Hindsight: A Novel of the Class of 1972 [Hardcover]

Barbara Rogan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 4, 2003

The New York Times calls Barbara Rogan "a passionate writer whose prose is as vivid as lightning bolts." Now she delivers a mesmerizing tale of a long-hidden betrayal -- and its deadly repercussions.

In the summer of 1972, on the night of their high school graduation, nine friends make a solemn vow to meet in twenty years' time. For Willa Scott, flanked by her best friend, Angel, and her boyfriend, Caleb, the future is a canvas to be painted in bold strokes and bright colors. But the ensuing decades bring change and separation. Willa becomes a biographer, and she drifts away from Caleb and Angel.

Almost twenty years later, Willa, now mother of a teenage girl herself and recently widowed, looks up during a book signing and sees Patrick Mulhaven, the bad boy of Beacon High. He reminds her of their long-ago vow and persuades her to help track down their old group. It isn't long before Willa discovers that Angel's trail after high school is ice cold. It's as if she dropped off the face of the earth. Convinced that something has happened to her friend, Willa begins a search that takes her back through the looking glass. What she thought were the idyllic friendships of her youth are revealed as a tangled web of deception, betrayal, and life-shattering secrets. As the reunion weekend approaches, Willa is convinced that someone has killed -- and will kill again -- to keep Angel's whereabouts hidden forever. But when the people you know best are the people you know least, who can you trust?

Barbara Rogan has proven herself a master of subtly evolving fear, and Hindsight delivers a spellbinding story about the powerful -- and sometimes murderous -- yearnings of the human heart.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A reunion for long-lost high school friends is the focus of this seventh suspense novel by Rogan (Suspicion). The night of their high school graduation in 1972, nine friends agree to meet in 20 years. Over the next two decades they drift apart, but shortly before the 20-year mark, Willa Scott Durell bumps into fellow alum Patrick Mulhaven at a New York reading for her latest biography. They decide to track down the seven others and arrange the promised reunion. With the help of Joven Luisi, private eye, they find everyone except Angel Busky, the "easy" girl, who seems to have vanished completely. The rest of the novel investigates what happened to Angel, who was pregnant before she disappeared. When a second member of their gang, Vinnie Delgaudio, dies during their reunion weekend, it forces them to explore dark events from the past in which they were all complicit. Although the mystery of Angel's disappearance is suspenseful, the characterizations are weak. Each member of the gang is a standard type: Jeremiah the valedictorian, Travis the pothead, Vinnie the tough guy, etc. Their adult selves are the predictable grown-up versions of these stereotypes. These putative children of the '70s say things like "How very kind" or "I'd say you're a day late and a dollar short." In addition, the author sometimes uses distracting, convoluted syntax: "The people sent to fetch her inevitably took upon themselves her entertainment through chatter, which in turn obliged her to hold up her end just when she felt least sociable." There isn't enough substance here to create a true feeling of nostalgia, and the suspense and violence seem merely sensational.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

At a book signing, recently widowed Willa runs into Patrick, an old high-school friend. Over a dinner of reminiscences, the two recall a pact they and the rest of the "Beacon Hill Gang" made to meet again in 20 years. Patrick and Willa decide to hold their friends to the group promise and start tracking them down. All but one are located--wild girl Angel, Patrick's old girlfriend. No one has seen or heard from Angel since she ran away after crashing her abusive father's car. Willa is desperate to locate her old friend in time for the reunion, but the more she looks and interviews other old friends, the more reluctant everyone is to talk about the past. During the reunion at Willa's upscale home, one of the old friends is found dead in the swimming pool. A precisely plotted suspense novel with intriguing characters, although the ending is outlandish and some subplots and secondary characters are left underdeveloped. Kaite Mediatore
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (February 4, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743205995
• ISBN-13: 978-0743205993
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,925,383 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Apart from short stints as a horse wrangler and park ranger, Barbara Rogan has spent her entire career in the publishing industry: as an editor, a literary agent, a writer and a teacher. After graduating with a degree in liberal arts from St. John's College, she went to work as a copy editor with a major New York publishing house. Within a year, she fulfilled a long-held intention by moving to Israel, where she became the English-language editor of a Tel Aviv publishing house. Shortly thereafter, she launched the Barbara Rogan Literary Agency to represent American and European publishers and agents for the sale of Hebrew rights. Among the thousands of writers she represented were Nadine Gordimer, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Abba Eban, Irwin Shaw, John LeCarre, and her childhood favorite, Madeleine L'Engle. At the age of 26, she was appointed to the board of directors of the Jerusalem Book Fair, the youngest director ever to serve on the board. During this period her first novel, CHANGING STATES, was published simultaneously in England, the U.S., and Israel.

For several years Barbara continued to write and run the agency, but eventually felt compelled to choose between her two occupations. She loved the agency she'd founded and the exciting life that went with it, but writing was her passion. Making a radical break, she sold the agency and returned to New York. Since then she has produced seven more novels, including Hindsight, Suspicion, and Rowing in Eden. Her publishers include Simon & Schuster, Morrow, and Doubleday, and her fiction has been translated widely and graciously reviewed. About SUSPICION, The Washington Post wrote, "If you can put this book down before you've finished it, it's possible that your heart may have stopped beating." "What Bonfire of the Vanities tried to be," Library Journal wrote of SAVING GRACE; and CAFÉ NEVO was called "unforgettable" by the San Francisco Chronicle and "an inspired, passionate work of fiction, a near-magical novel" by Kirkus Review. Barbara also co-authored two non-fiction books, published by Crown and Harcourt Brace, and contributed essays to several published anthologies. To read more about Barbara's work, visit her website: www.barbararogan.com; and don't forget to sample the coffee in the Writers' Lounge.

