The Blood Knot (Fly Fishing Mysteries) (Hardcover)

~ John Galligan (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Galligan's rewarding if grim second fly-fishing mystery (after 2003's The Nail Knot) offers an emotionally tortured protagonist, Ned Oglivie (aka Dog), and a clan of misfits and survivors worthy of Faulkner, the Kussmauls, who coexist uneasily with each other and their Amish neighbors in remote Avalanche, Wis. Searching for oblivion on a three-year fishing trip and suffering from a vicious beaver bite, Dog is tramping through the woods one morning when he sees 10-year-old Deuce Kussmaul fire his kid-sized .22 into the body of "barn lady" Annie Adams lying in a stream. (Annie liked to paint pictures of barns.) After Deuce's mother, Eve, who's a banned Amish and a meth-user, treats Dog's beaver bite, he agrees to try to prove her son didn't kill Annie. The author brilliantly draws the Snopes-like Kussmauls while writing with flair and passion about fly-fishing, art and fate. But like J. Robert Janes's St. Cyr and Kohler series, Galligan will need to be hand-sold to reach the right audience.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"The Blood Knot grabs, yanks and hauls the reader in with the lure of intelligent, atypical and dark prose." -- January Magazine (best of 2005 crime novels)

"A superbly told tale of trout and red herrings chased with vodka and Tang. One helluva story." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 300 pages
• Publisher: Bleak House Books; 1st edition (October 25, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932557121
• ISBN-13: 978-1932557121
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,131,689 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely wonderful mystery!, April 24, 2006

By	E. J. White "tommymommy" (Marine on St. Croix, MN) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I thought that Mr. Galligan's first fly fishing murder mystery (The Nail Knot) was really great. "The Bood Knot" blows it out of the water. It's a nice, tight murder mystery, that keeps you guessing until the end. It is full of dry, dark humor and bizzare characters. You don't need to be a fly fisherman or woman to enjoy this tale immensely! I'll be first in line for the third adventure with "The Dog"!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A superbly crafted mystery, June 12, 2006

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

The Blood Knot by John Galligan is the engagingly entertaining story of a young, devoted fly fisherman named 'The Dog', and his survival in the Wisconsin town of Avalanche. As the Dog's exploratory quest for the greatest fly fishing brings him to the spiteful people of Kussmaul County and a the biting of a beaver thought to be rabid, The Blood Knot tactfully and vividly carries readers through page-after-page of an evermore gripping and intriguing mystery novel as the Dog finds yet another dead body, and even more peculiar, an outcast Amish woman high on crystal-meth. A superbly crafted mystery, The Blood Knot is very highly recommended reading as a man who's only intentions are peacefully fly fishing in country finds himself enveloped in peculiar happenings and a genuine "who done it" conundrum.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great new talent, July 30, 2006

By	J. Jordan "Editor of Crimespree Magazine" (milwaukee, wi United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

John Galligan is a terrific writer. The readers of Crimespree Magazine picked this as their favorite book of 2005. And with good reason. Galligan has written one of my favorite books of the last ten years.
The Blood Knot evokes such a sense of place it's like you're actually there, smelling the smells and experiencing the weather right along with the characters. It's also a wonderful story. Our reluctant hero, Dog, just wants to be left alone, he wants to fish and forget the past. But he is drawn into a murder investigation and before long is working the case.

Galliagan is someone to keepyour eye on, I predict big things for him and Bleak House books. I've enjoyed every Bleak House book I've read.