Breakheart Hill (1995)

An excellent suspense novel where love is central theme and Cook has been able to add believable characters around it, how their lives spiral out of control when a stray remark born out of hate changes everything in poetic,literary,atmospheric prose. A small town and high school life told through memories of various characters with needle of suspicion shifting from character to character. ( )

BREAKHEART HILL opens with: "...This is the darkest story that I ever heard..." Dr Ben Wade then relates the tale of Kelli Troy, a young teenager whose battered body was found thirty years before on Breakheart Hill near Choctaw in Alabama. Kelli was Ben’s first love and his unrequited passion for her forms the background. The other major back story is Kelli and Ben’s research into how Breakheart Hill originally got its name –part of the shameful past of Choctaw. Ben begins to go over the events around Kellie’s murder in his mind. The story chops backwards and forwards between characters and the sequence of events as a memory sets his thoughts off in different directions until slowly the whole story is revealed. There is a wide range of possible suspects. Although the reader is told that someone was tried and convicted for the crime, and all the evidence is slowly presented as to why he was convicted, the reader can't be sure he was the one.

Thomas H Cook is a master of writing dark, moody mysteries. The haunting atmosphere of a town where everyone has been affected by the violence of the murder that had taken place thirty years previously carries throughout the book until the very end. He masterfully starts to reveal something and then switches to something else completely different to throw you off the scent. Cook raises all sorts of ethical issues such as teenage love, racial integration, illegitimacy, making a stand despite public opinions, deception and finally hatred.

The only complaint I have is the ending – I have re-read it a few times and am still not sure I understood the significance of what I read. To go into this in-depth would be a major spoiler but suffice to say the ending was not satisfactory for me because of this. ( )

https://sites.google.com/a/toonen.org/www/readers-advisory/Breakheart Hill.doc ( )

Town doctor Ben Wade narrates the sad history of Kelly Troy, a bright, intelligent girl who moves into a small Southern community, both shocking it with her outspoken views on segregation and charming it with her natural vivacity before she is tragically attacked on top of Breakheart Hill. Ben falls deeply in love with her, and author Thomas H. Cook is very good at depicting the black mood he falls into when his love is not returned. The narrative moves back and forth in time, skillfully manipulating our expectations. I thought I knew what had happened, became increasingly sure of it as the novel progressed, then had to revise my beliefs when I came to the final devastating pages. This is a excellent suspense novel. ( )