34. The Cloud of Unknowing by Thomas H. Cook

Mental illness runs in the Sears family. David and Diana Sears were raised by their schizophrenic father (known as the “Old Man” in the novel) and were happy to have escaped his disease. When Diana, who was always studious thanks to their father, marries a biochemist and has a son, Jason, David starts to relax about his sister’s mental health well-being. Things begin to change when Jason is observed unable to interact with other people and a diagnosis of schizophrenia is given to the young boy. Jason soon drowns in a pond behind the family’s home, and Diana refuses to believe that his death was accidental. She soon becomes obsessed with her son’s death, and starts investigating ancient crimes, while her family around her slowly feels the family’s history of mental illness has finally reached Diana.

While some readers might find this a mystery book, others will be drawn into the family history of the Sears and the role of mental illness in their lives. Told in a unique way of one chapter being an interrogation of David Sears for an unnamed crime, and the next chapter made up of David’s flashbacks of his family’s unraveling, readers are hooked into the slow telling of his story. Cook’s trademark twists at the end are present again in his latest novel. If readers haven’t read Cook yet, try The Chatham School Affair or Breakheart Hill, two of his best books.