Hugh Freyl is a lawyer who spontaneously went blind.  The doctor’s couldn’t agree on why the blindness occurred.  After learning to cope with his blindness, Hugh felt the need to reinvent himself beyond being a lawyer.  The Illinois State Education in Prisons program provided the perfect opportunity to him.

David Marion went to prison at 15 for the violent murders of his foster father and foster brother.  In prison David begins an in-house education program with Hugh.  Hugh recognized intelligence in David that one bothered to look for before.  David’s lived a hard life and doesn’t give Hugh much hope of reaching him.  But Hugh continues to work with David determined to reform him.  Over time a lasting relationship between teacher and student is solidified.

David Marion, no longer in prison, is the prime suspect, especially considering the brutal way he’s murdered before.  Hugh is from the richest and most influential family in Springfield, Illinois.  The police need to close his murder to satisfy the family with an arrest.  David knows he didn’t murder Hugh, but the police aren’t looking at other suspects.  So David sets out to find the murderer himself.

Bleedout is told in third person (present) and first person (flashbacks) alternating sections.  The first person is from the perspective of the murder victim – flashbacks of a dead man.  Throughout the novel, the past is skillfully revealed to readers – stories of abuse, murder, love and betrayal.

“...now I find myself in the absurd situation of a man about to be murdered…”  This line on the first page is attention grabbing from the start.  Several times the story gets too bogged down in the details.  But when that happens, stick it out.  Each time the story get too drawn out, there will soon be another attention grabbing hook or clue.

  Rarely do I read a mystery where the ending completely surprises me.  When I find such a book, like Bleedout, it’s a treat.

--Terry Lawrence