Places in the Dark

Zusatztext "Cook is a master of sustained suspense. This brilliant evocation of how the past infects the present ... lures readers into labyrinths of loss! guilt! and evil intent." — Booklist (starred review) "[The story] is swept along by Cook's artistry! his insights into broken people! his austere imagery of the barren landscapes that attract them." — The New York Times "Cook writes very well; his tone is sad! even foreboding! yet almost elegiac! as he weaves ... an intricate fabric of tragedy." — The Boston Globe Don't miss Thomas H. Cook's other award-winning works of suspense: Instruments of Night Evidence of Blood The Chatham School Affair Winners of the Edgar Award for Best Novel: Breakheart Hill Mortal Memory Available wherever Bantam Books are sold and coming soon in hardcover: Into the Web Informationen zum Autor Thomas H. Cook Klappentext It is autumn 1937 when a mystery woman appears in Port Alma, a sea village nestled on the chilly coast of Maine. A fragile, green-eyed beauty, the woman arrives with little more than the clothes on her back and a wealth of unspoken secrets. Before a year goes by, she will flee Port Alma on the same bus that brought her there. But before she goes, she will irrevocably alter the lives of two brothers — leaving one dead, and the other perched on the edge of madness. There is much that Dora March has hidden. But in Port Alma, Maine, there are other secrets, too.... Part One Port Alma, Maine 1937 More than anyone I ever knew, my brother Billy felt the rapid wings of summer, how it darted like a bird through the trees of Maine, skittered along streams and ponds, then soared away, bright and gleaming, leaving us behind, shivering in coats and scarves. It was on one of those fleeting summer days that he saved Jenny Grover's life. He'd built a wooden raft out of planks discarded by a local sawmill, packed the space between the boards with rags and mud, then asked me to help him carry it to the spot where Fox Creek widened and deepened, its current growing turbulent again just beyond the bend, where it made its headlong rush toward Linder Falls. "I'm going to make it all the way across," he declared. He was twelve years old, shirtless, barefoot, dressed only in a pair of cut-off trousers. "It's going to sink, Billy," I warned him. "Believe me, it's going to sink like a stone." He laughed. "If it sinks, we'll swim." "We? I'm not going out on that thing." "Oh, come on, Cal." "No," I said. "Look at me." Unlike Billy, I was fully dressed, having made no compromise with summer beyond a pair of sandals. "Okay then," he said. "You can go back home." "No, I'll wait." "Why?" "Because someone has to pull you out of the water," I told him. "That's why I came along. To save your life." This was not entirely a joke. Five years older, I had long ago assumed the part of the vigilant, protective brother, certain that throughout our lives I would be there to protect him. I'd already caught him as he tumbled from chairs and staircases, tugged him away from blazing hearths, snatched his fingers from closing doors. Once I'd even managed to drag him off a rearing pony, lower him safely to the ground. My mother had scolded me for that. "He can't avoid getting hurt, Cal," she said. "Next time let him fall." It was the sort of statement I'd come to expect from my mother, the great value she put on experience, especially painful experience. It was not the sort of advice I cared to take, however. Nor, following it, did I in the least intend to let my brother sink into Fox Pond. "Be careful, Billy," I cautioned as he stepped onto the raft, plunged his wooden paddle into the water, and push...

Product details

• Authors: Thomas Cook, Thomas H. Cook
• Publisher: Bantam Books USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 27.02.2001
• EAN: 9780553580679
• ISBN: 978-0-553-58067-9
• No. of pages: 304
• Dimensions: 106 mm x 180 mm x 20 mm
• Subject: Fiction > Suspense