Barbara taught fiction writing at Hofstra University and SUNY Farmingdale for several years before trading her brick-and-mortar classroom for a virtual one. Her online courses and editing services are described on her teaching website, www.nextlevelworkshop.com. As a professional whose experience spans all aspects of publishing, Barbara is a frequent presenter at writers' conferences, seminars, and retreats. She is currently working on a new novel and a non-fiction book on revising one's own fiction.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars masterful work of suspense, February 15, 2003

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hindsight: A Novel of the Class of 1972 (Hardcover)

On the night of their graduation in June of 1972, a group of students, nine in all, watch the proceedings from their hangout in Beacon hill. The tenth member of their group is the valedictorian. After the ceremonies the group vows to have a reunion twenty years from that date.

In January of 1992, Willa is in Manhattan doing a book signing when she sees Patrick for the first time in twenty years. He's a professor at NYU and wants to help her find the old gang for the promised reunion. They search out and find seven members of the group but nobody has seen or heard from Angel since the decade they graduated. Will hires a detective to track her down but it's as if she disappeared off the face of the earth. At the reunion, there's an undercurrent of tension in when one of the guests winds of dead. The police think it is linked to Angela's disappearance two decades ago.

HINDSIGHT is a masterful work of suspense filled with characters that are very different than the way Willa remembered them. Far different from THE BIG CHILL, the protagonist's growing fears clue the audience that one of the old gang is a killer. Barbara Rogan is a talented storyteller who keeps the tension at a high level and leaves the audience wondering what is really going on.

Harriet Klausner

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More like 3 1/2 stars..., May 1, 2005

By 

Mercedes L. Johnmeyer "The Most Happy" (Summerville, SC) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hindsight: A Novel of the Class of 1972 (Hardcover)

Ok, though I really did enjoy this book, something about it is holding me back from saying it's a four star read, however three stars doesn't seem deserving enough. I picked this book up because the premise sounded really different and interesting, which it was...and curiosity kept me reading, but I think it was how quickly the ending was wrapped up that turned me off a bit.

Nine friends stand on Beacon Hill in June of 1972, graduation day, and make a drunken promise to meet back there in 20 years for a reunion, no matter what. Well, skip now to 1992, Willa Durrell, while promoting her new book, runs into Patrick, one of the guys from the old gang, and the pair team up to get ahold of everyone to remind them about the upcoming reunion. As the two of them slowly start finding the rest of the group (who are all as different as night and day) one person cannot be found, Angel Busky. What happened in the days after graduation that no one seems to want to talk about? Did Angel really run away like everyone's though for the last 20 years, or did something awful happen to her?

As the night of the reunion draws nearer, tensions run high. They've all grown up and most have made something of themselves. Willa refuses to stop until she finds out what happened to her friend. Then one of them dies under suspicious circumstances at the reunion party. Willa finds she's now in a dangerous position as one of their own is trying to keep the past quiet. Though this book was suspenseful enough, the ending disappointed me only in how quickly everything was wrapped up. Other than that...a really good book. I was completely surprised with who the culprit turned out to be, I thought I had it figured out halfway through the book, but not at all! If you enjoy mysteries, then overall I recommend this read. Not at all a bad way to past the time.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars With Hindsight I Would have Read This Masterpiece Earlier, November 14, 2003

By 

James N Simpson (Gold Coast, QLD Australia) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Hindsight: A Novel of the Class of 1972 (Hardcover)

This is one of the best thrillers I have ever read. This is better than Koontz novels, Patterson or any other spinechilling master authors. This is one of those books where you hope that nothing good is on television after you have started it because you do not want to put it down until the final page. Full of twists and surprises you will not be disappointed, get this book.

This is a superb literacy masterpiece about a group of friends who in their high school days(1972) were the closest of friends. They did not fit into the normal American stereotype groups so bonded to each other. The two best looking girls in the school were amongst them as were the guys no one wanted to mess with. Teachers hated them, they loved and were always there for each other.

It is no longer 1972 however, 20 years has almost passed and they have all moved on with their lives, some are famous or successful, others not so much. They made a drunken pact on Beacon Hill while watching the rest of their grade graduate, that they would meet again twenty years later no matter what. Now some have kids almost the same age they were back then, no one has kept in contact. Willa is a famous author now and one of her classmates approaches her at a book signing. They both remember the pact but will the others? Willa decides, along with Patrick that they should contact the others to remind them and to their surprise everyone remembers the pact and was wondering if the others do as well. Everyone that is except for Caleb and Angel who cannot be found. Willa approaches her private eye friend to find them and organises the reunion for her house. There are reasons though why some people can not be found. Sometimes they don't want to, sometimes they had no choice. One of the group knows all the answers but does not want the rest to know their evil secret. They will turn up to the reunion, after all, they do have a few days to kill!