- Hardcover: 256 pages
- Publisher: Macmillan New Writing (1 Sep 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0230001866
- ISBN-13: 978-0230001862
- Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 13.4 x 2.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,497,221 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Blood and Water (Mo Mozart mystery)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
At 45, Mo Mozart has struggled to bring up her first two children as a single mother and, now they've flown the nest, she's concentrating on maintaining a career while being a good wife to her second, younger husband, Jack, and mother to their little daughter, Lily. With the help of yoga, meditation and her close group of girlfriends, Mo feels she's at last getting the balance of her life right. Until, that is, Jack's highly strung twin sister asks her to help trace their birth mother, Caitlin, whom Jack wants nothing to do with. Her involvement in the search triggers turmoil in Mo's life, exacerbated by the onset of menopausal symptoms, Jack's involvement with someone else, and an old vagrant woman who unleashes unwelcome, supernatural encounters. The hunt for Caitlin is a compelling journey of clues and dead ends, coincidence and revelation, that exposes much of the grief involved in teenage sex and adoption. It is set within a wry and authentic portrayal of the complex lifestyle which so many contemporary women lead, and against an evocative depiction of London's historic Crystal Palace district. Each of the acutely drawn characters has personal issues, all of which raise questions about spirituality and sexuality, motherhood, relationships and family bonds. Forced to use all her professional skills, personal contacts and psychic gifts to locate Jack's biological mother, Mo gains a deeper understanding of herself in the process, and unearths unexpected information about her family and the intimate lives of her best friends.
About the Author
Lucy McCarraher is an expert in work-life balance, advising organisations and individuals, and is joint author of the self-help publication, The Book of Balanced Living. She has also worked in television as a writer, script-editor, concept developer and presenter; and as a researcher, journalist, book editor, writers' agent, ghost writer, theatre critic and magazine publisher.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Blood and Water is novel that looks at women's real lives - work, children, husbands, friends, family - but is not just about that. The suspenseful plot sucks you in from the first chapter, when Mo, the main character, is asked to help trace her sister-in-law's biological mother and then, as part of her work, investigate the background of a right-wing MP. From then on it doesn't stop, but all through the twists and turns you're finding out fascinating stuff about her friends and family, their relationships and backgrounds. And then there's the ghost story that runs in and out of the other stories, about Old Peggy and the Crystal Palace. That's not usually my kind of thing, but this one works really well because it's based on so much history you can't tell where fact stops and fantasy starts. To say any more would be to give away too much, but with characters you really believe in and identify with, and an easy but intelligent writing style, this is a book I would recommend to anyone, but especially women with families.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This easy-to-read novel belies it's complex content and clever plotting that serves as a framework for an intriguing human interest story. On one level it might seem like your standard feel-good hen-lit novel, with a supernatural twist thrown in, but on another level is works as social commentary on the minestrone soup that family life is today and the women holding it together. I loved Mo's ruminations on how sex education, even private education, affects teenage pregnancies and also the adoption angle of the plot. I loved the group of female friends who are sometimes bitchy, but mostly very supportive of each other's complex lives. It becomes a page turner as you follow Mo's determination to find out the truth in several plot strands. Read, learn, enjoy!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is one of the best kinds of novel. On the surface it has an intriguing, even page-turning, plot with clues and false starts; underneath it explores important themes of love, relationships, belonging, loss and transition. Equally it is peopled with shrewdly drawn characters; hardly a one who hasn't got several layers to their own persona and all bound together into a tightly-bound weft. Plots abound of finding birth parents, suspicions of affairs, even to the century-old intrigue of the razing of Crystal Palace (near which the novel is largely set). At its centre, the heroine, at a mid-life crossroads, deals with issues of career-life management, mothering, worries about her husband and the menopause whilst solving many of life's demands, needs and problems. On the way it draws us into deeper themes of who we are, where we come from and how we get a sense of belonging. It even layers in a spiritual side - which, though superficially seemingly having greater female appeal, not only gives a further transcendental perspective but is itself anchored in the story and crucial to its historical sweep. Deceptively deep and at times heart-rending, this is a novel for today - of finding oneself and what is important in our increasingly fragmented, anonymous and semingly morally adrift society. And it's a thumping good read!
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