BOOK REVIEW: Bloodline by Jess Lourey

Publication Date: January 1, 2021 Format: Kindle Genre:  Psychological Thriller

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer Pages: 347 Buy: Kindle | Paperback

Synopsis

Perfect town. Perfect homes. Perfect families. It’s enough to drive some women mad…

In a tale inspired by real events, pregnant journalist Joan Harken is cautiously excited to follow her fiancé back to his Minnesota hometown. After spending a childhood on the move and chasing the screams and swirls of news-rich city life, she’s eager to settle down. Lilydale’s motto, “Come Home Forever,” couldn’t be more inviting.

And yet, something is off in the picture-perfect village.

The friendliness borders on intrusive. Joan can’t shake the feeling that every move she makes is being tracked. An archaic organization still seems to hold the town in thrall. So does the sinister secret of a little boy who vanished decades ago. And unless Joan is imagining things, a frighteningly familiar figure from her past is on watch in the shadows.

Her fiancé tells her she’s being paranoid. He might be right. Then again, she might have moved to the deadliest small town on earth.

Review: 

I receive this book through Kindle Unlimited.

Reporter Joan Harken decides to move to Lilydale, her fiancé small hometown in Minnesota town after she is mugged. She also convinced to moved because her fiancé is worried about being drafted into he Vietnam war and in Lilydale his father is not he draft board.  

When they get to the picture perfect town of Lilydale, Joan finds the over friendliness of the townsfolk a bit overwhelming.  Everyone seems to know everyone else's business and Joan feels like she is constantly being watched.  Now expecting her first child she is also stuck with the town doctor who is extremely chauvinistic. 

As a reporter Joan is curious and when she starts seeing her attacker on the streets of Lilydale and strange things start happening she starts digging. The more she digs the more danger she feels she is in.  When a missing boy turns up several years later and another one goes missing Joan starts to piece everything together and what she finds is disturbing. The whole town seems to be under the thrall of a community group called the Fathers and Mothers and Joan is determined to find out why.

This is a creepy story with lots of Minnesota flavor right down to the hot dish recipes the wives swap. Stepford wives abound in this eerie little town and everyone is just a little too involved in her pregnancy.  I really enjoyed this book and found it to be a fast read. 

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