Product Description

DavidSears grew up in the shadow of his brilliant younger sister, Diana, convinced by their father that she would accomplish great things. Instead, she married and had a son, Jason, wholike David and Dianas fatheris schizophrenic. Her husband, Mark, a geneticist, never made peace with Jasons condition. Perhaps this is why, when Jason drowns, Diana will not accept the authorities conclusion that his death was accidental. Or perhaps Diana is going mad. She begins to send David faxes and e-mails about ancient murders, driven by her growing belief that the earth is Gaia, a living witness to her sons murder who could give evidence in the case she is building against her husband. David soon fears for his own familys safety as the seductive qualities of Dianas manic energy become impossible to ignore. In The Cloud of Unknowing, Cook explores the power of blood and family mythology.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #647164 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-15
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 1.23 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Jason Regan, a severely schizophrenic child, is found drowned in a pond behind his family's home in this unusual, chilling mystery from Edgar-winner Cook (Red Leaves). Jason's mother, Diana, believes that her ex-husband, Mark, has murdered their son. The story is narrated by Diana's brother, Dave Sears, who comes to believe Diana has gone insane. Dave has good reason to think so; their father was a raving paranoid schizophrenic. Cook employs a curious narrative structure, dividing the story into two alternating sections: one in which Dave is being interviewed by a police detective about an unnamed crime, written in second-person, and another that Dave narrates in first-person. In the beginning it's unclear if a crime occurred at all; the police rule that Jason walked into the pond on his own. Then it appears that there was not only one murder but possibly two, three or even four. Cook reveals all the pieces of the shocking story with an absolutely steady hand. It's a bravura performance. (Jan.)
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From Booklist
*Starred Review* Mania and mythology are among the intriguing topics tackled in this latest mystery from Edgar winner Cook. David and Diana Sears were raised by a paranoid schizophrenic father, who dispensed arduous intellectual quizzes and flew into frightening fits of rage. In his father's twisted world, David existed only in his brilliant sister's shadow; he was "checkers" to her "chess." When the father (referred to only as "the Old Man") dies, David is happy to see Diana getting on with her life. She marries a brainy biochemist and has a son, Jason. But it quickly becomes clear that Jason is not like other children: Could he have inherited his grandfather's devastating disease? When the boy drowns in the pond beyond just beyond his parents' rural Connecticut home, Diana resists police reports labeling his death an accident. She is certain Jason was murdered. She is soon sending David faxes and e-mails about ancient crimes and forming a disturbing attachment to David's impressionable teenage daughter. Is Diana slowly going insane? In crisp, chilling prose, Cook (Red Leaves, The Chatham School Affair) deftly juxtaposes the maddeningly complex Sears family and a straight-shooting detective "rooted in a world where crimes leap like fish from crystal streams of motivation." Allison Block
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"An eerie, unsettling, beautifully composed and suspenseful novel quite unlike anything Thomas H. Cook has written before." (Joyce Carol Oates )

"Cook smartly goes against genre expectations . . . What's at stake isn't so much the resolution of a mystery as the integrity of a family." (Time Out New York )

"[Diana's] inexorable descent into mania, narrated by her brother Dave, is as gripping as the mystery itself. A-" (Entertainment Weekly )

"One of the most suspenseful of crime-fiction writers, [Cook] is also one of the most lyrical . . . Readers will glimpse blurred snapshots from their own lives--and be afraid." (The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) )