All For One [Kindle Edition]

Ryne Douglas Pearson (Author)

Book Description

An Amazon TOP 100 Bestseller (March 2012)

 

The darkest secrets we keep even from ourselves...

 

Mary Austin is the kind of teacher that parents adore and children wish for. Firm and compassionate, a guiding light in their lives, she would do anything to protect her students.

But that loyalty is tested when the school's sadistic bully is found dead on campus, and suspicion falls on six children in her class. None willing to talk. To point the finger.

To reveal the killer.

Faced with this, Mary finds herself confronted with dark memories from her own childhood. Fragmentary flashes from the past that test the bounds of her reality, the onslaught worsening when a tenacious detective is brought in to close the case.

On loan from the Seattle Police Department, Detective Dooley Ashe is plagued by his own demons, but focuses on breaking through the wall of silence the children have erected. Up against a town indifferent toward the crime and suspects virtually untouchable by the law, Dooley turns to Mary as an avenue to the truth.

As an unlikely closeness develops between Dooley and Mary, the suspected children close ranks, worried that one of their own is ready to break and give the detective what he wants.

But when unseen adversaries push back, with both damaging and deadly results, Dooley and Mary are forced to face their personal limits as they each discover the unthinkable identity of the killer.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Ryne Douglas Pearson's novels...

  

"...chillingly prescient..down-to-the-wire suspense"  Publishers Weekly for 'Capitol Punishment'

 

"Action-packed and fast-paced... Keeps the reader flipping pages frantically"  Library Journal for 'Simple Simon'

 

"Excellent entertainment from first page to last"  Booklist for 'Simple Simon'

 

"Aerodynamic prose and superb pacing... A one-sitting book that will make the hours fly by"  Publishers Weekly for 'Simple Simon'

About the Author

Ryne Douglas Pearson is an accomplished novelist and screenwriter. He is the author of several novels, including Cloudburst, October's Ghost, Capitol Punishment, Simple Simon, Top Ten, The Donzerly Light, All For One, and Confessions. He is also the author of the short story collection, Dark and Darker. His works have been translated into Dutch, Finnish, Spanish, Japanese, Italian, German, and other languages, and his thriller Simple Simon was made into the film Mercury Rising. As a screenwriter he has worked on numerous movies. The film Knowing, based on his original script, was released in 2009 and opened #1 at the box office. Receiving Four Stars from Roger Ebert, who branded it 'among the best science-fiction films I've seen', it went on to earn more than $180 million worldwide. He has also done uncredited work on films such as the remakes of The Day The Earth Stood Still and The Eye.

 

Despite the often 'dark' nature of his novels and films, Pearson has been noted to have a 'sweet, disarming quality' by Entertainment Weekly-an accusation he has been unable to shake. When not writing he is usually thinking about writing, or touting the wonders of bacon in online conversations. He is addicted to diet soda and the sound of his children laughing. A west coast native, he lives in California with his wife, children, a Doberman Shepherd and a Beagle Vizsla.

Product Details

• File Size: 613 KB
• Print Length: 377 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0615470629
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0044KM16I
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #166,823 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 56 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Complex and wonderful tragedy April 3, 2011

By Lawrence Enright

Format:Kindle Edition

Sometimes things can get complicated. Life is like that. You never really plan for it, you never hope for it, and you never really know quite how to handle it. When something does happen, something unexpected, you make a choice and you live with it. Maybe your choice wasn't the best. Maybe you could have done things differently. But you made it, you can't undo it, and the next part is living with its consequences.

That, from my reading of All for One, is the essence of this wonderfully written and tragic tale of six children and their teacher caught up in the mystery of the death of a classmate. As you follow the course of this tale from their simple decision made at the beginning through the intricate web of its consequences, you too will find yourself drawn into it as I was. Each of the characters has his own story. Each is constructed by Pearson with a depth of detail that I found captivating. And each, as you will discover, is both intriguing and heartbreaking.

I was told before reading this book that it was "dark." As descriptive of a complex human tragedy, that is exactly what this story is. As such, you must be willing accept that there are dark places in the human soul, places that most would turn away from rather than glimpse. You must be willing to walk the path of fear and darkness to its end. And you must be willing to stand at the precipice and watch its conclusion with eyes wide open. If you are so willing, be not afraid, you will find yourself having read a truly wonderful book. When I have read a story of this power, I am left with but two words for the author. Thank you.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant July 25, 2011

By Christa Polkinhorn

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

The cruel school bully gets killed. Six children discover his body, one of them may have murdered him. Detective Dooley Ashe, the Kiddie Catcher, tries to uncover the truth. Mary, the children's teacher, would do anything to protect them. With different goals in mind, Dooley and Mary form an uneasy alliance. As the story progresses to its tragic end, both Dooley and Mary are confronted with demons from their past.

