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Lydia Carson has made some very bad life choices and they are catching up to her with a vengeance. She is 17 and has run away from home for the umpteenth time from the third or fourth step-father and a mother who is well and truly fed up with Lydia and her problems. Lydia is living with her friends, a week with this one and a weekend with that one, technically not living on the street but not far from it. She meets Jonah, an older man (meaning he's in his mid-20s). Jonah is intriguing, attractive, and eventually makes her the classic 'offer you can't refuse.' John Link is a recovering alcoholic ex-con tattoo artist, hanging on by the tips of his artistic fingers to sobriety and thus staying out of jail. John has spent a lot of his life trying to have some kind of relationship with Lydia; this has not been easy since he has spent a lot of that life in jail, for manslaughter and other sundry charges. John has spent the last few years just trying to find Lydia, because she is hardly ever living at home any more. John has, as we say now, 'issues' with Lydia's mother, Ursula. When Lydia's life goes to hell in the proverbial handbasket, she turns to Link for help. She thinks she has killed Jonah, she has a nasty little crystal meth problem, and Jonah's friends are trying very hard to kill her. She's not sure why. Link doesn't grasp the true nature of the problems Lydia has brought to his door for a while, but when he does realize that he is almost certainly dealing with some faction of the Mexican Mafia, he calls in some old chits. BLOOD FATHER is very well-written. The plot twists kept me reading when the content of the writing made my stomach queasy. While Lydia is not someone I'd like to know up close and personal, I did begin to care about her after a while. Link is an easier person to like, although he has committed his share of nasty deeds. His desire to make Lydia's life better is commendable. It is great to watch him realize what Lydia is really like, and realize that what she is has little relationship to what he thought she was, and still he wants her to get away from the demons she has brought upon herself. BLOOD FATHER is gritty and hard-driving. The characters sucked me in, the narrative moved quickly with the classic thriller pacing. While I have no desire to move in the circles frequented by Lydia and John, Craig writes about them in a way which makes them believable and interesting. Not for the faint of heart, BLOOD FATHER is a compelling story of family, debts of honor, and the modern drug scene. I recommend it.
Reviewed by P. J. Coldren, September 2005
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