Blood by Maggie Gee review – teacher on the run

This tale of family violence and forgiveness uses elements of farce, caper, whodunnit and political satire, with a few horror tropes thrown in

Monica Ludd, a schoolteacher who at 6ft and 17 stone can pack a punch, resorts to disguise at one stage in the novel she narrates, donning a cape and sunglasses in a bid to foil the police. She has come across the battered and blood-soaked body of her despised dentist father and promptly gone on the run. She is the prime suspect, after all, having bought an axe with the intention of finishing off the horrible Albert. But did she do it?

Maggie Gee’s new novel is rather more successful at concealing its shape than Monica is. It has elements of ribald farce, criminal caper, whodunnit and political satire, with a few horror tropes thrown in, and at its core is the theme of emotional abuse in childhood. Monica has four living siblings, each as odd as she is, and all have been marked in youth by the bullying, narcissistic dentist whose zest in the surgery doesn’t slake his lust for inflicting damage and pain.

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from Books | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2MRobP7

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