As one of the reviewers pointed out, ALL FOR ONE is in part a story about choices, choices we have to make, sometimes under pressure, and how these choices have results that determine the rest of our lives. It deals with psychologically complex and flawed human beings. It is also a story about childhood abuse, injustice, and about good people who try their best and sometimes succeed and sometimes fail.

ALL FOR ONE is one of the best psychological thrillers I have read in quite a while. The characters are convincing and portrayed with great sensibility. A fast-paced and well-crafted mystery, it leads the reader through a maze of events and flashbacks and unexpected twists to an amazing surprise ending. However, is not one of those contrived surprise endings of less successful thrillers. This ending, as unexpected as it is, is foreshadowed and makes total sense in retrospect.

Highly recommended. I look forward to more of the same author

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Dark but Fascinating! February 1, 2012

By Janice K Hurst

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I don't usually read dark novels. I tend to read predictable fluff. I like humor and a good romance. If this is you, you probably won't like this book. I, however, liked it a lot. It kept my attention. You can't read this book without total concentration. It changes characters from one paragraph to another. The characters are all deeply disturbed by something which is ongoing or in their past. I got lost in the characters many times and had to go back and try to figure out which of the students they are and who they belong to. The story is riveting. You find yourself cheering for the kids to keep the secret to themselves because the "dead kid" was such a bad seed. You think you have it figured out and something happens to prove you are wrong. The last quarter of the book ties everything together and there can be no happy ending when deaths occur.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars did not hold my attention March 19, 2012

By M. Hinson

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I know that I seem to be the only review so far that did not enjoy this book. I am an avid reader and I enjoy a good mystery or the old who done it, but this particular book just did not entertain me at all. ITS very slow paced and there were far too many characters that we do not get to know very well. It lost my interest within only the second chapter.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Decent story, though no suspense and excruciatingly slow April 13, 2012

By Gab

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

In theory, this could be a great thriller. As executed, this book is painful!

I skimmed the entire second half of the book, and the pace of the story was still pitifully languid.

As for the whodunnit? I'm betting I'm not the only reader who figured it out way before the reveal. Confirming I was right was the only reason I endured the glacier pace to the end.

Could have been really good. Wasn't.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars What in the dell went wrong? September 14, 2012

By StudMuffin'sGal

Format:Kindle Edition

I finally, blessedly finished this; then I took a long break, as far from my eReader as possible, playing with my dog, before attempting to write a review. The hardest one by far that I have ever written....but I always write reviews. At about 70% I almost ended my misery, but just did not want to mess with those people who insist one cannot and should not write a review if you haven't read the whole darn book.....who are these people? Do they also clean their plates when the fish has gone bad? Anyway, I will begin by saying that this book is, oh, maybe 200 pages too long? Then there are many errors, such as a character wearing one sweatshirt in one paragraph, and then a different one in the next. There are missing words....or just the most bizarre literary (?) devices I have ever seen. There are fragmented sentences abounding, which seem to be an attempt at writing a disturbed person's thoughts.....but just gave me a headache. Page after page just made no sense. Two characters showed up rather abruptly and rather late and turned out at the very end to not actually exist at all! Not only can I not recommend this book, but based on professional expertise, I believe that there are people who should not go into this at all. Many reviewers used words like dark to describe it, which is laughably close to calling it a comedy, I think. It is frighteningly disturbing yet in no Stephen King manner at all, leaving gaps in logic and clinical knowledge everywhere. Yet all of what I have said seems so very strange now, at the unsatisfying end of it all, especially since I loved the story early on, originally thinking it was one of the best books I had ever read! Please trust me.....avoid at all or no cost (I got it for free, thank goodness).

More About the Author

Ryne Douglas Pearson is an accomplished novelist and screenwriter. He writes thrillers and contemporary fiction, and is the author of several novels, including Cloudburst, October's Ghost, Capitol Punishment, Simple Simon, Top Ten, The Donzerly Light, All For One, and Confessions. He is also the author of the short story collection, Dark and Darker. His works have been translated into Dutch, Finnish, Spanish, Japanese, Italian, German, Polish, French and other languages. His novel Simple Simon was made into the film Mercury Rising. As a screenwriter he has worked on numerous movies. The film Knowing, based on his original script, was released in 2009 and opened #1 at the box office. Receiving Four Stars from Roger Ebert, who branded it 'among the best science-fiction films I've seen', it went on to earn more than $180 million worldwide. He has also done uncredited work on films such as the remakes of The Day The Earth Stood Still and The Eye.

Despite the often 'dark' nature of his novels and films, Pearson has been noted to have a 'sweet, disarming quality' by Entertainment Weekly-an accusation he has been unable to shake. When not writing he is usually thinking about writing, or touting the wonders of bacon in online conversations. He is addicted to diet soda and the sound of his children laughing. A west coast native, he lives in California with his wife, children, a Doberman Kelpie and a Beagle Vizsla.