Blood and Guile [Large Print]

"Blood and Guile" is a rather leisurely read; if you're expecting lots of action and thrills, you don't get them. However, Hoffman has a strong command of his environment, and even though there are many flaws in this why did they do it?, it's still worth reading.Four men go off hunting, and right away we find out that one of them has been killed in an unfortunate "accident." Hoffman is to be commended for not making the West Virginia law enforcement the typical hillbilly buffoons. Bruce Sawyers is a modern, healthy, young efficient sheriff whose investigation leads to the possibility that the accident was indeed a murder.Although Walter is certainly not the most stalwart of heroes, his emergence at the end makes up somewhat for this lack of bravado. Along the way, we meet some interesting characters including Phyllis Duke, a woman with a very strange history; Drake Wingo, the he-man hunter who has found his newfound "fame" pivotal in his decision making; Cliff Dickinson, a rather foppish artiste type who is the supposed murderer; and Boomer, a clerk at the Grizzly store whose brevity does not diminish his interest. Unfortunately, the main female focus is Josey, and she comes across as being rather selfish and uninteresting. The inclusion of the Prince from Arabia story only serves to slow down the otherwise engrossing story.There aren't many surprises; you can pretty much figure out what is going on, but it doesn't dilute the quiet impact of this story. Drake's exposition while hunting in the last section is a hauntingly realistic expose on how we refuse to face the truth.RECOMMENDED.

a level headed lawyer and his boyhood blood brothers go grouse hunting with a fundamentalist landowner who winds up shot dead. Pacing is deliberate, tone is southern colloquial. rich in setting and atmosphere.

Narrator Walter "Raff" Frampton, a small-town Virginia lawyer, sets the tone in this fine Southern novel of buddies, secrets and death. Walter, a non hunter, is on a grouse hunt in the West Virginia mountains with two of his childhood buddies and a fourth man, the owner of the land - who ends up dead. Walter sees nothing to doubt in his friend Cliff's version of the accidental shooting but the country sheriff raises questions that culminate in Cliff's arrest.A mild, correct man with social hankerings and a lonely but comfortable routine, Walter begins probing when his legal maneuvers fail. The real hunter of the group, Drake, brushes off his questions and Walter is wounded to discover Cliff confides more confidently in Drake than his lawyer.The town's lofty pretensions and grubby secrets unfold as Walter doggedly pursues his case. A man who has invested his high opinion unwisely, reserving a low opinion for himself, Walter finds unsuspected reserves of quiet determination. Atmospheric, written with perfect pitch, Hoffman's ("Tidewater Blood") novel successfully combines literary themes with suspenseful pacing.

Although Virginia writer William Hoffman has long enjoyed the enthusiastic approbation of critics, the popular success he richly deserves has been elusive. Surely it will come with his superb 12th novel, Blood and Guile, a partial sequel to the equally laudatory Tidewater Blood (1998). It begins as a time of conviviality - a hunt high in the mountains, the pursuit of ruffed grouse. Drake Wingo, owner of Grizzly's, a sporting goods store, and an avid woodsman, has organized the party, inviting two life long friends, Walter Frampton, a timid, low key attorney practicing in Jessup's Wharf, Virginia, and Cliff Dickens, an aspiring artist who shocked Richmond society with an exhibition of homoerotic photos. The three have been pals since boyhood, once swearing their fealty to each other in blood. To round out the foursome Drake has brought along Wendell Ripley, the quiet owner of Drake's rented hunting property and a stranger to the other two men. A member of The Watchers, a small religious commune, Ripley is congenial but appears withdrawn. The outing ends abruptly in tragedy when Cliff accidentally shoots Ripley to death. The man, Cliff contritely explains, had suddenly stepped in front of him and caught the shots intended for an elusive grouse. However, a savvy county sheriff isn't quite satisfied with that explanation, and begins an investigation of his own. Soon, to Walter's surprise, Cliff is arrested on a charge of murder. Walter stands by his friend and is determined to free him, although he finds Cliff's story puzzling at times and Drake's behavior even more of a conundrum. There are secrets being kept from him, Walter is certain of that, yet he persists in championing Cliff, which draws him into a Machivellian scheme and in danger of losing his own life. Mr. Hoffman is a master builder of suspense, drawing one along from a cabin in the West Virginia hills to the midst of Richmond's gay community to the sun washed street of Fort Lauderdale. Just as Walter uncovers shocking interrelationships, long hidden secrets, the reader is captured not only by these revelations but by the author's tightly woven drama which leads to a spine tingling conclusion. If only a first rate mystery, Blood and Guile would rest on its merits. However, the generously talented Mr. Hoffman laces his tale with memorable scenes of Tidewater communities, landscapes of nature's abundant growth, and beautifully poetic descriptions of incredible wild creatures. Reading William Hoffman is such a rich and rewarding experience that writers in his genre pale beside him. He delivers a banquet, others a box lunch.