From the Edgar Award-winning author of The Chatham School Affair Thomas H Cook also won the W H Smiths Thumping Good Read for Breakheart Hill 'In this brilliant evocation of how the past infects the present Edgar-award winning novelist Cook lures readers into labyrinths of loss, guilt and evil intent ... Cook is a master of sustained suspense' Booklist Cook has also won extraordinary praise for his previous novels: 'A beautifully composed tale with enough plot twists to satisfy even fans who have learned to expect surprises from this talented author ... [a] haunting tale that once again demonstrates that he is among the best in the business' Publishers Weekly 'Probably no other suspense writer takes readers as deeply into the heart of darkness as Cook' Chicago Tribune
Thomas H. Cook is the author of 14 previous novels and two books of true crime.
In this mildly interesting novel, Cal Chase recounts the events that led to the mysterious death of his sensitive brother, Billy. Cal saved his brother's life when they were children, but he is unable to save the man. As the book opens, Cal represses his emotions in an effort to live up to his parents' opinion of him as a thinking, not a feeling, man. By the end, Billy's death has been fully explained, and Cal acknowledges that his heart has warmed. George Guidall gives a workmanlike performance; Cal, the first-person narrator, is his best creation, and Guidall's voice and pace perfectly portray someone who is emotionally a mess but is trying to conceal it. The supporting characters are more difficult to distinguish; the reader interprets many of them as querulous and helpless by raising his voice a few notches and then raising it still higher at the end of each sentence. For larger fiction collections. Juleigh Muirhead Clark, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Lib., Colonial Williamsburg Fdn., VA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
At one point in this suspense thriller a character asks, "What could be less mysterious than suffering?" Exactly. This question sums up the problem with Cook's new novel, which, like his Edgar-winning The Chatham School Affair, begins with an intriguing young woman arriving in a New England town. This time the place is Port Alma, Maine, and the woman calls herself Dora March--although we soon learn that's not her real name. As in that earlier book, the woman will have a deep and dark impact on the lives of several of the town's residents. Cook tells the story in flashbacks and sidesteps in time, beginning in 1937 with lawyer Calvin Chase's decision to give up his job as deputy district attorney to investigate the stabbing death of his beloved younger brother, Billy. Dora--the woman Billy loved--has disappeared as mysteriously as she arrived, last seen boarding a train for Portland. Unfortunately, Cook loads Cal's search for Dora with too much literary and emotional baggage, throwing out and then drawing in plot threads and jumping around in time in a manner that's sure to annoy all but the most patient readers. The narrative suffers from Dora's obvious characterization as a poster child for past child abuse, and Cal's journey from Maine to New York to California is strung out with too many jerky and misleading moves. For all his gifts as a writer, Cook has seriously overreached himself in this disappointing misfire. (May) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
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