Chris Bohjalian’s stories always haunt me long after I’ve finished reading. Not necessarily in a bad way, just in the sense that I find myself mulling over the plot days later, still in shock over the surprise ending that Bohjalian has mastered.
I first discovered Bohjalian after my lovely friend L and I were browsing a used bookstore in New Hampshire. She recommended The Double Bind and later gifted me with a copy of Before You Know Kindness, and now I’m hooked. Bohjalian (who looks like the spitting image of Kevin Spacey, in my opinion) is a New England native, and often goes into bookstores, signs his books, slips them back onto the bookshelves, and leaves without saying a word. I like that.
This latest book of Bohjalian’s, Secrets of Eden (published in 2010 by Shaye Areheart Books) is the story of a murder/suicide (not the lightest of subjects, but intriguing from start to finish). The home in which these crimes take place is known for its marital disputes and domestic violence, so it seems like a no-brainer that the husband killed his wife and then turned his gun on himself, case-closed. ...Until it is discovered that the villiage pastor had once had a romantic relationship with the wife, a fact that had been well-hidden until investigators stumbled upon her diary.
Told from four different characters’ perspectives (the book is neatly divided into a section for each character, an organizational approach that I always appreciate), Bohjalian’s novel is one of those books that’s hard to put down (and that you may be somewhat disappointed to finish at all).
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