Really the cleverest thing about Blood Lies (Daniel Kalla) is the title, which works as an adjectival phrase –lies about blood—and as a sentence: blood does not always tell the truth. See how cool? And then it goes downhill from there to...
1) Frustrating 2) soap opera-like 3) draws morally simplistic lines. I read it on a plane and that’s what it’s good for. Sure it`s a mass market thriller. But let`s remember people: that`s a genre--not a license for mediocrity.
It's not that Daniel Kalla is a bad writer necessarily. It's that he seems to be a black and white thinker: his umpteen complicated plot threads end up in the very same place: someone falls on hard times, becomes a drug user...then gets AIDS. And I just have to hold up my hand here and say "What exactly are you getting at here buddy?" That no one else but our physician-protagonist (on the run--he`s been wrongly framed of course) can handle a bad day without turning to drugs? And that this ALWAYS links directly to AIDS? This is plain irresponsible .
Oh wait--I can`t leave it at that... I said I was suspending judgment about Kalla's writing abilities. But I have to say that if Eliska`s gorgeous green eyes are made such a big deal of on page 172, shouldn't those same eyes still be described as green on page 210--not brown?
Yes, yes they should. I mean, this is baby stuff. Where`s your editor, Kalla? Did he turn to drugs?
