Title: Bloodstream
Bloodstream was my first book by Tess Gerritsen. I had no idea she had written so many thrillers, and that she was so popular.
Author: Tess Gerritsen
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Pages: 376
My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Pages: 376
Bloodstream was my first book by Tess Gerritsen. I had no idea she had written so many thrillers, and that she was so popular.
Dr Claire Elliott
moves into the small town of Tranquility, Maine, hoping the move will help her
teenage son, Noah, to get over the trauma of his father’s death and escape the
temptations of the big city. The last thing she needs is for Noah to get into
trouble at his new school. Turns out that the town is misnamed.
She hopes that she
and her son will be able to blend in and be a part of this town. She has bought
the bustling practice of her predecessor, and she hopes to make good in this
town. Most importantly, she has come to this town seeking peace, but what she
does not know is that every 50 years or so, the town is beset with brutal
violence.
When a student
goes berserk at school, killing a teacher and injuring his classmates, it marks
the first incidence of a spate of acts of teenage violence. The student is
Claire’s patient, and Claire is convinced that the violence is drug induced.
But the boy’s father refuses to let her continue his treatment and shifts his
son’s care to another doctor. Meanwhile, one of the local residents finds a
gnawed bit of human bone and the town becomes aware of the ramifications of the
horror they are up against.
Claire becomes
convinced that the cause of the violence is not supernatural and that there is
a reason why these things are happening. As she struggles to find evidence to
support her claim, the town residents turn on her, rejecting her allegations
and holding her and her son responsible for the trouble.
Will the town
accept her and her son? And will she be able to resolve the mystery of what is
driving teenagers to violence before the body count mounts?
The story is set
around winter, and the author has used the snow and the bitter cold to great
effect. As Claire and her son struggle to cope with the cold, they also face
the ingrained hostility of the residents, who are unhappy with her
unwillingness to let things be.
Close on the heels
of Claire, we meet Police Chief Lincoln Kelly. He is another harried man,
hemmed in by the troubles facing the town and the trouble in which his ex-wife
keeps getting into.
There are far too
many characters thrown at us, right at the beginning of this book, with not
much to help us understand how they relate to one another or even to the
plot at hand. It becomes hard to feel invested in all of them.
For a long time,
the story stays with Claire, and we feel some measure of comfort in knowing
that we don’t have to juggle around multiple character names. And then
suddenly, all the characters come rushing right back into the thick of things.
Also, there is no reason why the town residents should be so hostile towards Claire
and why they should reject her theory with so much vehemence.
In the Prologue,
we meet the unnamed teenage narrator, back in 1946, whose parents are murdered
and she herself is attacked. This prologue was very well written, and rather
chilling. And I felt that the rest of the book tried but didn’t quite manage to
capture the tension in the prologue.
The explanation
for the violence seemed plausible and fit well within the context of a small
town, and I appreciated the doggedness with which Claire conducted her
investigation. The fact that her own son is at risk was her motive.
What I didn’t like
was Claire’s growing attraction to Lincoln. It seemed forced and not the
unintentional deepening of friendship it should have been. I found myself
rushing through this part and hoping Claire would get on with the main
investigation.
Lincoln is the
long-suffering husband of the town drunk. Great at his job, but suffering miserably
at the home front. I had zero regard for him.
Bloodstream was a
good read, but I would have liked it better without the love angle.