SOURCE: “Surprise Ending,” in Richmond Times Dispatch, April 29, 1998, p. D1, D3.

In the following review, McKelway extols the virtues of Tidewater Blood, noting that the book marks a departure for Hoffman due to its suspense thriller characteristics, whereas his other works typically feature philosophical examinations and deeper symbolic levels at their core.

He doesn't remember exactly when the idea came to him, but it dawned on Virginia writer William Hoffman that murdering someone with a time-delayed explosion would make for a novel crime.

Fortunately, the idea has spawned a possible best seller rather than a police record.

In his new book. Tidewater Blood, Hoffman has allowed his fertile imagination to do away with a prosperous, unsuspecting chunk of Virginia aristocracy on the 250th anniversary of the family's arrival in the colony.

“No,” he said the other day from his Charlotte County farm, Wynyard, “I don’t have any...