Geoff is a happily married man with a young son who is the delight of his life. A famous, successful investigative journalist, he is in the middle of a publicity tour when a voice on the phone plunges him into the darkest part of his past, and into a deadly present.
The voice is that of Geoff's long-missing brother, Ben. Ben served as their family's scapegoat -- he was the one blamed for every trouble, large or small. Ben was no innocent -- he performed acts of vandalism; he stole; he seemed, even as a child, to be a borderline sociopath. He was also abused, emotionally and physically, by their father. Without that abuse, what might Ben have become? With it, what "has" Ben become?
In their childhood, Geoff and Ben played a dark game, with Ben devising fiendish puzzles for his younger brother to solve. Now Ben offers Geoff a new set of clues with a terrible secret at its core.
Someone is killing happily married couples, selecting them carefully for the right combination of age and attitude, the right sort of family ties. Ben challenges Geoff to solve the murders ... and warns him that his own family may be in danger if he does not. If Geoff fails, his son may pay the price -- but if he succeeds, will he find that his brother has become a killer?
Amazon.com Editorial Reviews :
From Publishers Weekly
The voice is that of Geoff's long-missing brother, Ben. Ben served as their family's scapegoat -- he was the one blamed for every trouble, large or small. Ben was no innocent -- he performed acts of vandalism; he stole; he seemed, even as a child, to be a borderline sociopath. He was also abused, emotionally and physically, by their father. Without that abuse, what might Ben have become? With it, what "has" Ben become?
In their childhood, Geoff and Ben played a dark game, with Ben devising fiendish puzzles for his younger brother to solve. Now Ben offers Geoff a new set of clues with a terrible secret at its core.
Someone is killing happily married couples, selecting them carefully for the right combination of age and attitude, the right sort of family ties. Ben challenges Geoff to solve the murders ... and warns him that his own family may be in danger if he does not. If Geoff fails, his son may pay the price -- but if he succeeds, will he find that his brother has become a killer?
Amazon.com Editorial Reviews :
From Publishers Weekly
Compared to Campbell's extraordinary horror novel, Nazareth Hill, his new suspense thriller is disappointingly ordinary. Reprising the theme that has dominated his writing for the past decade, Campbell once again contemplates the dismal consequences of the breakdown of the family. The happy married life of young father and investigative reporter Geoff Davenport is shattered when his unbalanced, resentful, long-lost stepbrother, Ben, kidnaps Geoff's three-year-old son. Ben still blames Geoff for the parental abandonment he suffered after his sibling's birth. Incited by Geoff's recent TV documentary on a negligent home for children, Ben has embarked on a crime spree that culminates in the kidnapping. The plot unfolds without complication as a simple cat-and-mouse game in which Ben lures Geoff to an inevitable confrontation through clues keyed to shared childhood experiences. It is the novel's conceit that Geoff's family fails to recognize Ben's identity, but readers will guess easily which peripheral character in the Davenports' social circle to suspect. Although Campbell provides moments of tension that rival his most chilling terrors (including a riveting finale), these are just tentative shocks in an otherwise slack crime drama. It's a tribute to his precise characters and dialogue that this predictable story still compels attention, yet one senses Campbell is just marking time before his next horror opus.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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