What We Remember [Hardcover]

Michael T. Ford (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 26, 2009

James McCloud, a Seattle district attorney, gets an early-morning phone call from his sister Celeste announcing that their father's body has been found. Police officer Daniel McCloud disappeared years ago - but this discovery proves that he was murdered. When James returns home to Cold Falls, New York, he's reunited with his mother Ada and his troubled, gay younger brother Billy. His brother-in-law Nate is the town sheriff and the mistrust that has hovered between them since school still simmers. As the truth emerges, so do powerful secrets.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Ford's adequate if overbusy latest begins with the body of sheriff Daniel McCloud, who went missing seven years ago, discovered buried in a box in the woods. As the investigation by the current sheriff, Nate Derry, progresses, the McClouds must come to terms with their father having been murdered, while McCloud's son, James, becomes the prime suspect, and a dark web of deception that chokes the Derry and McCloud families threatens to be unearthed. Leaning heavily on flashbacks, the story jumps between its perhaps too many points of view with relative ease. Ford handily navigates the suffocating intimacy of smalltown life, and his wide supporting cast has a few meaty characters. While the big reveal is set up very early on, the sprinkling of smaller mysteries and little tragedies will keep readers going. (June)
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Kensington Books; 1 edition (May 26, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0758218516
• ISBN-13: 978-0758218513
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #157,441 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Michael Thomas Ford is the author of more than fifty books in genres ranging from humor to horror, literary fiction to nonfiction. His work for adult readers includes the best-selling novels What We Remember, Changing Tides, Full Circle, Looking for It and Last Summer, and his five essay collections in the "Trials of My Queer Life" series. As a writer for young adults he is the author of Suicide Notes and Z (forthcoming in 2010), and under the name Isobel Bird he wrote the popular "Circle of Three" series. In 2009 he signed a 3-book deal with Random House for a series featuring Jane Austen as a modern-day vampire. The first book in the series, Jane Bites Back, will be published in January, 2010. His work has been nominated for 11 Lambda Literary Awards, twice winning for Best Humor Book and twice for Best Romance Novel. He was also nominated for a Horror Writers Association Bram Stoker Award (for his novel The Dollhouse That Time Forgot) and a Gaylactic Spectrum Award (for his short story "Night of the Werepuss").

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Never Judge a Book By its Cover, November 1, 2010

By 

Kiwifunlad (London, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What We Remember (Paperback)

I read prolifically and often take no notice of the cover or the title and so it was not for either reason that I picked this novel out of the library apart from it was in the gay reading section and I had not heard of the author. Sometimes it is fun to read a light hearted whodunnit? And this is, albeit a very contrived whodunnit, an easy read. It was after finishing the book, and looking again at the cover I was incensed. My biggest gripe about the book and why I will be reluctant to read anything published by Kensington Books again (No publishers votes for me on this one!!) is the farcically misleading cover. I defy anyone who bothers to wade through this book to explain just what in the narrative the front cover relates to. Anyone who answers Cory has all too vivid an imagination! Furthermore, the blurb on the back cover is nearly as contrived as the spidered web of narrative. There were publishing errors such as when the narrative referred to Nate when it should have been James and other poor editting which downgraded the obvious effort the author made to entertain. Sadly not a book to recommend.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Family secrets are many in this outstanding new novel!, May 26, 2009

By 

Bob Lind "camelwest" (Phoenix, AZ United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: What We Remember (Hardcover)

A quiet evening in Seattle, with his attorney girlfriend, Charly, is interrupted for James McCloud by a call from his sister Celeste, back home in upstate New York. Seems that the body of his father, long believed to have committed suicide, has been found, and indications are that he was murdered. James flies home to help Celeste, his gay younger brother Billy, and their mother, Ada, at this difficult time.

Circumstantial evidence found with the body results in his being arrested as the primary suspect, by Celeste's husband, Nate, the town sheriff. As the family ponders the scary possibility that James, who had his differences with his father but never showed any violence before, might have actually committed the murder, Charly flies to New York to help in James' defense. She finds a very unusual family, with close ties to the family of the father's best friend, and many of them harboring secrets they assumed wouldn't hurt anyone, but which together conspire to keep the crime from being solved.

One of my absolute favorite authors, Michael Thomas Ford has an impressive stack of diverse best sellers in several genres and on a variety of topics. This mystery/character study of a small town family is among his best. Told effectively in flashback narratives by the different characters, it provides a life lesson on how secrets and "white lies," no matter how well-meaning, can come back to haunt you later. Excellent, captivating read, which I give five bright stars out of five, in a dark country sky.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book, September 3, 2011

By 

D Lennon (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: What We Remember (Paperback)

I enjoyed this book on several levels. As a mystery, it's well plotted and engaging. As a portrait of a family coming to terms with its past, it's completely convincing and thought-provoking. As a literary work, it's masterful. It's not often I read something and think, "Gee, I wish I'd written that," but in this case I found myself thinking it constantly. This is a first class read.