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Blood Trip
“Blood Trip is a delightfully twisted and inventive noir, reminiscent of past masters Thompson, Willeford, and Dan J. Marlowe.”
—Max Thrax, author of God Is A Killer
“Blood Trip is chock-full of entertainment and intrigue. This novel explores simultaneously the real-world gambling of murder-scheming and psychological drama that falls like an albatross upon the shoulders of the doomed architect. Man’s cunning—and frailty—are on spectacular display, as we are reminded again of Fate’s constructing coil, which will continue to tighten like a boa, despite the sly boots of its prey.”
—Adam Johnson, author of What Are You Doing Out Here Alone, Away From Everyone?
“Hilson has stacked us a vulnerable yet high-tension take on the hitman tale that takes elements of Jim Thompson’s over-the-top vintage pulp with an obsessive modern edge—reminding us that jealousy, revenge, and a collapsing house of cards will never go out of style.”
—Gabriel Hart, author of Fallout From Our Asphalt Hell
“Featuring the unraveling of a complex family, a colourful cast of characters and whip-smart dialogue, Hilson manages to sustain the intensity of the drama in every chapter—the plot had me gripped from the opening paragraph to the final line, I whizzed through it. Steeped in betrayal and lies, fraught with tension yet frequently funny, and with danger lurking around every corner, Blood Trip is one ride you don’t want to miss.”
—HLR, author of History of Present Complaint
Mike Wickham can’t stand his ex-wife Wendy’s new husband Allen Barth. So when Mike’s daughter on Spring Break in Atlantic City sends out an SOS from her hotel room, Mike teams up with Allen on a desperate road trip to rescue the college student from danger—and in the process get rid of Allen, for good. Murder-for-hire comes off without a hitch…or does it? You never know for sure until the last mile of the Blood Trip.
—Max Thrax, author of God Is A Killer
“Blood Trip is chock-full of entertainment and intrigue. This novel explores simultaneously the real-world gambling of murder-scheming and psychological drama that falls like an albatross upon the shoulders of the doomed architect. Man’s cunning—and frailty—are on spectacular display, as we are reminded again of Fate’s constructing coil, which will continue to tighten like a boa, despite the sly boots of its prey.”
—Adam Johnson, author of What Are You Doing Out Here Alone, Away From Everyone?
“Hilson has stacked us a vulnerable yet high-tension take on the hitman tale that takes elements of Jim Thompson’s over-the-top vintage pulp with an obsessive modern edge—reminding us that jealousy, revenge, and a collapsing house of cards will never go out of style.”
—Gabriel Hart, author of Fallout From Our Asphalt Hell
“Featuring the unraveling of a complex family, a colourful cast of characters and whip-smart dialogue, Hilson manages to sustain the intensity of the drama in every chapter—the plot had me gripped from the opening paragraph to the final line, I whizzed through it. Steeped in betrayal and lies, fraught with tension yet frequently funny, and with danger lurking around every corner, Blood Trip is one ride you don’t want to miss.”
—HLR, author of History of Present Complaint
Mike Wickham can’t stand his ex-wife Wendy’s new husband Allen Barth. So when Mike’s daughter on Spring Break in Atlantic City sends out an SOS from her hotel room, Mike teams up with Allen on a desperate road trip to rescue the college student from danger—and in the process get rid of Allen, for good. Murder-for-hire comes off without a hitch…or does it? You never know for sure until the last mile of the Blood Trip.
172 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 29, 2022
2 people are currently reading
24 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
May 1, 2024
Blood Trip is an awesome, dark, funny, gripping page turner. It took me to some really unexpected places and left me wanting to read one more chapter whenever I had to put it down. Great book.
May 26, 2022
They say never judge a book by its cover, and to them, I say behold the cover of Jesse Hilson’s novel Blood Trip and tell me the cover doesn’t make you want to instantly dive in. Add to that, quotes on the back cover from Punk Noir nobility in Max Thrax and HLR and I was more than DTF with this one. Really feel bad that I read this one on my e-reader and need to pick up the paperback.
