In a small American town, Eric Moore is living an uneventful life, with a wife and son and a small profitable business in the center of town. He has tended to dismiss his difficult relationships with his teenage son as the rocky months and years typical between parents and their maturing children.

But after a young girl from their town mysteriously vanishes and Eric's son Keith is implicated in her disappearance, the calm order of his life is turned upside down. To his chagrin, Eric realizes that he is not as comfortable in his circumstances as he imagined.

Cook uses a series of brief narratives in the present followed by extended flashback sequences, and all along the reader is aware that Cook is continuing to conceal much of the story. The final few pages hold the characteristic "gotcha!" of several other books by Cook.

Not precisely a murder mystery, RED LEAVES nevertheless belongs with the best of suspense fiction, and holds poignant tragedy on almost every page.

REVIEWED BY WOODSTOCK