Bloodroot, while a fast paced and entertaining read, is utterly disappointing. Before delving into the significant flaws of this book, a quick synopsis is in order.

Kevin Curran is an American history professor at a small college on Staten Island, specializing in the American founding and constitution.  He has a stable, if somewhat dull life.  That is until his not quite estranged, but prodigal brother Danny shows up after a three year absence.  Danny was a heroin addict and general troublemaker that dragged Kevin into his misery and is about to do it again.  While seemingly clean and sober, Danny is into some nefarious activities and Kevin, as he has done before, can’t resist the lurid pull of his brother.

At the background of the novel is Bloodroot, a former children’s home where evidently children were abused and mistreated.  How this plays into the drama unfolding in this novel I’ll leave for the reader to discover, but it intertwines itself into the narrative and the outcome.

This book is badly flawed that at times I wanted to quit reading it.  But it is entertaining enough to keep the reader engaged.  Simply put, the characters are utterly unbelievable.  I felt throughout the novel that Kevin was not a very believable professor and the author shows such a lack of knowledge of American history in one passage that it left me stunned and made the novel that much more unbelievable.  Danny is also a rather unbelievable character.

And the end of the novel simply does not make sense.  The characters actions are not rationale, not that they should, but it was so over the top and incredulous that it just left me flat instead of satisfied.

Had I to do it over again, I’d skip this one.