Mike is a two-time loser resentful of his ex-wife’s new husband and for reasons that are barely clear to him, let alone us, he decides to hire someone to kill him. The plan is to lure Allen to Atlantic City under the auspices that Mike’s daughter, Julie, has been kidnapped. It’s a quality setup reminiscent of many a noir classic and I love that we’re never really clear on why Mike wants Allen killed other than a fanciful notion that his ex-wife will consider taking him back that I don’t even think Mike is convinced by.
This is a book balanced on the egos of men, but carried by an array of strong female characters as we follow Julie’s Spring Break misadventures in Atlantic City and later the perspective of Mike’s ex-wife, Wendy as well as a Detective and crook who come into play later in the book. That is my one criticism that these strong female characters didn’t get to follow through on their promise and drifted from the story as it went on. Even Mike’s girlfriend, Renee, seems as though she has an exciting backstory somewhere in the background.
Hilson has a skill for keeping you on your toes and throws in the unexpected at turns to keep the narrative fresh. It is sometimes just a small wrinkle, but it helped keep me unbalanced when reading and explored fresh avenues of suspense.
Hilson has created a noir novel that should be able to stand out from the crowd with a stunningly beautiful cover, a classic premise with weird and unexpected twists and turns and strongly envisioned characters who want to know more about even if it doesn’t come to fruition.
Mike is a two-time loser resentful of his ex-wife’s new husband and for reasons that are barely clear to him, let alone us, he decides to hire someone to kill him. The plan is to lure Allen to Atlantic City under the auspices that Mike’s daughter, Julie, has been kidnapped. It’s a quality setup reminiscent of many a noir classic and I love that we’re never really clear on why Mike wants Allen killed other than a fanciful notion that his ex-wife will consider taking him back that I don’t even think Mike is convinced by.
This is a book balanced on the egos of men, but carried by an array of strong female characters as we follow Julie’s Spring Break misadventures in Atlantic City and later the perspective of Mike’s ex-wife, Wendy as well as a Detective and crook who come into play later in the book. That is my one criticism that these strong female characters didn’t get to follow through on their promise and drifted from the story as it went on. Even Mike’s girlfriend, Renee, seems as though she has an exciting backstory somewhere in the background.
Hilson has a skill for keeping you on your toes and throws in the unexpected at turns to keep the narrative fresh. It is sometimes just a small wrinkle, but it helped keep me unbalanced when reading and explored fresh avenues of suspense.
Hilson has created a noir novel that should be able to stand out from the crowd with a stunningly beautiful cover, a classic premise with weird and unexpected twists and turns and strongly envisioned characters who want to know more about even if it doesn’t come to fruition.
April 27, 2025
Blood Trip is a darkly hilarious, thoroughly entertaining noir/crime novel that I couldn’t stop reading once I had started. It’s that addictive! Remarkably authentic characters and not a single false note in the storytelling. Fantastic book! Can’t recommend it enough. Take yourself on Hilson’s blood trip ASAP, it’s a wild and wacky ride!
May 20, 2022
Blood Trip doesn’t disappoint. Hilson has distilled the best of classic pulp/noir into one modern kick ass novel. The story is lean and swift. Perfect pacing carries the reader on a stomach churning current with steep drops and sharp bends. I could not predict where this story would go next. Different POVs give shape and depth to the jaw-clenching suspense. I drank this one down quickly during the stolen moments of a single day. Every line was the barrel of a gun poking me closer to the cliff’s edge. Hilson is a talent that knows how to ratchet up the stakes.
