Customer Reviews

The Cloud of Unknowing

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

David Sears is a small town lawyer with a troubled family history. His father was schizophrenic, his sister, Diana, is schizophrenic as was her son Jason, who recently drowned. Diana suspects that her husband, Mark, is responsible for Jason's death in that his condition was an embarrassment and inconvenience for him. Diana begins to collect information on ancient murders as if the Earth itself is a witness to her son's death. David becomes very concerned when his daughter, Patty, is slowly drawn into his sister's suspicions. He fears for his daughter while being troubled about his sister. Things particularly heat up when Diana begins to send threatening messages to her ex-husband, Mark. David must establish some sort of control on the situation before others get hurt. Yet, from the first page we are told the story involves four deaths- so who are the victims?
In a sense, every book written by Thomas H. Cook, places the reader under a cloud of unknowing. Again, there is a family mystery which only slowly and inexorably begins to weave its web while only giving out small bits of information until the very end when almost all is revealed but never quite the whole picture. This latest book is even more puzzling in the beginning and does take it's time in establishing the mystery. Told in a first person narrative form alternating with a police interrogation, the reader is given information only from David's perspective as he takes his time divulging all. The writing is, as usual, lyrical and evokes well the small town setting. The fact that we know almost from page one that there will be four deaths before the end of the novel and the fact that David is in prison, adds to the increasingly heightened suspense. What did David do wrong and who died? The solution is both surprising, satisfying and just a bit mystifying. This is another superb work by one of the suspense genre's master storyteller's.

Thomas H. Cook is at the top of his game as he writes The Cloud of Unknowing. A well thought out mystery which ended surprisingly yet somewhat predictably. I guess that when reading a mystery novel, you are playing a game with the writer, a game you would rather lose. In The Cloud of Unknowing, I think I won, or at least tied.

It is an amazingly written story that, though I could predict the ending, had a few really good red herrings thrown in just to cast the shadow of doubt on my own sleuthing abilities.

T.H. Cook has been my favorite author for a couple years now, and this book is one of the reasons why.

Thomas H. Cook is one of the few crime writers who consistently give us literate, intelligent, carefully crafted suspense novels, and his new title is one of his best. THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING is the story of a family plagued by mental illness, and the murder and mayhem that result from it. There is something inexorable, almost fatalistic, about the evil that permeates these people, and Cook's masterful tale builds from a quiet beginning to a harrowing finale. That is his signature, the theme he comes back to in all his stories. You won't soon forget these characters, and they make you think about your own family and friends in a new way.

The very best crime writers show us the horror in everyday life, and that is Cook's specialty. This novel joins BREAKHEART HILL, THE CHATHAM SCHOOL AFFAIR, and RED LEAVES at the top of my list of favorite "Cook books." Highly recommended.

Thomas Cook's "The Cloud of Unknowing" is the story of a family steeped in dysfunction. David and Diana Sears grew up in the shadow of their angry and out-of-control father, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Their dad ranted and raved, kept enemies lists, wrote derogatory letters, and made harassing telephone calls to those who incurred his wrath. He demanded that his children memorize arcane facts and spout literary quotations word for word. Diana humored him and, for the most part, earned his regard (she was his "shining star"), while Davey was considered the inferior offspring. Although both Dave and Diana marry and have one child each, Diana's marriage ends in divorce after her schizophrenic son, Jason, drowns. Diana is convinced that her ex-husband, Mark, may have had something to do with the boy's death, and she becomes increasingly unhinged as a result of her fixation on the alleged crime. In addition, she brainwashes Dave's teenaged daughter, Patty, into agreeing with her way of thinking.

Dave Sears is a small-time lawyer who specializes in civil litigation. He has a good-hearted wife, and he would like his life to proceed along the same predictable path that it has always taken. However, he is soon sucked into Diana's vortex of madness in spite of his efforts to remain objective and connected to reality.

"The Cloud of Unknowing" is a strange amalgam of murder mystery and psychological suspense. The narrative is split in two. Alternating chapters tell the story from Dave's first person viewpoint and through his conversations with a detective about an unnamed crime. Cook generates enough suspense to keep the reader turning pages. Why is a cop interviewing Dave? Does Diana eventually go over the edge? Is she right that her ex-husband harmed their child? Will Dave get out of his predicament with Diana unscathed?

The book's major problem is the lack of an adequate payoff after a lengthy and sometimes tedious setup. The ambiguous conclusion fails to provide the much needed closure that the reader craves. On the plus side, Cook can craft a sentence with the best of them. When Dave's father finally passes away, Dave says, "I felt that a dark devouring force had been stilled at last. I wore his death like wings." Describing the thin line between sanity and madness, Dave makes an evocative and thoughtful statement: "We skated upon this thin layer of ice, and yet it was just thick enough to keep us from the cold and fathomless depths...." Although "A Cloud of Unknowing" doesn't have the impact of Cook's previous book, the gripping "Red Leaves," it is a literate and sensitive work that provides insight into the tragic fate of a family trapped in the lonely prison of mental illness.

Wow - this was one of the best books I've read so far this year, and I've read a lot of good books already! I got it through my Mystery Guild Book Club membership, and although I'd never heard of the author, I wanted to try something new. I'm glad I did!

Dave Sears is the 1st-person narrator of the story, which begins with an inquest into the death of his sister's son, Jason. Jason, who was schizophrenic like Dave's and Diana's father, was found drowned in a pond near his family home, and soon, Diana comes to suspect her ex-husband, Mark, of killing him because he was unable to deal with the child's disability. Dave wants to help Diana get to the truth and even thinks she might be right, but at the same time, he's seeing in her what may be the ominous signs of the family's unfortunate legacy - the development of acute paranoid schizophrenia.

The mystery itself - what really happened to Jason - actually takes something of a back seat to the rest of the story, which is a piece-by-piece, slow unveiling of the nightmare-ish life Dave and Diana suffered as children and teenagers, living with a brilliant academic father who was slowly going completely and irretrievably mad. In the present, Dave is torn now between the love and obligation he feels towards his sister, and the suspicion that she uses her razor intellect and quiet charisma to seduce others into her way of thinking, and this becomes more sinister as Dave's daughter, Patty, is drawn into Diana's complex web.

There is no clean wrap-up here and some readers might find that dissatisfying, but I was just completely taken in by the story. The writing is beautiful - very sparse, but no wasted words and full of imagery that stays with you long after you've turned the last page. I will definitely be looking for more from this author.

This psychological thriller recounts the hereditary effects of mental illness. A brother and sister grow up in the shadow of their schizophrenic father. The sister, Diana, is blessed with a photographic memory and shines in front of the parent, spewing quotations at the drop of a hat. She was on a full scholarship at Yale when she left in her senior year to take care of the father, who was institutionalized at least twice. She marries shortly after the death of the father and soon gives birth to a son. The brother, David, becomes an attorney, with a fairly commonplace practice, handling "dissolutions": marriages and businesses.

Diana goes shopping one day, only to find on her return that her son, who was at home at the time with her husband, wandered off to a pond and drowned. She becomes obsessed, convinced her husband murdered the boy, who also was mentally disturbed, because he was a "distraction." [None of the foregoing constitutes a spoiler - it all takes place very early in the book.]

David and his daughter become entwined in Diana's preoccupation. He doesn't know what to believe. Is she suffering from the family's history of mental aberration--or could there be some truth to what she says?

The novel is constructed in an interesting fashion, with introductory chapters during which the brother is being interrogated by a detective before the story is told. It is an interesting technique, as is the plot itself, and the book is recommended.

When writing at top form Thomas H. Cook is the best American writer of psychological thrillers currently publishing. Fortunately THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING is one of his best and ranks with THE CHATHAM SCHOOL AFFAIR and BREAKHEART HILL. This is an intelligent thriller with several interesting ideas proposed including a comparison of the insane hearing voices and what the sane think of as intuition and good sense. The earth and its very stones being alive and witness to all we do is another strong theme. The book is also full of allusions to classic literature and mythology. And unlike other reviewers I was satisfied with the ending and I am a reader who likes all loose ends very firmly tied.

