The Good Children [Hardcover]

Kate Wilhelm (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1998

From one of contemporary fiction's best-loved writers comes the amazing story of the McNair family, who recently settled into a great new home in Oregon. But when tragedy strikes the family suddenly, the four McNair children discover just how many secrets the house can hold and just how far they'll go to keep the family together National author publicity. National print ads .

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Calling Kate Wilhelm a born storyteller is like calling Frank Sinatra a born singer: it's necessary but not sufficient to explain the genius that lies just behind the apparent facility. Whether Wilhelm is writing her prizewinning science fiction, her best-of-the-bunch legal thrillers (such as 1997's Malice Prepense, which became For the Defense in paperback), or an emotionally charged psychological thriller such as The Good Children, Wilhelm instantly brings her characters to life and roots them in a landscape both familiar and formidable. What children haven't felt the terror of moving to a new home and a new school--that icy edge of not belonging that the four youngsters of Will and Lee McNair have been walking all their lives? Soon after the family moves into the Oregon house that Will promised would be their permanent home, he is killed in an accident, and the children have to cope with a series of life disturbances that strongly resemble the constant disasters faced (and overcome) by the original settlers of Oregon's rougher terrains. Wilhelm adds modern touches of paranoia and political correctness to produce a story and characters that you'll have trouble forgetting.

From Publishers Weekly

Seamless storytelling and believable characters caught in a bizarre, inescapable situation make this latest psychological thriller from three-time Nebula Award winner Wilhelm (Malice Prepense) taut and satisfying. "When you've got family, you don't need anything else," Lee McNair tells her children. After an industrial accident kills her husband, the distraught McNair makes the four children promise they'll never let strangers touch her when she dies. The children find themselves called on to honor that promise when McNair is killed in a freakish backyard accident. Afraid of disobeying their mother and equally afraid that they'll be sent away to foster homes, the children bury her in the backyard and are forced to lie to neighbors and pretend that she is still alive. Their attempts to keep up the ruse are eerily successful?except that the youngest of the children begins to lose his sanity. Eventually, the McNairs call the authorities to report their mother's sudden disappearance. The youngest child's troubles deepen and a new piece of information about their mother's accident threatens to break up their carefully unified front. A young society lawyer, charged with looking in on the "abandoned" McNair children, creates another kind of complication when he falls in love with the engaging teenage narrator (and third McNair), Liz. Wilhelm's spare, unsentimental style contributes nicely to the mood of this well-told gothic tale.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 246 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1st edition (March 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312179146
• ISBN-13: 978-0312179144
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,497,384 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born in 1928, Kate Wilhelm the author of more than thirty novels including Where Late the Sweet Bird Sang and The Unbidden Truth. Her work has been adapted for TV and film and translated into twenty languages. She has been awarded the Prix Apollo, Kurd Lasswitz, Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards. In 2003, she was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. Her short fiction appeared in landmark anthologies such as Again Dangerous Visions, Orbit, The Penguin Book of Modern Fantasy by Women, and The Norton Book of Science Fiction. A cofounder of the Clarion Writers' Workhops, she continues to host monthly writing workshops in Eugene, Oregon.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I can't get these children out of my mind..., October 8, 1999

By 

Ginny - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Good Children (Mass Market Paperback)

I was introduced to Kate Wilhem through her Barbara Holloway books. I knew Ms. Wilhelm also writes Science Fiction which is not a genre I read, but I ran across "The Good Children" on the 'to be shelved' cart at the library and was intrigued by the premise. Once I started reading I just couldn't put it down. Normally well disciplined in putting a book away at bedtime, I was up until well past 2:00am finishing "The Good Children". The four siblings are so well written I felt like I knew each of them. Don't pay attention to those who complain about the implausible ending - the book has to wind down, it just couldn't go on forever. This is a GREAT book and I will, for sure, be checking out more Kate Wilhelm writings.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read it in three hours... I couldn't put it down!, June 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Good Children (Mass Market Paperback)

This is one of the bests books I have read... and that it saying a lot. Kate Wilhelm kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. The plot is absolutely brilliant and the suspense is nerve-racking. A+

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Personal Top 5, June 9, 2003

By 

Curtis Doran (Dresden, Tn USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Good Children (Hardcover)

Family promises should never be broken. Never will you find a book that drives this point home any clearer. The characters in this book were some of the best and most complex I have seen in years. This is a must read. Once you stop, you won't want to put it down.