If you want comparisons to other writers, it wouldn’t be hyperbole to say Jim Thompson (Pop. 1280 comes to mind). Also Robert Leslie Bellem (not because of Bellem’s slang but because of rhythm, perhaps due to Hilson’s newspaper background), and Cornell Woolrich for the way Hilson let’s you mercilessly dangle over a pitch-black chasm. And I want to say, as far as the particular way Mike Wickham digs himself deeper and deeper with each lie and embellishment, and how he reasons the resulting screw ups to himself, I was reminded of Dan Fante’s alter ego Bruno Dante.
If you want comparisons to other writers, it wouldn’t be hyperbole to say Jim Thompson (Pop. 1280 comes to mind). Also Robert Leslie Bellem (not because of Bellem’s slang but because of rhythm, perhaps due to Hilson’s newspaper background), and Cornell Woolrich for the way Hilson let’s you mercilessly dangle over a pitch-black chasm. And I want to say, as far as the particular way Mike Wickham digs himself deeper and deeper with each lie and embellishment, and how he reasons the resulting screw ups to himself, I was reminded of Dan Fante’s alter ego Bruno Dante.
September 28, 2022
Jesse Hilson is a writer to watch. For his book debut, Hilson chose a hard-to-love protagonist. Mike is hapless, vindictive, and small-minded. The only thing he seems to be able to stick to is a grudge: his deep hatred for his ex-wife's new husband. Because the book is mostly told from Mike's perspective, it takes the reader a while to realize he/she is being taken for a ride. As is Mike, it turns out. The tough guy isn't as tough as he thinks he is, and the nerdy new husband of the ex-wife has some hidden chops. The solid action scenes and a streak of dark humor carry the tale forward. The book is a little uneven but a lot of fun to read. I'm curious to see what Hilson can come up with next.
February 11, 2023
Get in bitches, we’re going on a blood trip.
Blood Trip drives headlong into danger. The reader sits on the dashboard watching street lights streak across the windshield. The action is constant and engaging. It’s not a “whodunit”, it’s a “why is this loser doing this?” The author has the ability to create a protagonist who is both a sad, little man that we feel sorry for, as well as a total fucking loser that we hope ends up at the bottom of a lake.
I look forward to reading what Mr. Hilson puts out next.
Blood Trip drives headlong into danger. The reader sits on the dashboard watching street lights streak across the windshield. The action is constant and engaging. It’s not a “whodunit”, it’s a “why is this loser doing this?” The author has the ability to create a protagonist who is both a sad, little man that we feel sorry for, as well as a total fucking loser that we hope ends up at the bottom of a lake.
I look forward to reading what Mr. Hilson puts out next.
September 28, 2023
Picked up and read this entire work during a summer business/leisure vacation down to Alabama, and I am thrilled to have done so. The smell of the gulf, trapped in a hotel with my family, feeling like a stranger in a strange town, nearby college youth filling the night air with screams and shouts. The entire time down near salty air reading this noir tuned me into the tragic and psychotic tendencies enacted by main character Mike Wickham. Though it does seem like the story should unfold as simply as the plans are set in motion, Jesse puts the story against itself, essentially creating this shock to keep you with Mike by flipping the script itself on the main character. Mike's struggle with control, shame, regret, and family trust seems to be driving him further and further towards seaside destruction. The decision to have Mike plan to hire a man named Gartner to kill his ex-wife Wendy's current lover Alan is simple, but there is a fair read on the neuronal intentions that move the story along and engage the reader with a real look at a man who has lost it all and is willing to risk it all, again and again. We want to restore things after they're broken. We want to be dependable. Mike's daughter is seemingly his entire life and the entire reason why he does what he does. He'll do anything to get her back, even if blood should be spilled. Jesse has a real creative understanding of parenthood and the modern family by constructing the demise of a character that cheats himself and the ones around him while also trying to understanding everything that is happening (or so we think). The pacing of the events in Blood Trip work fast, one stop after another, the lingering prose fits in well, the doom that is felt in this piece creates a dark noir feel, with each character drenched in the shadows of Mike's chaos, and as criticism goes, there are only a few spelling errors, but in no way did they ever take me out. For all ages (YAF/AF), this work should be recommended, Jesse’s storytelling abilities should be a note for everyone, and even as Fall approaches, there is no better past time I could think of than diving into Blood Trip.
