SOURCE: “His Novel's Success is ‘Thrilling’ News,” in Richmond Times Dispatch, April 30, 1998, p. B1.

In the following review, Clark discusses the release of Tidewater Blood, noting Hoffman's easy-going affability and the author's venture into the suspense thriller market with the novel.

William “Bill” Hoffman came to town yesterday to promote his new novel, Tidewater Blood.

The book, a modern suspense thriller involving an aristocratic Virginia family whose roots go way back, is off to a fine start artistically and commercially.

It has been proclaimed a page-turner by some literary critics, and it is showing signs of becoming a best seller. If the book earns him a chunk of change, that will be just fine with Hoffman, an accomplished fiction writer who hadn't been known as a mystery writer.

“Some people have accused me of betraying my craft by writing a thriller,” he told a lunch-hour audience at The...