Secrets of Eden / by Chris Bohjalian

A Brooklyn native, Chris Bohjalian and his wife decided to move away from the city to Vermont after a harrowing experience inside a taxi cab driven by a terrorist permanently ended any plans for raising their two young children in New York City. Their subsequent years lived in peaceful suburban tranquility would ultimately enmesh itself into much of Bohjalian's later fiction. A novelist since the late nineties, he's been critcally acclaimed for his books Before You Know Kindness, Skeletons at the Feast and The Double Blind--all New York Times bestsellers--as well as Midwives, an Oprah Book Club selection. His most recent novel, Secrets of Eden, examines mental and emotional dissolusionment of a small town pastor, Rev. Stephen Drew, after one of his parishioners is murdered.
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"Believe no one. Trust no one. Believe all of our stories are suspect." p. 16

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Rev. Stephen Drew thought it a bit odd the way Alice Hayward, a 35-year-old married mother of one, had behaved at her baptism--a little too morbid. A few hours later, after the bodies of both Alice and her husband George had been found dead of an apparent murder-suicide, Stephen knew he wasn't mistaken. Shock and dismay inevitably follow in the immediate wake of the tragedy and, as well might be expected, Stephen himself is confronted with a severe crisis of faith as the theological doctrines and long-attenuated personal convictions of divine sovereignty are replaced by doubts, fears and perpetuating uncertainty. His angst and tormented soul are only somewhat quieted after meeting Heather Laurent, the author of several humongously popular books on alternative spirituality. Heather, coincidentally, witnessed the murder-suicide of her own parents and is fittingly in a position to relate to Katie, Alice's now orphaned adolescent daughter who may seem to know more than she's telling. Heather is also able to proffer some encouraging words and comforting inspiration to Stephen, and with time the pair develop an unlikely bond.

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But just as Stephen and Heather's relationship begins to blossom into something more and Stephen (a bachelor) begins to see the world and his life with a different outlook, new questions arise in the case, particularly about whether Alice's husband George actually killed himself after all? Was George murdered as well? Were both Alice and George killed together with the act only arranged to look like a murder-suicide? When the state's attorney uncovers new evidence, strange illegible passages in Alice's diary, which link Stephen himself to the crime, it seems the true nature of things may run a bit deeper than originally thought and more than one person may share responsibility for this horrible tragedy.

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Bohjalian hasn't turned out a bad book yet and this effort keeps the streak alive. The storyline more than the characters, who at times can come off a bit flaky, gives the book its appeal, employing the similar but no-less-likable tactic used in Before You Know Kindness and Skeletons at the Feast of an initial traumatic event highlighting the beginning pages and allowing the multi-perspective narrative to work in the context. Readers unfamiliar with Bohjalian will find his themes and featured topics fit the same mold as Jodi Picoult and Anita Shreve, who share an affinity for New England serenity and domestic disquietude. The mood reflects a more removed setting, and conversely, a more personalized atmosphere. Despite the grisly nature of the proceedings and accompanying investigation, the novel's neither mystery nor hard-boiled crime fiction and could barely be categorized as a thriller with the action focusing more intensely on intuitive reflections, character observations and relationships.