Nancy May's Blog - Posts Tagged "mysteries"
Review: Clusters: A Case of the Missing
A little girl quietly played in her yard with her dog in a house that's tucked away near a national forest, then inexplicably goes missing. A small bicycle with pink tassels sticking out of the handle bars remains out in the yard, a reminder of a young life that ends mysteriously and tragically. So starts Clusters: A case of the missing, T.M. Williams' intriguing un-put-down able novel.
The novel starts with tugs at the heartstrings and goes on to grip the reader's curiosity the way highway accidents invite rubbernecking fascination. Williams uses a clever technique of interspersing real life cases of missing persons to mingle with the fictional cases, as a way of blending fact and fiction.
Ethan Franco, a journalist for the Washington Gazette, is assigned by his editor- in-chief Jameson Stone to find out why there are so many unsolved missing person cases going on in national parks. Franco's failure to overcome past troubled relationships has recently caused his work to suffer. Stone pushes his once stellar investigative reporter to get him out of his slump.
After researching other cases, Franco discovers that there may be a pattern in all of these mysterious cases. Fiction, or perhaps just what many would consider wild conjecture, takes over the last part of this novel that will satisfy fans of Dean Koontz and Stephen King.
The writing is crisp, inventive and rather skeletal, giving just enough information to leave the reader to flesh out the relationships and personalities of the main characters. At times, the characters could have more vividly drawn, particularly the relationship between the main character, Ethan Franco and Sheriff Moore. What made Sheriff Moore take a particularly paternalistic friendly interest to an otherwise typical nuisance of a reporter? Yes, he saw the Franco's vulnerability but what made his so unique that the sheriff formed an instant bond? As a reader, these things have to be accepted at face value.
Nevertheless, Clusters: A Case of the Missing is highly recommended as a satisfying read.
The novel starts with tugs at the heartstrings and goes on to grip the reader's curiosity the way highway accidents invite rubbernecking fascination. Williams uses a clever technique of interspersing real life cases of missing persons to mingle with the fictional cases, as a way of blending fact and fiction.
Ethan Franco, a journalist for the Washington Gazette, is assigned by his editor- in-chief Jameson Stone to find out why there are so many unsolved missing person cases going on in national parks. Franco's failure to overcome past troubled relationships has recently caused his work to suffer. Stone pushes his once stellar investigative reporter to get him out of his slump.
After researching other cases, Franco discovers that there may be a pattern in all of these mysterious cases. Fiction, or perhaps just what many would consider wild conjecture, takes over the last part of this novel that will satisfy fans of Dean Koontz and Stephen King.
The writing is crisp, inventive and rather skeletal, giving just enough information to leave the reader to flesh out the relationships and personalities of the main characters. At times, the characters could have more vividly drawn, particularly the relationship between the main character, Ethan Franco and Sheriff Moore. What made Sheriff Moore take a particularly paternalistic friendly interest to an otherwise typical nuisance of a reporter? Yes, he saw the Franco's vulnerability but what made his so unique that the sheriff formed an instant bond? As a reader, these things have to be accepted at face value.
Nevertheless, Clusters: A Case of the Missing is highly recommended as a satisfying read.
