From the acclaimed author who has mastered his own genre of psychological mystery, 'Blood and Circumstance' takes on issues of mental illness, family bonds, and nature versus nurture. Told entirely through the pretrial interview sessions between an accused murderer and his court-appointed psychologist, this suspenseful tale leaves the reader wondering exactly whom they can trust.

A problem student is suspected of murder in this contemporary mystery thriller set at a Jesuit school by the author of The Broom Closet. Fr. Colin McAvoy, a Scottish Jesuit priest and principal of the Matteo Academy, wants to create a wholesome learning environment for as many students as possible—whether or not their parents can pay. Then Colin receives a new pupil who puts his charitable convictions to the test. Graham Dennison has been accused of trying to kill his mother. Colin wants to refuse him, but the funds they could raise from Graham’s lawyer father would do a lot of good for the academy. To put his mind at ease, Colin brings in an old friend, journalist Sarah Markham, to develop a profile of the young man. She’s not convinced Graham is violent at all. But when another student is found dead from a possible drug overdose, the entire school is thrown into a panic. Now it’s up to Sarah to get to bottom of the murder. Was she wrong about Graham? Or is something even more sinister afoot at Matteo Academy?

"Gardner's reading of a wide range of published and unpublished texts recovers a multifaceted vision of the South. For example, during the war, while its outcome was not yet a foregone conclusion, women's writings sometimes reflected loyalty and optimism; at other times, they revealed doubts and a wavering resolve. According to Gardner, it was only in the aftermath of defeat that a more unified vision of the southern cause emerged. By the beginning of the twentieth century, however, white women - who remained deeply loyal to their southern roots - were raising fundamental questions about the meaning of southern womanhood in the modern era."--BOOK JACKET.

A boy with an abusive father grows up and fears that he has the same potential for violence as his father has.