Everyone has a secret,
and most of them aren’t very good at hiding it.
I picked up Blood Lines by Lynn Lipinski for my 50 States Challenge (Oklahoma). This book is equal parts family drama, crime investigation, and “what the fuzzy kitty is really going on with these people?”
Our main character is Zane. He’s an alcoholic, white-knuckling his way through sobriety. In the space of 24 hours, he gets fired from his job, loses his sobriety, loses his mother in a house fire, realizes he is now the only one his teenage sister has left, and becomes the main person of interest for setting the fire that killed his mother. Then life throws his estranged father into the mix. Spoiler: Dad isn’t exactly the guy you’d want to bring home to Thanksgiving dinner. Zane’s loyalty to family is admirable, but it also blinds him to what’s really happening. Still, I appreciated how his growth felt gradual and realistic. Maturity rarely comes overnight, especially when addiction is part of the struggle.
For me, the family drama was the star here. Sure, the crime investigation was compelling, but I never believed Zane was guilty. That would have made it a really short book. The question for me was always “who actually did it?” I never saw the reveal coming. Everyone in this story was tripping over their own skeletons, which made Zane’s search for truth that much harder.
The Tulsa setting was another highlight. Lipinski nails the feel of a tight community where everyone knows something but not everyone is willing to talk. You’ve got the gossipers, the church-goers, the crooks, and the ones just trying to stay out of the mess. Basically, small-town life in a nutshell.
It dragged a little in places. But once Jeremiah stepped into the spotlight, things really picked up, and the last third flew.
The title Blood Lines works on so many levels, family ties, addiction, crime... but for me, the family piece hit hardest. At the end of the day, Zane just wanted to know who he was. Don’t we all?
