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Fly Fishing Mystery #3
The Blood Knot
The last thing The Dog wanted was to find another body. But there was Annie Adams-the barn lady-floating dead at his feet, her easel and paints set up on the bridge above his head. And so The Dog wades his way through Kussmaul country encountering a confessing nine year old, a dispute over trespassing, a shunned Amish woman, and a quite possibly rabid beaver. And The Dog knows, this is not a fishing trip.
- GenresMystery
312 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
21 people are currently reading
70 people want to read
About the author
John Galligan
16 books113 followersJohn Galligan,in addition to being a novelist and teacher, John has worked as a newspaper journalist, feature-film screenwriter, house painter, au pair, ESL teacher, cab driver, and freezer boy in a salmon cannery. He currently teaches writing at Madison Area Technical College, where his experience is enriched by students from every corner of the local and world community.
Series:
* Fly Fishing Mystery
Series:
* Fly Fishing Mystery
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 11, 2012
John Galligan is among the best mystery writers putting out books today. I do believe that if you read the snippet of prose that is opening “chapter” of The Blood Knot, you will turn the page. And all the rest—even if you don’t know fly fishing, Wisconsin or the Amish in Wisconsin.
The title of "The Blood Knot" pretty much lets us know that Ned Oglivie gets all wound up in a gnarly family feud. This one involves barn paintings, meth, voyeurs, a clash of cultures and the kind of backwoods, small-town darkness you might find in Dickey’s Deliverance, for instance, or the dark inner jungles of Willliam Faulkner. Oglivie—a.k.a. The Dog—finds himself inexorably pulled into figuring out how barn-painter Annie Adams was murdered and what roles were being played by members of the odd Kussmaul clan. In order to solve this one, The Dog must assemble how the Kussmaul “family” fits together—or not.
But, what’s fresh about that? How many times do you read a mystery and wonder how the non-cop, non-detective main character is going to be the one to sort things out and then chase down and face down the bad guys?
Galligan makes it work. Oglivie resists as much as he moves ahead. He is in his own self-inflicted kind of purgatory, constantly questioning his role and place in the work ahead.
Galligan does not hold the reader’s hand. You are asked to keep up. I found one moment where The Dog stops to sort things out, but it’s not much. There are nicknames to keep up with, too—and a nickname plays a key role in the resolution. The story barrels along, with plenty of jolts as the Dog, in his less-than-smooth style, turns murky water to clear.
All along the way a built-in tension brews in the Dog’s character—his yearning to hit the road and avoid responsibility against the human desire to help.
“It was a big world out there. And yet it was totally false, too. The word was huge and tiny at the same moment. The Dog’s trout bum world, ostensibly, was boundless and free, any middle-aged man’s darkest and most thrilling fantasy—and yet it was no more spacious, no more disencumbered, than the cluttered confines of my skull.”
Maybe The Dog is a trout bum, but in between sips of his precious vodka-Tang, he’s a helper, a teacher and he’s looking for the next hook to a deeply human connection.
No, he’s not really a trout bum. He’s the old fat trout in a dark eddy, trying to discern bait from real meat.
The title of "The Blood Knot" pretty much lets us know that Ned Oglivie gets all wound up in a gnarly family feud. This one involves barn paintings, meth, voyeurs, a clash of cultures and the kind of backwoods, small-town darkness you might find in Dickey’s Deliverance, for instance, or the dark inner jungles of Willliam Faulkner. Oglivie—a.k.a. The Dog—finds himself inexorably pulled into figuring out how barn-painter Annie Adams was murdered and what roles were being played by members of the odd Kussmaul clan. In order to solve this one, The Dog must assemble how the Kussmaul “family” fits together—or not.
But, what’s fresh about that? How many times do you read a mystery and wonder how the non-cop, non-detective main character is going to be the one to sort things out and then chase down and face down the bad guys?
Galligan makes it work. Oglivie resists as much as he moves ahead. He is in his own self-inflicted kind of purgatory, constantly questioning his role and place in the work ahead.
Galligan does not hold the reader’s hand. You are asked to keep up. I found one moment where The Dog stops to sort things out, but it’s not much. There are nicknames to keep up with, too—and a nickname plays a key role in the resolution. The story barrels along, with plenty of jolts as the Dog, in his less-than-smooth style, turns murky water to clear.