December 2, 2022
Antiheroes are in right now. Maybe you've heard something about it. Be they grandly tragic megalo-masterminds done in by too clever hubris, penny-ante fuck-ups suddenly thrust in for a pound by cruel circumstance, or lovably hangdog born losers hustling hard toward that big score in the sky, there exists a long and storied antihero tradition in American literature, film, and television – one that, if you were to step back and connect its disparate dots with red string like some dishonorably discharged corrupt cop working obsessively outside the law, would undoubtedly coalesce into a cottage-industrial extended universe to rival any other subcategory of hero in the popular canon (be they blue collar, action, or most recently, super-).
And yet, even within this larger milieu of established antihero tropes, Mike Wickham – the protagonist of Jesse Hilson’s excellent debut novel Blood Trip – stands out as just a little bit more anti- than usual. By turns righteously aggrieved and self-loathing; clueless and agonizingly self-aware, Mike doesn’t fit neatly into any of the aforementioned categories, at least in part because, from one spiraling moment to the next, he quite fairly sees himself in all of them. Perpetually assured that he’s the smartest guy in any given room, while simultaneously admonishing himself for the dire straits those same smarts have wrought, he embodies both the fast-talking con man, and the doomed mark – the antihero who’s only ever fooling himself.
The setup is a familiar one: resentful ex-husband puts a convoluted plan in motion to off his ex-wife’s new man (this time via a fake kidnapping of his teenage daughter – ostensibly the only person in the book for whom he feels anything but contempt), only for shit to get real in ways he was both wholly unprepared for, and is subsequently powerless to stop. From the naïve aegis of his suburban superiority complex, Mike bets everything he holds dear against his ability to make it hold him back, blinded by his own certainty that he is in control. The immediacy with which he begins to make mistakes, however, is almost laughable (indeed, even if his plan had worked to perfection, Hilson includes a sly wink to Mike’s impending downfall before anything even goes wrong – the fact that he cancels his daughter’s phone service to keep her from contacting her mother or stepfather while her “kidnapping” is still in progress, and never once considers that this act of cellular sabotage could – and would – be traced back to him, is just the first in a double-decker chalkboard’s worth of exponentially mounting miscalculations).
Though the criminals with whom Mike has involved himself are hardly mental heavyweights, they turn the tables on him faster than a Real New Jersey Housewife, but even with his family now in legitimate danger, his tumorous ego won’t allow him to let go. On some level, he still thinks he can pull it all off. Though other characters receive dedicated chapters as various story threads develop, Mike is the only first-person narrator in the book, and his mind is a truly unpleasant one to be inside. Hilson’s grasp of his deep-seated toxicity – from his dismissive refusal to believe a female detective could possibly catch up to his scheme gone awry, to the blithe ease with which he ping-pongs between daydreaming about his ex-wife suffering violence at the hands of her kidnappers, and himself heroically saving her from that same violence – is as deft and natural as it is uncomfortably relatable. Furthermore, the way in which the compound Joro web of lies he just can’t seem to stop spinning only serves to further enmesh him within their poisonously sticky center belies both an authorial empathy for that certain class of hapless, hardboiled schmucks who never quite realize they’re serving plots they know nothing about – plots that are decidedly never serving them – as well as a robust and sophisticated knowledge of the noir genre in general.
