Spilled Blood

February 20, 2012
Two small Minnesota towns, St. Croix and Barron, are divided by a river, literally and figuratively, that turns them into warring camps in this harrowing, melodramatic stand-alone from Freeman (The Bone House). Barron, the home of Florian Steele’s company, Mondamin Research, has flourished, while St. Croix has withered. The death of five St. Croix teens from leukemia resulted in a lawsuit that absolved Mondamin from blame. Late one night, drunken 16-year-old Olivia Hawk, whose best friend was one of the leukemia victims, confronts Florian’s 17-year-old daughter, Ashlynn, on a lonely road outside St. Croix. Ashlynn’s subsequent murder, with which Olivia is charged, threatens to trigger more violence. A mystery man calling himself Aquarius who promises retribution, a vicious thug who keeps things stirred up, and a missing Mondamin scientist each play key roles. Freeman ratchets up the suspense steadily, and then provides a cataclysmic ending that wraps things up almost too neatly. 10-city author tour. Deborah Schneider: Gelfman Schneider Literary Agents.

Starred review from June 1, 2012
Suspense doesn't get more excruciating than this. Here's the opener: a high-school girl is sitting on a playground swing in the center of a Minnesota ghost town, her car broken down and her cell phone without power, trying to figure out what to do. After awhile, two figures move toward her. They have not come to help. From this oxygen-depriving start, Freeman keeps building the psychological tension, both in raw scenes and in the ways he hints at and layers his characters' defenses and motivations. He pits the residents of two southwestern Minnesota towns against each other. One town is home to a thriving chemical research plant; the other, downstream, is the center of a cancer cluster (five girls have died from leukemia in a couple of years). This town's residents blame the company for dumping toxic chemicals in the river. Tensions finally result in a murder. Minneapolis lawyer Chris Hawk returns home to defend his daughter against murder charges that seem rock solid. Part of the suspense in this fine-tuned tale is watching Hawk plow forward in his daughter's defense while we remain unsure whether he is a truth-seeker, or is tricking himself into believing his child's protestations of innocence. Reading this novel is like walking a tightrope in a high wind. Don't miss it.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)