Book Review: Raveling

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Raveling     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Peter Moore Smith
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Psychological Suspense
Little, Brown; Jul 2000; $23.95; 389 pp.

The Airie family was already dysfunctional; when the youngest member seven-year-old Fiona vanished without a trace. Two decades later the matriarch begins to hear her daughter's voice. Fiona's schizophrenic older brother Pilot believes his hated brother Eric, a brilliant surgeon, killed their sibling.

Pilot decides to prove Eric murdered Fiona. However, no one believes the word of a medically recognized schizoid, who doubts his own conviction. Yet Pilot claims to have hard core evidence. However, did he attain the proof from Eric? Perhaps he always possessed the murder weapon since even he wonders at time if he, not Eric, is Fiona's killer.

UNRAVELING is a fantastic psychological thriller that never eases up on the tension throttle as a cat and mouse game unravels, but readers do not know who plays which role. The audience realizes that one of the brothers probably killed their sister, but which one remains the puzzler. The audience constantly switches sides as to whom that murderer is due to Peter Moore Smith deliberately and cleverly changing the perspective. This tale is more than just a taut chiller. It will land on everyone's top five list for the year.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner