Fire in the Blood: A Novel

(Hardback)

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"A tremendously compelling debut of rare skill" (Phil Klay) about a traumatized US Army soldier who goes AWOL to unravel the mystery of his wife's death. The story begins with a relatively mundane mission--someone owes someone else money--that's situated in a grimy walled, deep-shadowed apartment building in New York. A guy and his team end up with a captive in the backseat of their car- as planned. They drive past streetlights and then there is a thump, a body on their windshield, and a woman is left crumpled and bloodied in the snow. In Afghanistan, meanwhile, US Army soldier Coop is restless, bothered by the new guy and worried that all the inaction means he missed the war. When he's called to the Captain's office urgently, he's sure that someone knows his darkest secret and has reported him, but then his life ends a different way. His wife, Kay Bellante, is dead. Coop is given a brief leave to fly home and attend to Kay's affairs, but while back in the city, Coop discovers his wife's death was far more suspicious than anyone told him. Isolated and haunted by the echoes of battle, he decides to go AWOL, using his military training to uncover the real story behind Kay's sudden death. When he begins to circle in on the truth, Coop finds himself in a new war with the Albanian mafia, a crooked rehab clinic, and the Bellantes, a powerful and vindictive family of financial elites. And while searching the shadows of the Bronx, Coop must also navigate the small ordinary dramas we fill our lives with as we move from war to home to war. Humming with mystery, grief, heartache, and the kinds of emotions we feel first in our blood, this is a thriller written for a fearful America from an exciting new voice in fiction.

Reviews

With Fire in the Bloods close observations of the psychology of men and violence, of the wide gulfs between New York Citys social classes that can shrink to nothing in an instant, and its brilliant inversion of the classic mystery plot, Perry OBrien has written a tremendously compelling debut of rare skill.Phil Klay, author of Redeployment, winner of the National Book Award

Perry OBriens Fire in the Blood is the opening blast of what I expect will be a long, strong career in American fiction. Through all the twists and turns of this riveting, fast-paced novel, OBriens sure grasp of human experience never falters. Its all here, the heartbreak and hoping, the fear and confusion, the rare moments of mercy and meaning. A powerful debut, and a harbinger of more good things to come.Ben Fountain, author of Billy Lynns Long Halftime Walk, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award

Before you read Fire in the BloodPerry OBriens tightly woven, fast-paced novel of crime and revengelet me warn you that at some point you will not only wish you had written it, but also that you had the money to buy the film rights. It is that damn good.Donald Ray Pollock, author of The Heavenly Table and The Devil All the Time

Author Bio

Perry O'Brien served in Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne but was able to obtain an honorable discharge as a conscientious objector. His fiction has been featured in the war anthology Fire and Forget, and his nonfiction has been published by The New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle. He currently lives in New York City and works as a labor organizer.