Blood Secrets
Critical Acclaim for
BLOOD SECRETS
“The first Harper ‘Find’ book in almost 20 years, chosen as such by unanimous vote of the sales force, this builds, deceptively slow at first, then with mounting and mounting tension, to a truly horrendous and yet dazzling climax. Jones . . . shows us how a college romance can turn into a marriage and then a nightmare. She is smart, acerbic, witty. He is reclusive, intelligent, hard to get . . . All the while, sometimes behind the scenes, sometimes right up there in the forefront, are tantalizing bits of information about the kind of childhood both parents had. The operative word here is, indeed, ‘secrets.’ The wife sees things one way, the husband another . . . About three-quarters of the way through you will begin to think you have arrived at the most frightening ‘secret’ of all. There is more in store for you, however, and it won’t help solve the ultimate puzzle even though you know from the first sentence in the book that the narrator is on trial for murder. The psychological insight here is convincing, the denouement devastating.”
— Barbara Bannon, Publishers Weekly
“Craig Jones is a deft storyteller, ruthless at withholding information and absolutely, instinctually right about the precise moment to release information. You read this novel to find out what happens next; what happens is scary, comic, dark and sympathetic—and never disappointing.”
—John Irving, author of The World According to Garp
“A book strongly reminiscent of Ira Levin’s Rosemary’s Baby, though it does not deal with witches, merely strange people . . . a novel which starts out as a love story soon becomes a nightmare for those closely involved.”
—West Coast Review of Books
“There’s not a dull moment in this raw and shocking tale of evil family ties by a psychologically perceptive writer who knows how to build up to a searing, multi-twist ending the way a tornado gathers momentum. It’s undiluted horror.”
—Mademoiselle
“Blood Secrets is primarily a suspense story . . . but it is also a sort of domestic tragedy about two convincing, often likeable people in conflict over their child. The combination makes for a book that is hard to put down.”
—Atlantic Monthly
“Chill-hungry readers can enjoy the nicely knotted domestic tension and aroma of undefined evil that first-novelist Jones fabricates so well.”
—Kirkus Reviews
BLOOD SECRETS
CRAIG JONES
VALANCOURT BOOKS
Blood Secrets by Craig Jones
First published by Harper & Row in 1978
Reprinted by Ballantine Books, August 1979
First Valancourt Books edition, January 2016
Copyright © 1978 by Craig Jones
Preface © 2016 by Craig Jones
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the copying, scanning, uploading, and/or electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitutes unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher.