Breathing Out the Ghost
Submitted by Book Nut
by Kirk Curnutt
age: adult
First sentence: “Let me tell you about the time your grandfather took a sledgehammer to the car.”
Um, no.
No, no, no.
That’s what I should have said when they asked if I wanted to be a part of this book tour. My gut instinct said no, and I should have listened.
It’s not the book, really. It’s a well-written book, and it’s because the characters are so well drawn that I’m having such a violent reaction to it. If it were anything less, I could brush it off, shrug and roll my eyes at it. But I’m not able to. This one got under my skin, dragged me down and that is not something I want or need in January when I’m already dragging because of the weather.
See, Colin St. Cloud’s son was kidnapped and murdered. By a creep, a pedophile, a sick man named Dickie -Bird Johnson. And St. Cloud can’t let it go. His life has gone to hell; he’s spending it driving around the country, half of the time high on speed, looking for his kid and others, hoping, for what exactly? Redemption? Closure? I’m not sure he even knows. And then there’s Robert Heim, the P.I that St. Cloud hired to help him track down the person who took his son. He ended up on probation because St. Cloud and the case engulfed his life. And now, a year after the incident, he’s on the road again — abandoning his family and a decent, if unrewarding job — in order to track St. Cloud down and finally close the case. And — because two tortured people aren’t enough — there’s Sis Pruitt, dealing with her own ghosts because her only daughter was brutally raped and murdered seventeen years before. The three converge in Sis’s town in Indiana, because another boy has gone missing, where they’re forced to face their ghosts and their pasts.
Enough cheer for you yet?
It was a harsh novel. Brutal. I had to skip sections because I have a faint heart, and I don’t want to know about the people out there who will take, violate, kill my girls. Perhaps it hit too close to home: yes, I let my children play outside alone. I do know where they are, basically, but I believe in a measure of freedom. This could happen to me. These characters could be me. And. I. Don’t. Want. To. Face. That. Reality. (Granted, it did it’s job: I may not let the girls outside by themselves for a very. long. time.)
So. Go check out the rest of the tour; others have really liked the book for its stark nature, and powerful storytelling. Perhaps you are less faint of heart, and can handle a book about grief and death and hopelessness in the face of the most horrible thing as a parent you can think of. As for me, I’m going to go read something happy now.
The rest of the tour:
Monday, January 5th: Diary of an Eccentric
Tuesday, January 6th: Ramya’s Bookshelf
Wednesday, January 7th: The Sleepy Reader
Thursday, January 8th: Crime Ne.ws, formerly Trenchcoat Chronicles
Monday, January 12th: Savvy Verse and Wit
Tuesday, January 13th: Educating Petunia
Wednesday, January 14th: Michele- Only One ‘L’
Friday, January 16th: Anniegirl1138
Monday, January 19th: Caribou’s Mom
Tuesday, January 20th: Lost in Lima, Ohio
Wednesday, January 21st: A Novel Menagerie
Monday, January 26th: Catootes
Wednesday, January 28th: Bloody Hell, it’s a Book Barrage!
