All You Need To Know About Grocery Stores (Blood Feud Review)

Blood Feud by Daniel Harris

(from the back of the book) 

This is a simple story.  It begins with an immigrant grocer selling vegetables from a pushcart and ends in a court case with two billion dollars at risk.  Two brothers, sons of the founder, inherit equal shares of a burgeoning food chain.  One dies, and his widow, suspecting that she is being short-changed from profits earned, sues to recover.

Now it becomes complicated.  The author, an insider with over thirty years working in the food industry, spins a yarn of a twisting, turning labyrinth that features a love tryst, intrigue, betrayal, and greed.  The characters and dialogue are real, authentic, and they draw you from the printed page into the middle of this fast-moving action.

Russell Riley is the highest-ranking non-family member of this company and it's his job to protect and grow the business while the two families duke it out in court.  But even he can't stay entirely above the fray because he owns stock that could provide the swing vote for control.

If you are in the mood for an insider's take on a nasty and vitriolic family food fight that ended in a celebrated court case, Blood Feud is it.

I was a bit skeptical about a book about supermarkets being able to hold my attention.  But this one did.  You do learn a lot about the industry of the supermarkets and how they are run.  I think a lot of people will think you learn too much about it.  But that is not what the book is about.  It is about the people who run the stores.  Russell started working in the business as a teenager when there was only one store.  He grew up with this family and in this business.  I like that the story is told by someone who is on the inside but not a member of the family.  It kind of gives you both perspectives - the family one and the outsider one.  The characters are engaging enough for you to want to know what happens to them, which keeps you reading.  Because the characters felt real I was happy for the family when everything was working out for them and sad when it all started to fall apart.  The story does jump around in time a bit, sometimes without warning, and it lost me a time or two, but only for a moment.  I did feel a little let down because the build up of tension, the secrecy, and the rather sudden change in attitude of some (or really just one) of the characters had be believing something more was going on then there actually was.  It was not an exciting book but it was an interesting one.  I enjoyed it but I can't say I will go looking for more.