Customer Reviews

Salty Like Blood: A Novel

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

 

 

Harry Kraus is definitely, in my opinion, an up and coming writer and if he keeps on like this he could become one of the greats.

Salty Like Blood is the story of one man's desperate efforts to find his daughter. Everyone else thinks she was swept out to sea but he is convinced she was abducted and will put everything on the line to prove it and save her.

Plenty of twists, turns and sub plots coupled with a masterful ending make this a great read. The only real complaint I have is that it switches between first-person and third person context constantly, which is VERY annoying at first!

Dr. Harry Kraus has written a brilliantly woven political thriller for the Christian and secular market! The story of a seemingly random kidnapping, "Salty Like Blood" is the story of a doctor and his wife who have traveled with their young daughter to care for the doctor's ailing father. The opening pages of this novel begin a fast-paced thrill ride that doesn't end until the final page is turned...

...and still leaves you wondering what will happen beyond the end cover. The intellect with which this thought-provoking tale is told not only taught me a few new vocabulary terms, but also inspired me to think. To say that this book merely entertained would be inaccurate. Although it did just that, it also made me appreciate my own family complete with all of its dysfunction.

What a great novel this is; it may be my all-time favorite! This Christian fiction contains a compelling plot with suspense, hope, romance, revenge, and forgiveness, centered around amazingly real characters. I suppose we've all asked the question, "Why would a God of love allow such pain?" This book attempts to answer that question, and the answer works for me! Perhaps it will for you too.

By writing the narrative of the protagonist, David Connors, in first-person, and interspersing with chapters written in third-person narratives of the other characters, the author allows the reader to peek into the thinking of all involved. Meanwhile, careful editing creates a mystery that cannot help but pique the interest. Joanna Connors, David's vulnerable wife, reacts quite differently from him and tension builds.

Even the periphery characters are well written and quite believable. The veiled, Somali neighbor, Amina, adds a layer to the complex tale, as do Sheriff Reynolds, who struggles to keep the law in his formerly peaceful town, Blake Swenson, the interfering former fiance, and Tricia Morgan, the ever-resourceful mother-in-law. Beautiful Swimmer, a boat, is a surprising character with all her attached memories.

Details make this story come alive. The setting for most of the work is in Tippins, a created small town on the Chesapeake Bay, famous for the Tippins Crab Festival each August. (The author knows the difference between those of us who know how to eat a hard-shelled blue crab and others who use picks and those silly wooden hammers.) It made me long to return to my childhood home next summer for a dinner of steamed crabs piled high on brown paper.

My suggestion is for you to get a copy ASAP. If you can't afford to buy a copy, contact your local library and request one be purchased so that you may be the first one to check it out.

This is my first Harry Kraus M.D. book but it won't be my last. Salty Like Blood is a riveting book. It held my attention from the beginning to end. It kept me guessing on a few situations too. The ending has twist you might not see coming. The main theme in the book is forgiveness with God and others. The characters and scenery are vivid. The plot is interesting and not completely predictable.

It took me half way through to really get into this book. The second half is when the plot started moving, and the need to know what happened kicked in. Before that it dragged on without much background to go on. As the holes started to be filled in (about why the people acted and reacted the way they did), I could care. The constant switching of scenes made me think this was written as a movie script also. That was overdone. But the story saves it in the end, but the very last Epilogue irked me. Why partisan politics had to get dragged into it at the very end confuses me.

Salty Like Blood by Harry Kraus is an examination of every parents worst nightmare, the disappearance and possible abduction or death of their child. Seven year old Rachel Connors has disappeared. While the authorities, and virtually everyone else, believes that Rachel has drowned and the body been swept out to sea, David Connors, the dad, isn't buying it. He believes that Rachel is alive and is driven to find her. His obsession is the story.

Salty Like Blood is superbly written. The story is certainly plausible. The characters are believable and well developed. Kraus allows the characters to influence each other, interact, and develop naturally.

As the father of two daughters, now grown, I can tell you that I will hug each of them a little harder the next time I'm with them. I've got a big hug for my granddaughter also.

You'll be glad you read this one.

Peace always.

David and Joanne Connors accompanied by their seven year old daughter Rachel travel to Tippins, Virginia to visit his ailing father. However, during the visit Rachel vanishes. The local police investigate and with no evidence of foul play conclude the child most likely drowned in the nearby Chesapeake River; When David asked what happened to her corpse, the cops proclaim the river took the body out to sea. Joanne accepts the verdict of a tragic accident as she needs closure anyway she can get it; David rejects the ruling.

