Boy’s Life by Robert R. McCammon
The year is 1964. On a cold spring morning before the sun, Cory Mackenson is accompanying his father on his milk delivery route. Without warning a car appears in the road before them and plunges into a lake some say is bottomless. Cory's father makes a desperate attempt to save the driver, but instead comes face-to-face with a vision that will haunt and torment him: a dead man handcuffed to the steering wheel, naked and savagely beaten, a copper wire knotted around his neck. The lake's depths claim the car and the corpse, but the murderer's work is unfinished as, from that moment, both Cory and his father begin searching for the truth.
The small town of Zephyr, Alabama, has been an idyllic home for Cory and his friends. But now, the murder of an unknown man who lies in the dark lake, his tortured soul crying out for justice, causes Cory's life to explode into a kaleidoscope of clues and deepening puzzles. His quest to understand the forces of good and evil at work in his hometown leads him through a maze of dangers and fascinations: the vicious Blaycock clan, who defend their nefarious backwoods trades with the barrels of their guns; a secret assembly of men united by racial hatred; a one-hundred-six-year-old black woman named the Lady who conjures snakes and hears voices of the dead; a reptilian thing that swims in the belly of a river; and a bicycle with a golden eye.
As Cory searches for a killer, he learns more about the meaning of both life and death. A single green feather leads him deeper into the mystery, and soon he realizes not only his life, but the sanity of his father may hang in the balance.
I debated giving the book only three stars, but eventually settled on four. Because I did enjoy the book; the writing was smooth and never dragged. I never looked ahead to see what would happen. And, mostly, I enjoyed the characters, They were fully formed and likable when they were supposed to be, and dislikable when they weren’t. especially Cory and his father, who were central to most of what was going on.
Cory and his friends acted like kids, sometimes to their detriment. But I could go along with that, knowing that kids aren’t the greatest of thinkers. Plus, what horror there was in the book usually revolved around Cory and his friends, though I would say there was more magic in the book than horror.
My problem with the book, and in the scheme of things it was rather minor, was all the things that were happening to the same boy, all in the span of less than a year. It tended to push the bounds of probability. And I wondered why his parents didn’t rein him in, though his father had his own difficulties to work through.
But, as I said, I did enjoy the book, and can easily recommend it.
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NOV- Spice, Life, Hello, Keep, Truly, Couple, Joy, Young
Boy’s Life by Robert R. McCammon
NOV - "An Oldie But A Goodie" - Read a Historical Fiction book or a book published before 2000.
Boy’s Life by Robert McCammon (published in 1991.)