All of which is to say, it takes both know-how, and guts, to write an antihero like Mike Wickham. Neither a Tarantinoesque, shoot-from-the-ultrahip criminista, nor a Vince Gilligan-style underworld underdog made good (or bad), if Mike has a preexisting cognate, it’s probably the fortuneless fools that populate the darker half of the Coen Brothers’ oeuvre. Think Jerry Lundegaard in Fargo, or Ed Crane in The Man Who Wasn’t There. Not evil guys, necessarily. Just unlikable guys. Angry guys. Weak guys. Guys no one has ever rooted for – and who you won’t really want to root for either – but whose fate as morbidly fascinating cautionary tales seems all but written in the stars. Mike may script his inner monologue like a soulless Jim Thompson terror, but by the time he’s accidentally locking his keys in a car full of ransom money – a capital-B Basic screw-up Hilson plays to hilarious effect – it’s more than clear that he’s simply not equipped to back up the vengeful rage he carries inside.
Likewise, the closing chapter – which reveals just how tough Mike is when his back’s against the wall, and just where, exactly, he’s telling his sad sack story from – lets the reader in on a plainer, simpler truth: more often than not, the antihero fantasy is simply that – a fantasy. It’s not about making anything better. It’s just about making things different. About taking back a sense of control. But even the most successful criminals tend to lose control in the end, and nine times out of ten – Hell, ninety-nine times out of a hundred – your average joe with an axe to grind is gonna look a lot less like Walter White, and a lot more like Mike. He��s not an easy guy to read, and I’m sure he wasn’t easy to write, but what makes him so difficult to root for is also what makes him ring true. There is a Mike lurking in most men, if they’re willing to feed it; if enough people call them a monster that they start to believe they could be one; if they’ve been pushed far enough to feel justified. More than anything, it’s the warring duality of that mindset that makes Hilson’s characterization so brilliant, and whether you wind up feeling more empathy for Mike than I do or not, watching him sweat out his many hapless, failed attempts to break bad makes for one hell of a Blood Trip.
And yet, even within this larger milieu of established antihero tropes, Mike Wickham – the protagonist of Jesse Hilson’s excellent debut novel Blood Trip – stands out as just a little bit more anti- than usual. By turns righteously aggrieved and self-loathing; clueless and agonizingly self-aware, Mike doesn’t fit neatly into any of the aforementioned categories, at least in part because, from one spiraling moment to the next, he quite fairly sees himself in all of them. Perpetually assured that he’s the smartest guy in any given room, while simultaneously admonishing himself for the dire straits those same smarts have wrought, he embodies both the fast-talking con man, and the doomed mark – the antihero who’s only ever fooling himself.
The setup is a familiar one: resentful ex-husband puts a convoluted plan in motion to off his ex-wife’s new man (this time via a fake kidnapping of his teenage daughter – ostensibly the only person in the book for whom he feels anything but contempt), only for shit to get real in ways he was both wholly unprepared for, and is subsequently powerless to stop. From the naïve aegis of his suburban superiority complex, Mike bets everything he holds dear against his ability to make it hold him back, blinded by his own certainty that he is in control. The immediacy with which he begins to make mistakes, however, is almost laughable (indeed, even if his plan had worked to perfection, Hilson includes a sly wink to Mike’s impending downfall before anything even goes wrong – the fact that he cancels his daughter’s phone service to keep her from contacting her mother or stepfather while her “kidnapping” is still in progress, and never once considers that this act of cellular sabotage could – and would – be traced back to him, is just the first in a double-decker chalkboard’s worth of exponentially mounting miscalculations).
Though the criminals with whom Mike has involved himself are hardly mental heavyweights, they turn the tables on him faster than a Real New Jersey Housewife, but even with his family now in legitimate danger, his tumorous ego won’t allow him to let go. On some level, he still thinks he can pull it all off. Though other characters receive dedicated chapters as various story threads develop, Mike is the only first-person narrator in the book, and his mind is a truly unpleasant one to be inside. Hilson’s grasp of his deep-seated toxicity – from his dismissive refusal to believe a female detective could possibly catch up to his scheme gone awry, to the blithe ease with which he ping-pongs between daydreaming about his ex-wife suffering violence at the hands of her kidnappers, and himself heroically saving her from that same violence – is as deft and natural as it is uncomfortably relatable. Furthermore, the way in which the compound Joro web of lies he just can’t seem to stop spinning only serves to further enmesh him within their poisonously sticky center belies both an authorial empathy for that certain class of hapless, hardboiled schmucks who never quite realize they’re serving plots they know nothing about – plots that are decidedly never serving them – as well as a robust and sophisticated knowledge of the noir genre in general.
All of which is to say, it takes both know-how, and guts, to write an antihero like Mike Wickham. Neither a Tarantinoesque, shoot-from-the-ultrahip criminista, nor a Vince Gilligan-style underworld underdog made good (or bad), if Mike has a preexisting cognate, it’s probably the fortuneless fools that populate the darker half of the Coen Brothers’ oeuvre. Think Jerry Lundegaard in Fargo, or Ed Crane in The Man Who Wasn’t There. Not evil guys, necessarily. Just unlikable guys. Angry guys. Weak guys. Guys no one has ever rooted for – and who you won’t really want to root for either – but whose fate as morbidly fascinating cautionary tales seems all but written in the stars. Mike may script his inner monologue like a soulless Jim Thompson terror, but by the time he’s accidentally locking his keys in a car full of ransom money – a capital-B Basic screw-up Hilson plays to hilarious effect – it’s more than clear that he’s simply not equipped to back up the vengeful rage he carries inside.
Likewise, the closing chapter – which reveals just how tough Mike is when his back’s against the wall, and just where, exactly, he’s telling his sad sack story from – lets the reader in on a plainer, simpler truth: more often than not, the antihero fantasy is simply that – a fantasy. It’s not about making anything better. It’s just about making things different. About taking back a sense of control. But even the most successful criminals tend to lose control in the end, and nine times out of ten – Hell, ninety-nine times out of a hundred – your average joe with an axe to grind is gonna look a lot less like Walter White, and a lot more like Mike. He��s not an easy guy to read, and I’m sure he wasn’t easy to write, but what makes him so difficult to root for is also what makes him ring true. There is a Mike lurking in most men, if they’re willing to feed it; if enough people call them a monster that they start to believe they could be one; if they’ve been pushed far enough to feel justified. More than anything, it’s the warring duality of that mindset that makes Hilson’s characterization so brilliant, and whether you wind up feeling more empathy for Mike than I do or not, watching him sweat out his many hapless, failed attempts to break bad makes for one hell of a Blood Trip.
September 30, 2022
It took me about a chapter and a half to relax and let Blood Trip do the tripping, and then it was a frenetic, cringy, downhill ride well worth the read. Hilson's prose, which I found forced at first, seems to represent the agonized butt-clench, jaw-clench of his protagonist, a divorced and semi-estranged father seeking revenge on his ex-wife and her irritatingly functional new husband. My criticism is that the story moves so quickly that there is almost no time for fleshing out the minor characters, but Hilson gives you enough to get the wheels turning, I mean as readers we are constantly filling in gaps, and the length at under 200 pages is perfect if you are looking for a short, strong cup of grit.
September 28, 2022
I own Blood Trip physically and digitally. I've read it twice. I know I'll revisit it throughout my life. It's an all too close-to-home noir hell ride with a spine-chilling conclusion. I rarely feel disturbed by crime protagonists at this point and I felt a perverse joy following his steps.
January 6, 2023
Jesse Hilson’s Blood Trip is a picture-perfect noir. An unbroken dance of shadows for the silver screen. Its turbulent story, roiling with cops, kidnapping, and underground card games, glow and melt back into darkness like a face at the wrong end of a cigar. The finale as satisfying as a cherry’s hiss. Meet us there, just outside Skunk City, putting them out in our eyes to save the upholstery, and see what I mean.
July 4, 2022
I enjoyed this crime caper. It was a solid tale and well written. This reminded me of a less whacky Carl Hiaasen story, one where you want to reach in and shout at the characters for being so stupid. Really looking forward to seeing more from Jesse Hilson in the future.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews