Eyes Wide Open

May 16, 2011
Gross's suspenseful second stand-alone thriller (after The Blue Zone) raises chills and strains credulity in almost equal measure. When successful surgeon Jay Erlich learns that his troubled 21-year-old nephew, Evan, the son of his older brother, Charlie, jumped to his death off a rock in California's Morro Bay, Jay travels to the coastal town of Grover Beach to help Charlie and Charlie's wife, Gabriella, "both bipolar, each with a history of drug and alcohol abuse." The distraught couple are wondering why a suicidal Evan was released from the county hospital shortly before the tragedy. Though Jay gets no assistance from Charlie and little from the detective on the case, he discovers some disturbing if obscure clues to other deaths past and present linked to Charlie's involvement in the 1970s with cult figure Russell Houvnanian, who went to prison with some of his commune followers for gruesome murders that echo the Charles Manson killings. Gross ratchets up the violence as Jay and his own family become targets for revenge.

February 1, 2011

Jay's older brother, Charlie, wandered west during the Sixties and fell under the influence of a dangerous, cultlike figure whose teachings led to violence. For Charlie, the past finally seems safely past--but then it returns to taunt him, and Jay must intervene. Gross, who routinely racks up New York Times best sellers, is here getting a one-day laydown on July 12 and a 200,000-copy first printing. I bet this will be good.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from June 1, 2011
Inspired by the death of the author's nephew, this is a grim psychological thriller sure to shock readers.

Nothing is evil if it's done out of love. Such is the mantra of a convicted murderer's cult followers. A troubled teenager falls from a cliff, an apparent suicide. But why would the boy remove one sneaker before jumping? And where is that sneaker? Evan Erlich's distraught father Charlie is convinced that Evan did not kill himself even though the family had serious internal conflicts. Charlie himself had once led a drug-addled life, and he and his wife Gabby depend on others for their support. Narrator Jay Erlich is Evan's brother and a successful physician with a loving wife and family and far better circumstances in life. He is drawn deeply into a tangle of fear in which Evan's death is only the beginning. Jay initially seeks to comfort his brother and sister-in-law over their son's death, but like any good hero he asks too many questions and never knows when to quit. He crosses paths with Susan Pollack, who has just been released from prison after more than 30 years. Her lover, Russell Houvnanian, is an unrepentant killer with a magnetic personality and a long memory. Houvnanian lingers forever in a super-max prison at California's Pelican Bay and rarely even sees daylight. What can these people possibly have to do with poor Evan or with the other victims who turn up? And what about the eyes carved into the bodies? Trouble piles on trouble, and absolutely no one is safe, even when it seems that no more disasters can happen.

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