The Weight of Blood by Laura McHugh
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Pub Date: March 11, 2014
ISBN-10: 0812995201
ISBN-13: 978-0812995206
320 pages
This story is convoluted and complex but the real delight is the writing, the voice, of the author.
This story will grab you by the lapels and drag you right into the woods and hills of the Missouri Ozarks, where the novel is set. It revolves around two women, mother and daughter, separated by time and the mother’s untimely disappearance. Is mother Lila dead or alive? This is the question that haunts daughter Lucy Dane. Oh yeah, and the brutal murder and dismemberment of her childhood friend Cheri Stoddard. The story jumps between Lila’s story in the past and Lucy’s in the present. The two are similar in appearance and temperament and each tale is as scary and deeply disturbing as the other. This story is convoluted and complex and populated with a host of unusual, deeply-drawn, and deeply-flawed characters, but the real delight is the writing, the voice, of the author. It will stay with you long after you finish reading.
The Crime Fiction Writer's Blog 
auntiemwrites
March 13, 2014 at 8:27 am
DP. I’m reading this one right now and finding it much as you’ve described~great sense of setting, intense and complex story.
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D.P. Lyle, MD
March 13, 2014 at 9:06 am
It is a very intriguing book.
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The Library Rat
March 26, 2014 at 4:20 pm
I didn’t know much about these area, but I agree that Laura McHugh really gave a great sense of the region. The characters also come across well – I have rarely seen a larger collection of f’ed up and flawed people and yet you can’t help but become involved in their lives and what is happening to them!
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auntiemwrites
March 27, 2014 at 2:13 pm
DP, ditto’s here. It was surprising to me how this drew me in. Very well done and quite the snapshot of the area with an intriguing mystery behind it all~
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