"A taut thriller that's peppered with acerbic humor."
- Kirkus Reviews
A darkly humorous and edgy crime novel set in New York City in the late ‘80s, Blood Will Have Blood will appeal to fans of Elmore Leonard, the Coen Brothers, and Lawrence Block.
Seven years in New York, and that big break has yet to materialize for struggling actor and inveterate pothead Scott Russo. Performing in terrible, barely attended Off-Off Broadway productions, hopping from one soul-crushing job to the next, Scott slacks away in a pot-fueled haze and contemplates throwing in the towel on his anemic career. The only thing that keeps him going is the humiliation of returning home to Baltimore. That and his current theatrical gig: an idiotically bad production of Macbeth.
Broke and out of a job, Scott jumps at his friend’s offer to work for a pot delivery service, only to get caught in a web of brutal Irish gangsters, a charismatic psychopath, ruthless prosecutors, and clueless actors. As his theatrical and criminal worlds collide in mayhem, murder, and betrayal, Scott finds himself morphing into a bumbling and blood-stained Macbeth, on stage and off.
If he can just make it to opening night…
KEEPING TENURE IS A REAL KILLER...
He has a brilliant wife, tenure at the fabled University, and is well-liked by colleagues and popular with students, who flock to his film studies courses. And he hates his life. He can’t bring himself to write, disdains academia, barely gets through his class lectures, and spends a lot of time hiding in his office in a stupor, pondering his collection of movie posters.
All that changes when his new teaching assistant shows up at his door. At first, he’s thrown by the eccentric and intense Stacy Mann, but he soon finds in her a kindred spirit of sorts: an outsider, a cynic who shares his antipathy for the university, someone receptive to his alienation and resentment. And, most importantly, her knowledge of movie trivia rivals
his own. But he soon suspects she is not who she appears to be, that there may be a hidden agenda, one that threatens his very standing. What begins as a tantalizing connection soon spirals into a three-day frenzy of murder, evasion, and deceit—all against the backdrop of the University, an absurdist place where privilege, hierarchies, and campus politics reign.
Official Selection
Best 100 Indie Novels of 2020
Now Available from Köehler Books
About the Author
Thomas H. Carry’s debut novel, Privilege (Koehler Books, 2020), was an Amazon bestseller in satire fiction and named one of the best 100 indie novels of 2020 by Kirkus Review. Carry holds a doctorate in literature and has worked as a professional actor, educator, consultant, and bouncer. He lives in Manhattan with his wife.