All along the way a built-in tension brews in the Dog’s character—his yearning to hit the road and avoid responsibility against the human desire to help.
“It was a big world out there. And yet it was totally false, too. The word was huge and tiny at the same moment. The Dog’s trout bum world, ostensibly, was boundless and free, any middle-aged man’s darkest and most thrilling fantasy—and yet it was no more spacious, no more disencumbered, than the cluttered confines of my skull.”
Maybe The Dog is a trout bum, but in between sips of his precious vodka-Tang, he’s a helper, a teacher and he’s looking for the next hook to a deeply human connection.
No, he’s not really a trout bum. He’s the old fat trout in a dark eddy, trying to discern bait from real meat.
December 30, 2014
I would estimate I have read about one thousand books during the last ten years or so. This is one of the only two books that I was unable to finish. Well, I was not even able to get through 20% of the text and with extreme effort I just managed to get to page 61. I simply do not have the faintest idea what the book is about. According to the blurb on the back cover, "This is not a fly fishing mystery. It is a riotous account of what happens when your life goes horribly awry and you run out of money in the middle of Wisconsin...". Well, to me it would help if the characters were in even smallest way similar to real people. Alas, they are not. They are paper cutouts reciting their lines. It also does not help that I am totally uninterested in fishing.
Hoping I have matured enough to read the book I just picked it a few days ago and opened it at the bookmark. Tried to read three pages and I did not understand a single sentence even though they are written in English, which I more or less know. I am sorry, I hate throwing books away, but in my view this one richly deserves it.
Why do I have to assign one star?
Hoping I have matured enough to read the book I just picked it a few days ago and opened it at the bookmark. Tried to read three pages and I did not understand a single sentence even though they are written in English, which I more or less know. I am sorry, I hate throwing books away, but in my view this one richly deserves it.
Why do I have to assign one star?
November 12, 2016
Interesting murder mystery centered around the exploits of a nomadic fly fisherman trying to escape his own past fishing in Amish - English Wisconsin. What could go wrong? Guess I will be on to the next exploits of the Dog in Montana.
September 22, 2020
This is the second book I have read in the series; disappointed with how similar it was to The Nail Knot. Almost all the rural characters are portrayed as ignorant, disreputable and unkempt, with the female love interest only being redeemed by her good intentions.
July 4, 2021
My first book by Galligan, and my last. 3 D's - disjointed, depressing, and disappointing.
I thought I had found a new author, but not for me.
I thought I had found a new author, but not for me.
March 9, 2023
Captivating, fun and unique all in one!
August 30, 2024
Trumpers meet the Amish on a river—-what could possibly go wrong…
January 31, 2025
Good Book
Good Book. The author does a good job explaining fly fishing with a mystery in a comical but subtle manner.
Good Book. The author does a good job explaining fly fishing with a mystery in a comical but subtle manner.
August 4, 2012
Once again Dog Oglivie is moving around the country fly-fishing some of the best rivers when he gets himself involved with a murder among some Amish people. This one is like the first book in this series in that is well written with great character development. All I can say about the ending is that, if you saw this one coming you are much better than I am. Well, let me clarify a little. I had a suspicion who the murderer was, but the motivation was pure left-field. Would not have EVER come up with that! Great read.
March 28, 2020
After second read:
I decided to reread the Fly Fishing Mystery series after letting it sit for a long time. Galligan creates a challenging mystery, filled with obscure clues, false leads, and a large cast of quirky and guilty-in-some-way-or-another characters. An enjoyable journey to go through the process of solving the mystery.
After first read in 2011
Another well-written, original mystery. Worth the read.
I decided to reread the Fly Fishing Mystery series after letting it sit for a long time. Galligan creates a challenging mystery, filled with obscure clues, false leads, and a large cast of quirky and guilty-in-some-way-or-another characters. An enjoyable journey to go through the process of solving the mystery.
After first read in 2011
Another well-written, original mystery. Worth the read.
July 4, 2012
It took me awhile to get into this book--the beginning felt slow, to me, and the characters didn't immediately grab me. However, I ended up being glad I stuck with it, because it warmed up into a really sweet book, and I enjoyed the second half far more than I'd thought I would.
May 22, 2015
Not a cozy mystery for sure. However, it is a really good one and the ending is definitely out of left field. Little dark and heavy, but so worth reading til the end. Great.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews