Customer Reviews

Breakheart Hill

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Although I am no stranger to the books of Thomas H. Cook, nothing I previously read prepared me for the emotional roller coaster journey I took while I read this title. The opening lines of the book, "This is the darkest story I have ever heard," certainly rings true as Cook takes his readers on a time machine ride back to Choctaw, Alabama in the year 1962. And what the reader finally learns on this journey in the last few pages will have them aggreeing that Thomas Cook is the the master of a genre hard to categorize. At first glance one assumes that he is a mystery author while a second glance has you thinking he writes psychologial studies dealing with the relationships of people and what pure and simple evil does to their lives. And some readers may even think that Cook borders on being a thriller witer. Whatever your conclusions, its safe to say that a Cook book will have you reading late into the night. And even once you've finished, you will continue to wonder about the plot and characters for a long time.

Middle aged, married and the father of one daughter. Ben is troubled by an incident which occured 30 years ago. As he relates the story and finally the truth, all sorts of issues have been explored. Among them adolescent love, integration, the question of parentage, standing up for what you believe, deception and finally hatred. As the reader finds himself immersed in the lives and events of this town and what did occur on Breakheart Hill, the question of who did it becomes secondary. For it is the telling of the events leading up to and the aftermath of this event which keep you turning the pages in breakneck speed. And the last few pages were so riveting and unexpected, that I found myself going back and rereading them to make sure I understood everything. And even as I closed the book I stil had some nagging thoughts and unanswered questions which I continue to think about.

Do read this if you're looking for a "can't put it down" title. But don't blame me if you can't get anything else done until you finish this very good book.

And finally other books I would recommend by this author are The Chatham School Affair and Places in the Dark, Cook's newest title.

As with all of Thomas Cook's novels they are filled to the brim with suspense and stunning twists in the tale that the reader would never suspect but once revealed the reader can't imagine it any other way.

I usually select fast paced, psychological suspense mysteries - but this book kept me on the edge of my seat. Just as Cook was about to reveal a thread of the story he would pull you back into the present - it had twists and turns and was well written.

Cook did a great job of keeping me guessing until the very end. It is a haunting story of lost love and remorse that lives in the heart for over thirty years. Dr. Ben Wade, the town physician, has lives in Choctaw, AL most of his life. In high school he was in love with Kelli Troy, but his affections were not returned. Her badly beaten body was discovered on Breakheart Hill and few knew what to make of this brutal murder. Who committed this crime and why? Was the right man convicted of this crime? Only Ben Wade knows the truth and for thirty years he has kept watch over Kelli's legacy...

This novel truly brings you back to those days of yearning in high school and shows you how one small event effects so many lives. A great read and a moving tale.

I must confess when my sister threw me a copy of the book I wasn't really interested and it was reluctantly that I heeded her gushing praise and began the book. I'm not to going to mention the story but simply say that this book is mesmerising. Think of every adjective to describe the words haunting, evocative, beautiful and brilliant and you might come close to how good this book really is. It demands to be read.

Breakheart Hill is the story of Kelli Troy, the new high school student from Baltimore, whose badly beaten and battered body is found on Breakheart Hill in Choctaw, Alabama. This is an amazing story, told in a series of flashbacks by the town doctor, Ben Wade, of how the lives of Kelli's friends and acquaintances were changed forever, by this incident. The writing both eloquent and riveting pulls you into the story and never lets you go. The characters are beautifully drawn and developed and the scenes, so vivid, they jump off the page. This is a powerful, compelling story of love, loss and betrayal with an unexpected climax and ending that will keep you thinking about this novel for a long, long time. Breakheart Hill is a masterpiece of suspenseful storytelling. Read it...you won't be disappointed.

This has got to be one of the best mysteries I have ever read. Wow!! If it wasn't for reading the reviews from other Amazon readers I would have never thought to buy this book. I am very glad I did and have now ordered another Thomas H. Cook novel to read.

This story was so haunting. I couldn't put it down and once it ended I found myself going back to read passages, trying to understand what had happened. It is a real shocker, grabs you and you won't soon forget the characters.

It is about young love in the south in the 60's. It is also about a tragic event that happened and how it effected this small community for 30 years. Read this book!!! You won't be disappointed.

