From Publishers Weekly
In this brooding if uneven thriller from Shamus-winner Judson (
The Bone Orchard), residents of the Hamptons are shocked at the drowning deaths of several young men found in the icy winter waters of Long Island's Shinnecock Bay. The grieving parents of one victim, devout Catholics, hire local PI Reggie Clay to prove that their son's death wasn't suicide. Grief emerges as a persistent theme, as Judson explores the struggles of several downtrodden characters, notably Deacon Kane, a college professor and writer whose only son accidentally drowned a few years back. Kane seeks solace in the bottle and in an obsessive affair with a married woman. Kane eventually realizes someone is trying to frame him, but who? Is it Colette Auster, the young temptress sitting in on his writing classes, or perhaps the eccentric septuagenarian Professor Krause, whose parents were tortured and killed by the Gestapo? Judson does a terrific job of setting up a complex plot that's full of surprises, even if the pieces fit together a bit too conveniently in spots.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
Deacon Kane has been in a downward spiral since the accidental drowning of his son several years ago. He's hitting the bottle, having an affair with a married woman, and barely hanging on to his job as a Long Island writing teacher. Then one of his students, Larry Foster, turns up dead, and the police consider him a "person of interest" because he can't account for some critical time periods. Meanwhile, PI Reggie Clay, trying to prove Foster's death wasn't a suicide and knowing that other teenage boys have died in a similar manner, enlists Kane's help in looking for a serial killer. When it becomes clear to Kane that he may have been set up, he doesn't know whom to trust, and Clay and his colleagues begin to believe Kane just might be the killer after all. Told from multiple points of view, populated with well-drawn moral and amoral characters, and permeated with violence, this riveting albeit bleak crime novel offers a strong sense of place along with thoughtful rumination about doing the right thing and finding redemption for past actions.
Sue O'BrienCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
