Blood Memory: A Novel | 
I can feel it now, the steady descent to a state of relaxation I can find nowhere else in my life. Not in sleep, where nightmares trouble me. Not in sex, where frantic urgency drives me to numb a pain I cannot even name. Not in the hunt for predators, where the triumph of trapping my quarry brings only transitory peace. Somehow, when I am submerged in water, the chaos that is my mind on the surface discharges itself...
The familiar ritual of crime scene photography is calming my nerves. Habits have great comforting power---even bad habits, as I discovered long ago.
Because here I am free. I don't know how long I float this way. What I do know is that I must be sleeping...Time is the remaining oxygen dissolved in your bloodstream, the only currency that can buy you depth, and depth is the holy grail, the point of the whole made exercise. Or it's supposed to be, anyway. That part confuses me, actually. Because you can never reach the bottom. Not in the real ocean. It's only back on land that you can do that.
#firstlinefridays @puzzledbooks
When does murder begin? With the pull of a trigger? With the formation of a motive? Or does it begin long before, when a child swallows more pain than love and is forever changed?
A predator is not prey. When you hunt a predator, you place yourself in a position to be hunted yourself. There's no other way. If you follow a lion into a thicket, you step within reach of his claws. And my adversary is no lion. He's the deadliest creature in the world: a human male driven by anger and lust, yet governed---at least temporarily---by logic.
When does murder begin? ... Perhaps it doesn't matter. Or perhaps it matters more than everything else. We judge and punish based on facts, but facts are not truth. Facts are like a buried skeleton uncovered long after death. Truth is fluid. Truth is alive. To know the truth requires understanding, the most difficult human art. It requires seeing all things at once, forward and backward, the way God sees.
This novel is dedicated to those women who realize in the dead of night that something is wrong, and has been for a long time. More than most, they know that Faulkner's words are true: 'There is no such thing as *was*---only *is*. If *was* existed, there would be no grief or sorrow.' You are not alone.
'Can you talk about it?'
'The actual abuse . . . what's the point? It's not the crimes against us that make us unique, but our responses . . . I had a lot of rage inside, but also a desire to help people. A quite common paradox among abuse victims.'
'We can trade stories. I'll show you mine, if you show me yours.'
'Is that something you do commonly with patients? Trade horror stories?'
'I do whatever is required. I'm not afraid to experiment.'
'Do you consider that ethical?'
'In the benighted times in which we live, I consider it essential.'
Ummmm. I know this was written in 2005 but I‘m not sure I can get past this terribly dated caricature of Pearlie. The way she talks is from Gone with the Wind 🙄
New book. Therapist suggested I curb my screen time. I got an older paperback today. I‘ll just switch back between my nook and physical books.
pickTruth is alive ~ Blood Memory
This story grabs you and pulls you into the story that you feel like you need to come up for air. Greg Iles is a story teller and I love his sittings in the South. This tales has many twists and turns as the Mississippi has. I could not put it down.
pickI always love Greg Iles, this book was a darker one with a focus on child abuse and repressed memories but well written and a page turner.
Awesome so far! About half way done, there‘s a lot of twists
Greg Iles is an incredible writer, only about 100 pages in but I‘m in love with his writing style. I also like how his penn cage characters make appearances in this book!
My biggest bookish pet peeve is letting someone borrow a book and never getting it back!! That is what happened with this book! 😡😡
After complaining to my best friend that I was working I, literally, came upon a cart full of free books after my rant!!! This was the most interesting out of the stash. #freebooks
