What would you do if one night your whole life changed?
If everything you thought you knew was suddenly turned on its head?
If you had to take your child and keep moving.
Away from the questions, away from the prying eyes, away from everyone you knew.
Because it’s your job to make sure that your daughter can survive.
Even if it means becoming someone you never thought you’d be.
And you know that whatever you do, wherever you go, people will be looking for you both.
Because wherever you go, bodies are left behind.
But you have no choice.
Because you’d do anything to protect your child.

IN A NUTSHELL
‘Blood Like Mine‘ was a gripping story, cleverly told, that combined a serial killer narrative with a horror narrative and gave both a few twists while delivering an emotional story about the love between a mother and her daughter. It was a story that kept surprising me without making me feel that the narrative was doing gymnastics.

Blood Like Mine’ (2024) came as a complete surprise to me. I liked the cover and picked it up as something for my wife and I to listen to on a long car drive. It was so compelling that we kept listening to it after the drive was over. We were wrapped up in the people and we needed to know how the story ended. 

I think this is a story that it’s best to go into blind, knowing only that it’s a powerful blend of crime thriller and horror novel, with a strong focus on the personalities of the people involved. The relationship between the fugitive mother and daughter is close, complex and convincing. The FBI man pursuing them is self-destructive and hard to like.

The plot uses familiar tropes from the serial killer and horror genres but makes them feel fresh by changing who I cheered for (HINT – it wasn’t the FBI guy). The plot didn’t go where I thought it would, even after I’d fully understood the situation that the mother and daughter were in. It kept me on the edge of my seat to the last page.

Perhaps what surprised me most about it was how engaged I became with the mother and daughter as I learned more about them and what they’d been through.

If you’re looking for a genre read with a difference then I recommend listening to the audiobook of ‘Blood Like Mine‘ narrated by Elizabeth Rodgers and Michael Braun. It will be ten hours well spent.

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