The Cloud of Unknowing, by Thomas H. Cook, is a slow-paced thriller with the timing of, say, The Shining, and A Beautiful MInd... the collapse of reasonable into something else, morphing from total clarity to puzzlement, from factoids to leaps of faith.

David Sears grew up in a troubled family. Now, as a successful lawyer and family man, he watches his sister, Diana, begin crumbling after the alleged accidental drowning of her son, Jason. He becomes particularly concerned when his own daughter, Patty, becomes Diana's biggest supporter. Are there patterns from ancient history that Diana can use to solve this mystery? How should David intervene? These questions are the foci of this novel.

This story had no car chases, no guns blazing, and no terrible cruel and depraved murders so foul. It has the reader puzzled, wondering what is going on with an investigation that seems so cut and dried, and incontestable.

Or is it?

Thomas Cook's literary style of alternating David's conversation with Detective Petrie with the events following Jason's death, having them both culminate in the concluding chapters, works for this storyline.

So much wrong with brilliance combined with schizophrina throughout generations int he Sears family. Diana was the star who pursued the aliens to see why her own son inherited Mark's mental instability and, as a result, had to die. How can humans with disastrous mental conditions become scientiest; Mark was a geneticist while Jeff is into astronomy in a fading position. His father died; like my dad -- after enduring only four months in a nursing home.

While visiting Diana's grave site, Mark is beaten badly by her brother, David. This is a riveting story of death in the form of murder when family members begin to unravel and start seeing and hearing things and voices of aliens leading them to destruction. When the charges are dropped, David tells his wife with the sparkling eyes (like Mark's) who'd become freed to show her long-suppressed intelligence, "I'll always take care of you." I want to talk to Mark. When is always, how long?

Diana had been sure their son had been drown by Mark and sent her investigative beliefs to her brother, who'd become obsessed with the possibility. After her death, he started hearing voices himself and felt like he was going mad. They were urging him to seek revenge for Diana's and Jason's untimely deaths. Nothing could be proven against the groundless accusations. David is lucky he did not pursue the crazy search for justice, and that Mark had let him off the hook. The cloud of unknowing had finally lifted -- for now.

Thomas H. Cook has also written non-fiction crime accounts including 'Early Graves,' 'Blood Echoes,' and 'A Father's Story;' he has also a slew of fiction. "Newsweek" printed "This disturbing exploration of humans' true motives is haunting, and builds to a rapid and unexpected climax about 'Red Leaves.' Same could be said for 'The Cloud of Unknowing.'

David Sears is a small-town lawyer. He's married and has one daughter. David's family has a history that includes mental illness. His pseudo intellectual tyrant father was schizophrenic as is his sister, Diana and her young son Jason, who recently died from drowning.

Diana suspects that her ex-husband, Mark, is responsible for Jason's death. Mark wanted a perfect child and Jason was an embarrassment. Following the determination that Jason's death was accidental, Diana begins to collect strange information about old murders. She befriends Patty, David's daughter, and draws her into the web of her dark suspicions. With Patty's seduction by Diana, David fears for her health and safety.

When Diana begins threatening Mark with messages, David believes he must intervene before anyone gets hurt.

The story slowly unfolds through the eyes of David and is told to the police during an interrogation. Information is carefully parceled out. It's almost as if the reader is on a `need to know' basis. And even when the conclusion arrives, we're not quite sure if we have the story right. But I did quickly figure out what the reader was supposed to learn at the end. That was disappointing.

I enjoy Cook's novels. They are well written, compelling and always have unique plots. They're often dark and make one think. And while I enjoyed this novel, I must admit, the ending was less than satisfying. I want my mysteries to be tied up neatly at the end. I want closure. There wasn't any of that in this one.

Armchair Interviews says: Not as good as Cook's Red Leaves but worth a read if you're more interested in a literary work than a mystery or crime novel.