Reunion at Red Paint Bay

November 5, 2012
Simon Howe edits the local newspaper in Red Paint, the "Friendliest Town in Maine," a community out of a Norman Rockwell painting where everybody knows everyone and a man losing a toe in an accident at the city landfill is front-page news. The placid surface of Simon's life is ruptured when he begins receiving anonymous postcards from someone who appears to be coming closer and closer to Red Paint. The postcards, we soon learn, are the work of a creepy former local who now calls himself Paul Chambers and believes Simon raped a girl decades ago during a drunken graduation party that Simon only hazily recalls. Harrar, author of novels for adults (The Spinning Man) and young adults (Parents Wanted), does a creditable job of creating an idyllically dull town, but the book is strongest when God-haunted Paul pierces Simon's cocoon of security in a bent quest for revenge, particularly in a chilling chapter when Paul sneaks into Simon's home and watches him sleep. Clumsy plotting mars the conclusion, and Harrar's prose is never any better than serviceable, but those who like their thrillers on the tame side will find a pleasant, if simple, diversion. Agent: Esmond Harmsworth, Zachary Shuster Harmsworth.

October 15, 2012
A therapist who treats rape victims finds out she's married to a man who might be a rapist. Simon Howe has returned to his hometown of Red Paint, Maine, to edit the local paper, one that is almost routinely devoid of news. At the beginning of the novel, he has hired Dave Rigero, a rapist recently released from prison, as a pressman, much to the disgust of Simon's wife, Amy. Although Simon makes an effort to justify giving Dave a job and thus reintroducing him into society, Amy firmly identifies with the victims in her therapy practice and feels that Simon should make no concessions to heinous offenders. Soon after, Simon begins to receive anonymous postcards, mysterious and mildly threatening, and he tries to think of anyone from his past who could have an animus against him. And then, even more creepiness begins to assert itself into Simon's life, mainly involving his son, Davey, who's spooked by a mysterious person hanging around the house and who has an odd conversation with a stranger at a carnival. It turns out this sinister man is Paul Chambers, a former high school classmate of Simon's whose wife, Jean, had taken her life a few weeks before. Chambers is convinced that Simon is responsible because, 25 years before, he had had sex with Jean on the night of their high school graduation--but was it rape? Chambers shows up for "therapy" at Amy's office, primarily to throw hints to her about Simon's past. Eventually, Simon feels so threatened by Chambers that he shoves him into the bay and believes he's drowned--so now Simon might be responsible not only for Jean's rape and eventual suicide but for her husband's murder as well. Harrar skillfully echoes Alfred Hitchcock's theme about how a seemingly innocent man can be sucked into a disturbing vortex of forces that lie just below the surface of "normal" life.

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December 1, 2012
Actionseven those that are unintended or misunderstoodhave consequences, as Simon Howe, owner and editor of the weekly newspaper in his hometown of Red Paint, Maine, is about to learn. With his twenty-fifth high-school reunion approaching, pillar-of-the-community Howe begins receiving anonymous postcards with cryptic and increasingly threatening messages. At the same time, a mysterious man turns up in town and begins stalking Howe's family, sidling up to his 11-year-old son, Davey, at a carnival; spilling secrets to his therapist wife, Amy; even violating the sanctity of his home. The level of suspense and menace increases as the stalker's identity and purpose become clear, and Howe is forced to confront what he did on his graduation night and how those actions reverberated in the lives of others. Harrar tackles some big issues here, notably vengeance, guilt, and absolution, with the underlying question of when sex becomes rape. But messages aside, this is tightly written psychological suspense from the author of The Spinning Man (2003). Harrar is one of those writers on the verge of connecting with a much larger audience; this could be his moment.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)