As David persists in his belief that his daughter lives, his marriage already weak even before the accident collapses. His medical practice also begins to fall apart as David obsesses on finding his child who he believes was abducted. He soon uncovers an identical case, which fuels his obsessive drive to rescue his child and punish her kidnapper.

This is an exciting thriller based on a parent's worst nightmare, the disappearance and probable death of their child. The parents are super characters as David changes from fun loving caring dad to an aloof person keeping his distance from everyone (even readers) with only his Somali neighbor Amina able to somewhat reach him; and Joanne hides her feelings of vulnerability with a cold armor of "realism". Although there are too many spins including a couple of cul de sacs, fans will appreciate this strong family drama especially David's final paranoid over the top theory (or is it as sometimes the paranoid are right) on what happened to Rachel.

Harriet Klausner

This story evolved from one incident and encompassed so many emotions and turns, it really helped me with alot of different issues. The God thing in this book is very minimal, yet there, which I liked. The characters are interesting and well-known to the reader because of the way the author describes them. This is the first Christian novel I've read in a very long time and I don't read many novels, but I read it in 3 settings. Very easy read and flows great! And the ending was unexpected and WOW!!!

Salty like blood is not your typical suspense novel. It's a story written with deep insight into the human soul and is one of the most emotionally moving suspense stories I've ever read. There is such a deep point of view and gut-wrenching honesty throughout the pages that it's totally engrossing.

While I identified most with the main character, the husband, I found it easy to slip into other characters' points of view when needed. I appreciate that ease of transition in a novel. I also appreciated the painful memories that slowly came back and how well the author brought them in and out of the novel. I was so immersed in everything as I read along that I winced and held my breath along with the characters. That's great writing.

I also loved how complex the plot was and how many twists and turns occurred that the unexpected kept me turning the pages late into the evening. This book is very hard to put down. It wasn't dark, though, despite the plot and the situations in the novel. I didn't feel depressed, just intrigued. And the thing with the Lupron drug totally cracked me up even though it was so wrong.

I loved how real the author made these characters and how he kept me at the edge of my seat. The author had me sweating. Will she do it? Oh my goodness. He didn't just do that...what are they going to do next? How will they get out of this? And the mini-twists and the end made me smile because it's so like real life.

The spiritual transition was not huge, but very real and very well-done. If you want to read a suspense that is not just a bunch of chasing scenes with little depth, then you will love this book. If you don't mind a hero who isn't afraid to cry when something truly hurts, you'll really enjoy this story. I loved it. :)

Dr. David Connors is on the path of fulfilling his lifetime dreams. He is a successful doctor, within days of being made a partner in the practice he works for, his patients love him, his marriage seems good, and his daughter is the light of his life. When David's daughter, Rachel, disappears, he discovers he is capable of things he never thought possible. His intense need to find his daughter, no matter what, is a threat to his career, his marriage, his integrity and ethics, and to his soul. If Rachel is dead, can any parent find the way to forgive someone for this horrendous crime? If Rachel is still alive, can her determined father discover he in time to save her? How far would we go to get our child back? In Salty Like Blood by Harry Kraus, M.D. that question is left for each of us to answer for ourselves.

Harry Kraus is an author unfamiliar to me. When I began reading Salty Like Blood, I was reminded of another "missing child" story I read about a year ago, Stuart O'Nan's Songs for the Missing. Kraus, like O'Nan, spends time building a sense of "what would you do?" We see everyone's reaction to the loss of Rachel. Her mother, who suffered greatly from postpartum depression after Rachel's birth is poised to return to the depths of despair. Her father, typical of all fathers, I believe, is a "fixer" and a "doer" and he is certain that he can succeed where the police have failed. This book succeeds because David is just so much like we imagine ourselves in the same situation. It's easy to see how the loss of our child could turn us into obsessed searchers, and we empathize with his choices and his losses. Throughout the book, David is forced to face the worst parts of him, he searches for compassion he knows he should have, questions the faith of those around him, and sees exactly what he is capable of. But he never gives up hope. And even though the subject matter seems so hopeless, Kraus manages to infuse it with hope that we readers can share as well.