Revenge is like a flood: uncontrollable once initiated, and it brings along with it all kinds of dangerous debris and toxins in addition to the inherent danger of rushing water. Such is the moral of the story in Brian Freeman’s 2012 novel, Spilled Blood. Freeman’s book is a modern telling of the Hatfield-McCoy feud, except set between two fictional towns in Minnesota. The feud between the two towns, Barron and St. Croix, revolves around a scientific research corporation, Mondamin, in Barron, and in which the citizens of St. Croix believe is tied to the leukemia deaths of their children. The president of the corporation also seems in league with Kirk, the bruiser of Barron, who does his dirty work, and also has a side gig going where he traffics in child images and videos. Said gig also becomes a nice way to use leverage against the president’s enemies.
Then, the president’s daughter, Ashlynn, is killed. She’s a St. Croix girl. The alleged killer is Olivia, a Barren girl, who already hates Ashlynn because the “sins of the father” (her best friend died of leukemia), and then later, we learn that Olivia’s first love began dating Ashlynn. This sets off more bloodletting, with Kirk and his crew of baddies being the instigator. Anyhow, Olivia’s dad rides in from the big city to face his wife, Heather, who divorced him and went back to Barron and also has cancer, and Olivia, a daughter he doesn’t quite know as well as he’d hope and he can’t even say for sure is innocent of the murder allegation. And then it comes out in Chris’s investigating, that Ashlynn was also looking into her dad’s business practices, leading Chris to believe that’s perhaps what got her killed.
In addition to that story thread is an overarching, ominous threat from a person calling themselves Aquarius, who seeks revenge against Mondamin and its president. Which means, the person who killed Ashlynn is a different person from this revenge-seeking Aquarius because Aquarius would have no reason to kill Ashlynn, if she’s trying to uncover the truth about Mondamin.
As a Stephen King fan, I love stories set in small towns like he does, and I like “feuds” between towns. It creates for a lot of interesting characters and plot points, as Freeman demonstrates in Bad Blood. While I felt Chris and the county attorney looking to prosecute Olivia was an unrealistic relationship — basically the access Chris had to him and the unfurling crimes within the town — it still made for an exciting, enthralling read, which kept me guessing. Until the reveals, I genuinely had no idea who the respective culprits of the book were. I thought the killer would be the local minister, admittedly. That he killed Ashlynn to cover up the fact that he was in bed with Kirk for child images and videos. As it happens, a different person killed Ashlynn for that exact reason: The prosecuting attorney ostensibly against Mondamin. Mondamin’s president knew about his, uh, proclivities, and blackmailed him into covering up everything. But Ashlynn found out the connection and this prosecuting attorney killed her.
However, Aquarius was the local motel owner, who waxed philosophical to Chris about right and wrong and righting injustices. The motel owner’s wife was also blackmailed by Modamin’s president because of her gambling addiction, and pressured to issue a report denying any connection between Mondamin and the cancer cases. Oh, and it so happens that this motel owner has a history on the bomb squad, so, he blows up a truck right by the dam at Spirit River, the river connecting the towns of Barron and St. Croix, hence the revenge-as-river analogy I opened with.
Motel guy aside, interesting that the three principle characters in this saga — two bad guys and one good guy — were all lawyers, as Mondamin’s president was a former lawyer who went to law school with Chris.
Freeman’s book was wholly-realized; these two fictional towns and the bad blood and spilled blood between them felt authentic. Even minor characters, like Kirk’s dorky brother who was abused by his brother, but also saw his brother as a hero and then later had a redemptive arc with Olivia and Chris, was well-done. And what I love about a book like this with quite a few loose threads dangling throughout the book is that Freeman was able to tie them up logically (largely, my criticism of Chris and the prosecutor’s relationship notwithstanding), patiently, and satisfyingly.
If you’re looking for a new author (at least, he was new to me) to try out, I’d recommend Brian Freeman and go ahead and start with, Spilled Blood.
Milam's Musings 