who is one of the men she suspects of being responsible for the murder. Her journey leads from Jack the Ripper's claustrophobic Whitechapel to the Fleetwoods' murky past in the Asian opium trade and the wild "paradise" valleys of Tibet. It parallels a route taken a century earlier during Britain's Great Triangulation of India by Claire's distant relative Magda Ironstone and a mysterious botanist. As Claire reconstructs the triangular love affair she imagines took place then, her own story is overtaken by Magda's -- and to deadly effect.

This dazzling novel of loss and regeneration weaves together the stories of three extraordinary families in an epic adventure.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Gripping from the outset, this ambitious but disjointed thriller by Forbes (Bombay Ice) swirls travel, botany and photography into a dizzying tale of murder and family mystery. Forensic photographer Claire Fleetwood is an American expatriate living in England when she inherits Eden Dwellings, the estate of a heretofore unknown relative, located in the heart of the ramshackle East End of London. Not long after she moves in, 18-year-old Sally Rivers, the estate caretaker's daughter, is murdered at Claire's front gate, and Claire sets out to unravel the mystery not only of Sally's death but of her own tangled family history. She gathers a plot-hampering amount of detail, immersing herself in the library of the house's former occupants, Joseph Ironstone, her great-great-uncle, and his wife, Magda, a botanical explorer born into a family of opium planters in India. A present-day Ironstone, Claire's cousin, Jack, studies chlorophyll at a pharmaceutical company and is on the hunt for a "miraculous," cancer-preventing green poppy. His search takes him to a valley between Bhutan and Tibet, and he invites Claire to travel with his team as official photographer. Eager to escape London and enticed by the opportunity to learn more about her heritage, she accepts. Though Claire is a likable narrator, her spark is nearly extinguished by mounds of scientific and ancestral data, and the many narrative strands ranging from Claire's brother dying of AIDS to a strange riff on Jack the Ripper prevent a tidy resolution. Claire's first-person narration is replaced three-quarters of the way through by a third-person viewpoint, which, though it focuses on Claire, can't compare to her tough, candid voice. As unwieldy as an overstuffed suitcase, the novel still exudes creativity and boundless vitality.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Densely written but highly readable, Forbes's second novel (after Bombay Ice) is another sophisticated thriller whose suspenseful plot is skillfully layered with history and its influence on the present. Claire Fleetwood, an American forensic photographer living in England, witnesses the murder of her neighbor, Sally Rivers an event that plunges Claire into the deeper mystery of her ancestry, her connection to Sally, and the historical link to the distant relative whose London home she inherited. The juxtaposition of themes and images, drawn from botany, forensic anthropology, and archival documents, provide a richness to the writing. As the narrative follows Claire on her journey to India, loose threads begin to weave into a pattern, and Forbes's interest in India and travel journalism provides a satisfying dimension. Recommended for larger public libraries. Zaheera Jiwaji, Edmonton, Alta.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux (May 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374155062
• ISBN-13: 978-0374155063
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #487,052 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars More like three and a half stars, October 23, 2001

By 

J. N. Mohlman (Barrington, RI USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fish, Blood, and Bone (Hardcover)

"Fish, Blood and Bone" by Leslie Forbes is one of the more creative books I have encountered this year, and it proves that her first effort "Bombay Ice" wasn't just a flash in the pan. That said, this novel labors under what can only be described as a pretension of being literature. That's not to say that Forbes isn't a talented writer Quite the contrary; in fact, she has an excellent grip on the English language and her characterizations are superb. Unfortunately, these gifts are shrouded by frequent changes in voice, confusing use of fonts, and poorly delineated flashbacks. It is almost as if Forbes is trying too hard to write something "important" rather than just telling the story to the best of her obvious ability.

That said, there is an excellent story at the heart of this novel, and in spite of the flaws outlined above I did enjoy it. The reader follows the rootless Claire Fleetwood to London, and then the Indian Sub-Continent, as she searches for a personal history shrouded in the mysteries of an earlier age. Part Michael Crichton, part travelogue; Forbes weaves a remarkable trail of murder, adultery, botany, etc. while delving into the nature of "self", and how our past (and our forebears' past) determines our future.

I have enjoyed both of Forbes' books, and I look forward to her future endeavors. However, I think that she will make great strides as a writer when she abandons her tendency of trying to write "literature" and gives free reign to her creativity. In the end, "Fish, Blood and Bone" is a flawed, but nonetheless enjoyable work by a writer whom I firmly believe is on the cusp of greatness.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ambitious adventure, June 7, 2001

By 

"janmcalex" (Humboldt, TN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fish, Blood, and Bone (Hardcover)

"Fish, Blood and Bone" takes off rapidly enough with a murder soon after photographer Claire Fleetwood moves into her unexpected legacy. She inherits Eden Dwellings from a great-aunt of whom she wasn't aware. However, the house has a few problems -- a basement full of macabre artifacts and an intimidating tennant with friends who are bad news. The tennant's daughter, Sally, befriends Claire, but is soon murdered, for reasons unknown, right before Claire's eyes.

Claire meets long-lost cousin, Jack Ironstone, who briefly -- very briefly -- explains the family's heritage in botany -- specifically, opium in India. Offered a chance to accompany a team of scientists, cousin Jack included, on a hunt in India for a mysterious green poppy, which may provide a cure for cancer, Claire accepts. Thus begins a personal journey into her past. The girl whose roots were once non-existant, suddenly has her hands full of relatives and skeletons.

The plot is vast and takes off quickly at the start, and everything ties up interestingly at the end. However, the in-between is sometimes tedious. There is so much sprawl, you're worn out trying to follow it. And too, the scientific lingo bogged me down (i.e., teratology, cinchona.) This novel obviously required a tremendous amount of research on the author's part. It was good, but I wish I had enjoyed it more.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars What's going on here?, December 16, 2002

By 

Frank J. Konopka (Shamokin, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Fish, Blood and Bone (Paperback)

This is a somewhat interesting book that I feel lost its way somewhere along the way to the conclusion. The plot was murky, although the writing is generally excellent, and the characters finely drawn. The reader tends to lose the sense of the book, and there's many times when you have no idea where the plot is heading. I had the feeling that the author was as confused at times herself, which is what made the book so unusually odd. There are too many strands of plot lying around, and they really don't tie up neatly, or even close to neatly, at the end, which is not so much a termination as a petering-out of the storyline. You get to the point where you don't really care about the characters and what happens to them, and that's deadly in any work.