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Overview
David Sears grew up in the shadow of his brilliant sister, Diana, convinced by their father that she would accomplish great things. Instead, she married and had a son, Jason, who—like David and Diana’s father—is schizophrenic. Her husband, Mark, a geneticist, never made peace with Jason’s condition. Perhaps this is why Diana will not accept the authorities’ conclusion that Jason’s drowning death was accidental. Or perhaps Diana is going mad. As she builds a case against her husband and the seductive qualities of her manic energy become impossible to ignore, David finds himself afraid for his own family’s safety. In The Cloud of Unknowing, Cook explores the power of blood and family mythology.
Synopsis
David Sears 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, who—like David and Diana’s father—is schizophrenic. Her husband, Mark, a geneticist, never made peace with Jason’s 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 son’s murder who could give evidence in the case she is building against her husband. David soon fears for his own family’s safety as the seductive qualities of Diana’s manic energy become impossible to ignore.
In The Cloud of Unknowing, Thomas H. Cook explores the devastating power of blood and family mythology.
The New York Times - Marilyn Stasio
Although Cook is maddeningly coy about who actually killed whom, he writes eloquently about the fears that lead people to equate intelligence with madness, suppressing the imagination and taking refuge in mediocrity.
Editorials
Marilyn Stasio
Although Cook is maddeningly coy about who actually killed whom, he writes eloquently about the fears that lead people to equate intelligence with madness, suppressing the imagination and taking refuge in mediocrity.— The New York Times
Publishers Weekly
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.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.Joyce Carol Oates
"An eerie, unsettling, beautifully composed and suspenseful novel quite unlike anything Thomas H. Cook has written before."Time Out New York
"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."Entertainment Weekly
"[Diana’s] inexorable descent into mania, narrated by her brother Dave, is as gripping as the mystery itself. A-"