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More than 20 years ago, a young college co-ed found out that she was pregnant and was then left alone to deal with it by her boyfriend. She wouldn't think of having an abortion and managed to have her newborn baby adopted through a well-respected lawyer by an equally respectable couple. In the present, the now mature boyfriend regrets how he acted and contacts the mother in order to meet the child he never knew. But in the intervening decades the coed has married well and has her own family. If her secret comes out, she's afraid that her life might be ruined. Meanwhile the baby, a girl now 22, is about to marry into an illustrious family and wants to learn about her birth mother. Her desire to find her natural mother torments, saddens and angers her adoptive parents. Through research, all involved in the adoption discovers the lawyer who handled it and when he's asked questions, he goes to Father Dowling for advice. Within a few days of the errant father, now a successful writer, arriving in town to search for his child, he is mowed down and killed by a hit and run driver. Was he murdered or was it just a car accident? If he was killed on purpose, who did it? The main problem with this book is that the story doesn't fit in the modern world. All of the angst surrounding an unwanted pregnancy and an adoption fits a 1950s time frame not one set in this new century. Almost all of the people involved are depicted as basically decent people who treat each other well and no one thinks adoption is a shameful thing, so the level of emotional torment going on just doesn't ring true. In addition, the characters are on the most part, insulated wealthy people from a completely homogenous society. Though not condemning of others by being outside their narrow idea of the norm, people who are not as prosperous as they, are seen as a disappointment to the rest of the self-satisfied wealthy population of this small town. I didn't like any of the people in the story and in addition, I didn't care what happened to them. There are 23 other Father Dowling books published and this is the first I've read. It will be the last. The plot doesn't fit into what I know of life in the 21st century, ruining any tension in the story. To me, the people in the book are making a mountain of misgiving about something that isn't at all terrible in today's world and their ensuing emotional angst and anxieties left me cold. Why anyone would commit the horror of murder just to keep a decades-old adoption secret doesn't ring true to me, making everything that happens ridiculous. Indeed, the conclusion of the plot seems to be filled in as an afterthought and one can't even imagine that any dire consequences will come of it. From the unlikely premise to the prosperous smug self-satisfied community, including Father Dowling's 'humorous' habit of teasing people he takes for granted are not as intelligent as he, to the resolution and the conclusion of the story, everything about BLOOD TIES felt forced and false. I'd guess that Father Dowling fans would want to read this 24th in the series. I can't think that anyone else would be interested.
Reviewed by Sharon Katz, August 2005
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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