The Cloud of Unknowing

A “gripping” mystery revolving around a family tragedy, and a woman who may or may not be descending into madness, by the Edgar Award–winning author (Entertainment Weekly).

David Sears grew up terrorized by the ravings of his schizophrenic father, a frustrated literary genius who openly preferred David’s sister, Diana, for her superior intelligence. When the old man died, David thought the madness had finally left with him. But the Sears family was not through with its troubles.

The drowning of Diana’s mentally ill son was ruled a tragic “misadventure,” but she believes other factors were at play. After hastily divorcing her husband, she sets out to prove his guilt. Her increasingly manic behavior is becoming hard for David to ignore. He finds himself afraid for his own family’s safety—and must choose his words carefully when answering the detective . . .

Thomas H. Cook explores the power of blood to define us, bind us, and sometimes destroy us, in a novel of “consuming suspense almost too concentrated to bear” (Daily News, New York).

“So spare and precise, it feels as if it has been chiseled in stone with something like a surgical instrument.” —Joyce Carol Oates

“What’s at stake isn’t so much the resolution of a mystery as the integrity of a family.” —Time Out New York

“[An] unusual, chilling mystery . . . Cook reveals all the pieces of the shocking story with an absolutely steady hand.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)