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Red Leaves

by Thomas Cook



      Eric is a common citizen with common dreams who owns a common framing business. But he struggles with memories of a broken childhood and suffering that he tries to silence with his common life. His son, Keith, is about as normal as any fifteen-year-old boy can be. That is, he is quiet, withdrawn and insecure.

However, these common lives are thrust into chaotic disarray when Keith agrees to babysit the neighbor’s daughter, Amy, only to find the next morning that she has vanished. Suddenly, the quiet, withdrawn and insecure teenager no longer seems as normal as he once was in the eyes of a small town as they begin to look upon him with growing suspicion. Fighting this same impulse, along with the skeletons of his childhood, is Eric, who now questions whether he ever knew his son personally or knew him only as an acquaintance. As an entire community searches for the missing girl, Eric searches for the truth, the truth about himself, his family, and -most importantly- his son.

What can you say about Thomas Cook? There are talented writers, those who can keep your attention and interest enough to continue turning pages. And then there is another class, a step above the talented. There are those who write like a genius painter, where even the most nonchalant brush strokes become a masterpiece. In my opinion, Thomas Cook fits that category. This is the first novel of his that I have read, and it won’t be the last. He has a way with words that I -as a writer- can only dream of having. Like anyone at the top of his field, his ability seems effortless. With just a few of his brush strokes, he can conjure an image in the reader’s mind that only a photograph could duplicate. He describes expression and emotion that we have all experienced, but could never accurately detail. He is a novelist whose work should be on the shelf of anyone who enjoys fiction; if not for the story that he tells, then simply for the pleasure of reading his work. Red Leaves is a winner in every sense of the word.

The Book

Harcourt
June 13, 2005
Hardcover
0151012504
Suspense
More at Amazon.com
Excerpt
NOTE:

The Reviewer

John Washburn
Reviewed 2006
NOTE: Reviewer John Washburn is the author of When Evil Prospers.
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