Author: Ruth Gunter Mitchell

ISBN 9-781419-615375

Aunt Inny – everyone has one. You know the type – has the devil in them, or so they say. They spoil holidays, upset family members, and even wreck Christmas trees. The member of the family that makes everyone wonder if they were found on the doorstep and the one you want to throttle when they embarrass you. It makes one wonder how they could be kin.

Jenny recounts how she saw things in such a clear fashion that you can almost see the wallpaper and smell the meal being cooked in the kitchen (and since you’re company, you’ll eat in the dining room). Sissy, sister to Jenny and six years older, isn’t afraid of anyone – including Aunt Inny. But, Mama keeps everyone in check…except Aunt Inny. The torment that Aunt Inny bestows touches everyone in her path. She almost enjoys lashing out and manipulating those around her. She is a troubled human being who seems to be wrestling with demons better understood by mental health professionals. However, it’s the family (mostly Mama) who understands Aunt Inny.

The book opens with Aunt Inny never looking younger – as she is viewed in her casket in an Alabama funeral parlor. She had threatened that if she wasn’t made up properly, she would come back to haunt. Jenny, the niece of the thorn-in-the-side Aunt Inny, tells what she recalls about Aunt Inny – down to the time Aunt Inny got plastered with alcohol (not uncommon for Aunt Inny). The language Aunt Inny used could only be described as that unbecoming a lady – from calling a child a “bitch” to threatening to “tear your ass up.”  Aunt Inny may have had a fur stole and jewelry, but she was no lady.

Mama delivered a third child, Vicky (later we learn she was named after Aunt Inny). The twin boy didn’t make it and Daddy was never the same again, according to Jenny. The new baby thrilled Sissy and Jenny. Aunt Inny was gone for a long period of time. Aunt Inny didn’t like children -- she showed up again with a strange man – Uncle Harry (and a Yankee at that!). Daddy started staying away from home for long periods of time.

After Aunt Inny and Uncle Harry bought a house and three acres, it wasn’t long before Uncle Harry moved back to Illinois – leaving Aunt Inny the house and the car. Aunt Inny seemed like a new woman – sewing, decorating the new house and even inviting people over. Aunt Inny and Jenny were especially getting close. Daddy lost his job and opened a mom-and-pop store – Mama helped take care of it. Things were still bad between Mama and Daddy – one day, Mama told him to leave and he took her up on it. No one ever saw Daddy again. Aunt Inny took over the store so the house Mama had inherited wouldn’t be seized. Then, the black car drove up one day – with bad news. Daddy had been killed in a well-drilling accident.

Aunt Inny was partial to liquor and Rick had plenty of it when he stopped in to see Aunt Inny. She went off with Rick and his friends, drunk as could be, and landed up in jail. Mama was there for Aunt Inny…again. As it turned out, Aunt Inny had been doing some powerful thinking and would be leaving for a short time – to go up to Illinois and remarry Uncle Harry. Mama would have to take care of the store, but the remarriage would not last long. The story doesn’t end there. There was a reason Inny was the way she was…and even I was surprised to learn the whole story.

The entire book is well written, smacking deliciously of the South in the 1950’s. In this fiction, Nothing But The Blood, Mitchell has captures a real family with real problems – not unlike families today.

This is fiction at it’s best!

The above review was contributed by: Sue Vogan, Writer & Author of NCO-No Compassion Observed: To read more of Sue's reviews Click Here