Bound by Blood
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REVIEW BY JOHN MESSER
Author Maureen Mackey is broadening her repertoire in more ways than one with her first e-book, Bound by Blood. She is introducing a fast-paced, life and death mystery to her more familiar romantic plots and settings, and by venturing into electronic distribution she is structuring her work to be viewed in a series of suspenseful segments akin to magazine serialization. Many readers will identify with the physical and emotional overload accepted by Francie Steele, a single mother raising a pre-school daughter, holding down two jobs and continuing her education at a local college. The views of neighbors in her low-income apartment are less straightforward. Some admire her spunk in refusing to accept assistance from a problem father and trying to better herself. Others, however, regard her priorities, morals and values as less admirable. Francie is to them as loose as she is selfish, abandoning her child to day care while she studies English, acquiring a seemingly unmarketable skill. Despite her love of the subject and dedication, the conflicting stresses of her life take a toll on her studies and she finds herself called to account by her English professor. The professor, Sam Pope, is widely recognized as a demanding taskmaster prone to trimming the marginal students from his classes. Instead of berating her late submittals, Pope takes a personal interest in Francie and her daughter, Savannah, and volunteers to help. Just as his arrival on the scene promises some relief, a cousin is murdered in Francie's apartment. Before she can get her life back on track, a series of seemingly unrelated incidents—her daughter temporarily disappears, an envelope of dope mysteriously appears, her apartment is ransacked and Savannah's father delivers a serious threat—combine to draw her into a fatal tailspin. Even Pope's efforts fail to slow the rush of ominous events. As Halloween approaches, the violence escalates and it becomes apparent that Francie is the target of a deadly conspiracy. The author's style is not to peel back the skins of an onion to reveal new clues, but rather to add suspects and complicating motives. The result is a harrowing tale leading to a stunning conclusion. Mackey seems to have already mastered this newest medium with a carefully crafted series of five chapter segments. One can only hope to be able to add computer memory as fast as she can write.
John Messer is a freelance writer living in Ludington, Michigan.
E-News: Five-segment serialization available only in html format. Complete book available in November in html, Rocketreader, PalmPilot and Open eBook formats. Downloads $4.30 and diskettes $7.50 postpaid.
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