A Thin Blue Line Paperback – December 1, 2010

a friend suggested this book to me and I'm amazed at how it resonates with today's best sellerGone Girl"; it's like another take on the same issue. What a surprise, If you liked that one, you'll really appreciate this one!Jamie

Very confusing. What was real and what was not. Can't say I enjoyed the read, was too puzzling for me.

An enchanting read, touching on our inner yearnings to go back to basics and create a natural nest for ourselves and shut out the demanding world. But the voices of the world seep in through memories of our favorite books and necessity looms. For a story with basically one charactor, it kept moving and pulling me with it. Delighted to be immersed in her world.

On the very first page Pat Daulton introduces the suspense which weaves its way slowly through the rest of her book. Everyone can identify with wanting to escape at times into another world, either within themselves or in reality. Pat uses her unique knowledge of classical literature, poetry and words to reveal the thought processes and memories of her protagonist. This produces a book difficult to put down until the surprise ending. I heartily recommend this creative and well-written work.Mary HartupDenver, Colorado

Thank you to Pat Daulton for offering a lyrical, surprising, and quietly feminist meditation on escaping home. A Thin Blue Line is a subversive and poetic twist on the journey narrative, which, long after Pilgrim's Progress and Robinson Crusoe, is a genre still dominated by men or women who replace one prison (a man, a job) for another one (more men, consumerism). Not Daulton's heroine.The adventures of the main character are eerily quiet, lyrical, and literary (the reader learns very little, at first, about the biography of the heroine but can piece together a sense of her from beautifully rendered pictures of the books she loves). We know she is stranded on a beach and descriptions of the many hours she spends alone are almost painfully detailed, giving voice to the crowded silences we all carry with us as we make and remake our identities. When this purposefully lost woman encounters civilization, the worlds of the imagination and the realities of human structures are depicted in ways that make the reader realize the complex renderings of our lives, invented and "real."The conclusion of the novel, if we can call it that, does nothing to settle the questions that remain about the past and future of the heroine and about the ramifications of escape. But it offers a moving and provocative response to the vibrant and sometimes stultifying loves and losses of being alive.

terrific, terrific, and eerie besides.

Daulton's first novel is an amazing explosion onto the literary landscape. A modern "seer," the author understands the complexities of the female psyche and articulates them through flawless characterization; rich, evocative imagery; spot-on dialogue; and a surprising, original plot structure. From the first colorful image to the extraordinary concluding metaphor, the reader is held willing captive to the power of Daulton's story. Others have commented on her brilliant allusions to great literature, and though I totally agree with those observations, I see these references as simply another layer in the immaculate Chinese box puzzle of this novel. . . layer upon layer of meaning, depth, and nuance to be peeled away until the reader finally attains the great truth that lies therein. Because Daulton's voice and vision are so strong, the reader emerges from her fictional world of A Thin Blue Line as a better person. If, indeed, fine literature does ennoble the spirit, Daulton has most assuredly succeeded in that goal!

What's so provocative about this book is the way the main character (a woman who has been washed up on a beach) puts her life back together--nature helps, books help, a kind woman and a young girl help as well as the spirits from her past and present.The tangling of her present and her past and her narratives about those around her are what seem to help her the most. Made me really think about the way memories invade our present lives. I particularly liked the rewritings and commentaries on classical literature such as The Waves, and Anna Karenina, and Madame Bovary and poets such as Williams and Frost and Stevens and the way in which she makes the real, the unreal, and classical fiction all come together. There's a lot to like in Pat Daulton's first novel, well written and intriguing. It's a real page turner, and hard to put down, once you've begun reading. I look forward to her next novel.