BLOOD WILL OUT, though a true murder mystery, is not the murder mystery you would expect. Although there is a murder and many mysteries, particularly about the man who committed it, the author, Walter Kirn, plays a big part in this story, too. Not only that, but Kirn theorizes about the mysteries, and his theories are good, almost certainly correct.

Kirn does not begin with the murder or even what led to it. Instead, he begins with how he met the murderer, Christian Gerhartsreiter. Except Kirn thought he was meeting Clark Rockefeller, yes, of THE Rockefeller family. Turns out, "Clark Rockefeller" was only one of Gerhartsreiter's many aliases. (Kirn makes, in my opinion, the mistake of calling him Clark throughout the book because, Kirn says, that's how he knew him for a long time.)

Other books have been written about the man known as "Clark Rockefeller," but it looks like Kirn was careful to be different. He begins with his drive from his home in Montana to "Clark's" home in New York to bring him a crippled dog he wanted to adopt. Upon their meeting, "Clark" started dropping several clues that his stories were not true. And Kirn berates himself for not catching the lies at the time, with just being impressed with his new friend. For friends they did become. And Kirn continues to berate himself for that.

But good people tend to trust that most people are good. Most people ARE good. Gerhartsreiter is the exception. I hope Kirn has stopped being angry with himself for being one of the good ones. ( )

An interesting look at "Clark Rockefeller", the con man, murderer and then also kidnapper of his daughter, The author details the years they were 'friends'. ( )

The backstory was interesting... and the book could have been better if Clark Rockefeller was the topic of the book. The true topic was the author's attempt to find out why he fell for the ruse for so long. It seems he wanted to prove it was because he was vain... not "stupid". ( )

Ce livre ébluoissant dissèque la psychopathie, les tendances perverses de la génération Internet, l'art, l'argent, et la nature même de la croyance.

I'm not really sure how much I can say about this book. Kirn did a really great job of making me dislike him (Kirn, not Rockefeller). And not because of him being duped by someone like Rockefeller. I thought Kirn handled his own betrayal in a fairly straightforward manner, without asking for pity or sympathy. However, he did write a few offhanded remarks that really got under my skin. It's a little hard to explain without delving into dangerous territory. Suffice it to say, I enjoyed the story behind this and thought it was well-written, but won't be reading anything else by this author. ( )