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RED LEAVES
by Thomas H. Cook
Harcourt, June 2005
304 pages
$23.00
ISBN: 0151012504


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Eric Moore seems to have everything going for him -- his own business, his own home, a wonderful wife and son. He spends his days in his photography store developing and framing pictures of the lives of his clients. But he soon learns that pictures don't always tell the truth and life isn't as great as the photographs make it seem.

His discovery starts when his 15-year-old son Keith appears to be involved in the disappearance of eight-year-old Amy Giordano, a little girl he was babysitting. Keith insists that everything was fine when he left the girl's home but the next morning her parents discovered she was gone. Since Keith was the last person to see her, the parents and the police assume that he was involved.

To make matters worse, Eric is also somewhat suspicious of his son. Keith called his father before he left the babysitting job saying that he was going out afterwards. When Keith came home that night he said no one drove him home but Eric is sure he saw a car's headlights just before his son walked into the house.

Then there's the problem that Keith is a loner and doesn't seem to have any friends and spends most of his time either in school, working at the photography store, or locking himself in his room with his computer. Keith is also sullen and moody and doesn't take much care in his appearance. Aren't all these the traits of a person who might kidnap a little girl? The police seem to think so and as the days and weeks go by with no sign of little Amy, Eric starts to wonder about his son's innocence.

Eric has a lot of other somber things to think about too. His father is a grouchy, unloving old man living in a retirement home. Eric's brother Warren lives alone and works as a painter and when he isn't painting homes he's a drunk. Warren never married, feels sorry for himself, and is more than a little jealous of his brother's good life. When they were young, shortly after their little sister Jenny died from cancer, their mother died in a car accident.

Yet, when Eric looks at the pictures of his childhood, everyone appears so happy. It's hard for him to comprehend that this smiling family had so many problems. When Eric looks at the pictures of his own family now, he also sees the smiling faces, but he speculates that those smiles might be covering lies too. His son is suspected of kidnapping and possible murder and his wife Meredith might be having an affair. He also has been harboring the idea that his father murdered his mother all those years ago to get the insurance money.

Eric's life is falling apart around him and there isn't a thing he can do about it but watch and wait.

RED LEAVES by Thomas H Cook is a remarkable book. In it the author shows us how lives can crumble because of people's suspicious nature. His main character, Eric, clings to the hope that things aren't as bad as they seem to be, but all the while has a sinking feeling that his life will get much worse before it gets better.

Masterfully written and at times charged with a painful dread that reverberates inside the readers, RED LEAVES shows us the decline of a family. If you're tired of so-so authors, read RED LEAVES by Thomas H Cook and find out what a real writer can do. This is a book not to be missed.

Reviewed by Sharon Katz, August 2005

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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