SOURCE: “Hoffman Turns to Suspense,” in Richmond Times Dispatch, April 12, 1998, p. F4.

In the following review, Carter lauds Hoffman's characterization and sense of place in Tidewater Blood, but denounces the author for couching the deeper story about the conflict between Virginians and West Virginians within the trappings of a murder mystery.

Although Cold Mountain and Paradise have managed recently to elbow their way onto the bestseller lists, the top slots are still populated mainly by novels about secret political/economic/terrorist cabals threatening to destroy entire populations unless their demands are met.

In such novels, a protagonist armed only with a Swiss Army knife stumbles unwittingly into the plot, survives massive explosions and enough high-tech firepower to reduce the immediate environment to rubble, restores peace and security to the world, then parts with the frightened female companion he has somehow acquired and returns to his job as a...