As much as I generally choose fast paced, psychological suspense mysteries - this book kept me on the edge of my seat. Just as Cook was about to reveal a thread of the story he would pull you back into the present - it had twists and turns and was well written. Cook did a great job of keeping me guessing until the very end. It is a haunting story of lost love and remorse. It truly brings you back to those days of yearning in high school and shows you how one small event effets so many lives. A great read and a moving tale.

This is the first Thomas H Cook book that I have read. His style of prose truly lends itself to a daydreaming stream of consciousness. He lets you drift backwards in the main character's memory, and pulls you back to the present, all the time staying mostly in chronological order. Only once or twice does he ask you to piece together a bridge for the occurences being described.

This is a very short read, not only in actual legnth, but also because the way the story flows.

This book is also excellent when it comes to describing teenage angst and yearning. He uses words in a very beautiful and tearing collage to portray love.

There is a very strong element of mystery in this book, and it pulled me in, but the edge of human emotions made me keep reading until I was done, only hours after starting this book.

Read it.

I recall someone once saying that you never marry the greatest love of your life, you just end-up thinking about her [him] all your life. That may or may not strike you as a false sentiment, but it serves as a fine overview of the emotional tenor of Thomas H. Cook's plot presentation in BREAKHEART HILL. In this book, Dr. Ben Wade narrates the story of his unrequited love for the doomed Kelli Troy. It bridges the children's early teen years in the 1960's with adult retrospection that is best characterized as elegiac in the 1990's.

This book is a "psychological thriller." Cook displays the very breachable division between eros and thanatos in the soul of man, and the consequences to lives that attend such a breach. His moral sense is the classic view that evil, once released, will not be contained again but will affect hearts and minds far afield from the proximity of its origin.

BREAKHEART HILL is sentimental, melancholic, brooding. Ben Wade narrates his story in the voice of his adolescence. Even though the book changes time frames easily, transitioning smoothly between the past and the present, Wade's voice itself evidences little in the way of a thirty year deepening. This is not fatal to the enjoyment of the book, but it does point-up a limitation to Cook's own stylistic range. From the opening sentence's nod to Ford Madox Ford's THE GOOD SOLDIER, the reader is alerted to the fact that Thomas H. Cook has very high ambitions for BREAKHEART HILL. "This is the darkest story that I ever heard." Well, the reader must judge that for himself/herself.

This book is a "page turner." It's a "good read." You grow increasingly interested in learning the full nature of the story's dark violence. Cook unveils it all in episodic flashbacks and creeping revelations.

In his book, Cook invokes not only Madox's THE GOOD SOLDIER, but also Emily Bronte's WUTHERING HEIGHTS and Edith Wharton's ETHAN FROME. He over reaches. In overtly putting BREAKHEART HILL among the rarified company of these greater products, Cook has set himself a standard he does not satisfy here. Review blurbs associate this book with the work of Pat Conroy and Harper Lee's TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. I might agree with the first assessment; and will not accept the second one. BREAKHEART HILL is a good mystery/thriller; it does not, however, rise to the august level of "Literature."

If you accept BREAKHEART HILL for what it is and for the pleasure it can provide, you'll like this book. You may even love it.

Possibly the most extraordinary aspect of Breakheart Hill is Cook's ability to lace a tale of normality with an unexpected hint of the sinister. Reading this deceptively simple, yet oddly haunting, retro-tale of a school crush with a tragic twist is like listening to a favourite tape over and over, and then gradually realizing that the hissing in the background isn't static, but the whispering of ghosts. And just as you think you've second-guessed Cook's direction, he wrenches the narrative, deftly bending the story around a blind corner, turning it virtually inside-out, to leave you stunned, and flicking back through the book to see precisely where he managed to switch decks on you. The beauty being, of course, that he didn't. If Breakheart Hill is your first meeting with Thomas Cook, chances are -- like I've discovered -- it won't be your last.

This is one of my all-time favorite books, one that I will never forget. It is simply a beautiful novel, filled with gems both in prose and plot that I have rarely seen before or since. I disagree with those that disliked or misinterpreted the ending. I found it shocking, moving and disturbing, yet satisfying. Take your time reading this book. It will be rewarding. I promise.