Hole in The Water - Softcover

Robert Kearney

Softcover

ISBN 10: 000651068X ISBN 13: 9780006510680

Publisher: Harper Collins, 1998

Synopsis

In the shadow of his father's death, Chuck Hausman has come home. With his new wife, Gretchen. His stepdaughter, Kara. And a dark past he cannot escape.

For on a desolate island in Lake Superior, the people who have known Chuck longest revile him most. Now, layer by terrifying layer, Gretchen begins to uncover the chilling sins long hidden in her husband's heart. Is Chuck the innocent man he claims to be, or is he a cold-blooded killer? Blinded by fear, trapped by water, Gretchen and Kara take desperate flight for their lives. . . .

About this title

Review:

Veteran journalist Robert Kearney's fiction debut is a lean and well-crafted psychological thriller that manages to find some new notes in the old theme of "who is this person I've just married?" Back in her new husband's hometown for the reading of his father's will, Gretchen finds out in very short order that Chuck has been married before, he's been in a mental institution, and almost everyone in town hates his guts. Kearney deftly avoids melodrama as he builds believable suspense.

From the Publisher:

In a novel pulsating with the breathtaking suspense of a thriller and the psychological intensity of our worst nightmares, a woman must decide how far she will go to protect the man she loves in the face of chilling accusations from those who know him best-and her own unsuppressible suspicions.

Chuck, Gretchen, and Gretchen's daughter, Kara, are returning to Chuck's hometown for the reading of his father's will. Recently married, Gretchen convinces herself that her husband's edgy moodiness simply reflects his ambiguous feelings about the father he has been estranged from for years. But the vicious hostility that greets them when they arrive on the desolate island in Lake Superior where Chuck grew up makes Gretchen realize how little she really knows about her husband's past.

The island gossips are quick to fill in some of the gaps, relating tales of Chuck's wild youth, of his confinement in a mental institution, of the ill-gotten money hidden by his father in the family home-and of the mysterious death that drove Chuck from the island so many years ago. Soothed by Chuck's facile explanations of each revelation, Gretchen assures him of her love and loyalty. Then one final crime is revealed-and Gretchen and Kara are propelled on a terrifying flight for their lives."

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Collins
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 000651068X
• ISBN 13: 9780006510680
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256