Not By Blood
Not By Blood
By: Chris Narozny
“I’d decided a long time ago that no one would ever take Bill from me again. Bill wasn’t just my brother— he was the only person I’d always known. Every other familiar face disappeared twenty years ago, the day our father killed our mother.”
“The bottom’s never as far from the top as it appears.”
‘Not By Blood’ is a debut psychological thriller from Chris Narozny, a ghostwriter who has coauthored four New York Times bestsellers with James Patterson.
This book definitely had the mystery and suspense, the twists and turns and a satisfying ending, but the language turned me off a bit. I guess considering several of the characters are criminals and drug addicts it makes sense for their characters, but it’s just something I personally don’t care for.
The basic premise of the book is this:
Tina Evans, paramedic, gets a distress call from her drug addict brother, Bill. Not an uncommon occurrence. But when she shows up at his place he is not there. Instead there is a body, dead by gunshot and Bill’s sketchbook that he never goes anywhere without.
Fiercely protective of her brother Tina decides to get to the bottom of it and find her brother before bringing the police in.
Then she gets an anonymous text message that says ‘Shhh…’ Is she being watched?
Things get worse when that very same night she gets a call that her wealthy developer/architect husband, Tom, has been in a bad car accident—when he’s supposed to be home watching their son— and is in a coma.
Tina’s world is turned upside down as she is torn between finding her brother, being there for her husband and son, and realizing some of the people closest to her have been telling lies. Plus the past comes back to haunt her as she discovers she must visit her father in prison.
Who can she trust?
“Tom and Bill gone in a span of hours, connected by a dead private detective. No such thing as coincidence.”
For the most part I enjoyed the book. There were parts of it I figured out early on, but I still thought Narozny did a good job of weaving the story and clues together.
It was a really fast read at only 277 pages so it’s a low-commitment book.
One thing I thought Narozny could have done a better job with was his descriptions. The action and suspense begins immediately— which I like— but I realized halfway through the book that I didn’t feel like I could picture the characters very well. I still am not sure what Tina looks like.
The book is more plot-driven than character-driven but it still seems weird that I can’t envision who I’m reading about.
Maybe that’s partly why I didn’t feel connected to the characters much and didn’t find them likeable. Tina definitely experienced some trauma in her life, but it was hard to see where she was resilient to her past and where she was still influenced in a negative way.
Last comment: I like the book cover image and the title. That helped with the intrigue and had made me interested in reading it.
Recommendation
If you can get past the language, this is a decent psychological thriller read that won’t take up too much of your time.
This book didn’t blow me away, but I may be interested in reading his next book just for the plot creation. But if it’s full of seedy characters like this one, I may not.
[Content Advisory: 29 f- and 48 s-words in the second half; drug use; no sexual content]
**Received an ARC via NetGalley**
This book releases July 18, 2023. You can pre-order a copy of this book using my affiliate link below.
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