Red Leaves
"Here is a writer who is surely due his time in the bestseller list in the UK"
Synopsis:
Eric Moore believes he lives the life many people would pay good money for. He has everything: a loving wife, a son, a big house and his own business. What more could he ask for? It isn't until a young girl goes missing that everything suddenly turns on its head. His son, Keith, was baby-sitting Amy Giordano when she allegedly went missing. Is Eric's 15 year-old son a kidnapper, a paedophile, a murderer - or all three?
As suspicion descends on the household, Eric begins to see that for many years he has been deluding himself about the state of his marriage, his non-communicative son and other family members. Eric begins to look back at his tragic family past and wonders what enactments were being played out whilst he decided to turn a blind eye. He believes that by discovering the past he will discover resonances into the present day.
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Review:
I have greatly enjoyed a number of Thomas H. Cook's novels, my favourite being The Interrogation, which I believe is one of the best crime novels I have ever read. Red Leaves easily matches his previous books. Red Leaves, which is currently short listed for the Edgar Award 2006, is a novel of suspense. It describes the Moore family being slowly dismantled - as accusations are either thrown or quietly insinuated during the disappearance of a young girl. I simply couldn't stop reading this novel as the powerful writing forced me to continue until I knew what was going on - and what was going to happen to this desperate family. The ending is very potent and very sad at the same time. Again, Cook delivers a blinder of a solution. There are no car chases or bloodied crime scenes within the covers of Red Leaves. What you do have is a very well written, suspenseful, humane story of a dysfunctional family seen through the eyes of the father. I hope that, with this novel, Cook, who is a great talent in America, is finally appreciated in the UK. Here is a writer who is surely due his time in the bestseller list in the UK.