Strange But True

Psychological thrillers don't get better than this! In fact not too many stories I've read in the last few years are as well written as this and I read three books a week. The characters are so believable and you come to personally know them in this edge of your set thriller. You will want to read everything else this author has written after finishing this superb story!

Is Melissa telling the truth? Or is she delusional? Remember the neo-realist movie with Anna Magnani claiming she had conceived immaculately and had never had sex? Melissa Moody has a new twist on that. She admits she had sex, once only, on her prom night, the way seniors are supposed to, and that's why she's pregnant. The difficulty is that her boyfriend is dead and this all happened five years ago. She announces this to Charlene Chase, and to Charlene's surviving son Philip. Both of them are flabbergasted. How could this be true? Underlying their disbelief is their suspicion and resentment of each other. Ever since Ronnie's tragic prom limo death, the Chase family has come asunder, the way that a violent death will sometimes fracture a whole family like a hammer blow to a glass figurine. Philip has overheard his mother complaining that "the wrong son died," and indeed Charlene resents Philip and his dreamy, poetical ways, and she hates herself for it, but she has to admit late at night, that she loved Ronnie more. Melissa, whom they had almost forgotten about, has demons of her own! Here's one thriller that doesn't depend on high tech gimmickry, but on the sorrows of the human heart. Boy, was this a good book. I recommend it to those of you who like John Sayles' movies for their quirkiness and their attention to detail and the lives of ordinary people in tightly knit regional communities. Searles piles nuance upon nuance like a great builder, turning the screws in a edifice of suspense. You won't be able to stop reading, and the journey there is just as terrific as the shock ending.

This is one of the best page turners I have read in a long time. It's hard to put this book down, as Searles really knows how to conclude a chapter. The characters are well-developed, their motivation believable every step of the way. Although the book is set in the present, Searles dips into the past to reveal the events that shaped the characters as they are today. The book shows how a disaster on prom night not only altered the lives of the young lovers involved in the accident, but their families' lives as well. You'll be guessing every step of the way. Who is the father of Melissa's baby? What happened at the prom? Why did Phillip run off to New York? Buy the book to get the answers.

Before I bought the book, I read an excerpt of Strange But True and was immediately interested. What a premise, boyfriend dead for 5 years and girlfriend turns up pregnant? Immaculate Conception? It is such a different story from what I expected. What a wonderful surprise. The mystery/suspense angle enhanced an already powerful story about fractured lives, human relationships and how fragile we are as individuals. At one point I felt like these were my neighbors, so when Philip got into trouble, (and indeed it looked bleak for a while) I was disappointed and expecting the worse. Although I felt the end was a little hurried, I was very gratified at the outcome.

I'm way, way up on a biblio high. Just finished John Searles' "Strange But True" which is part mystery, part teen-age romance turned tragic, part marriage mistakes and family politics, part rite of passage, part thriller, part tragey and wrecked people, part redemption and utterly fine reading not to mention all wonderful. Searles' earlier novel, his first, "Boy Still Missing," is a good read but this, his second, novel is entirely engrossing and that rare combination of writing + story + plot = finest kind. This book makes a great gift for just about everyone you know except, perhaps, Lutheran ministers. One complaint only; OK, it's not really a complaint but a reality moment: the book is a bit stern (and was meant to be), although that comes naturally with the story, the telling and the language. It's not a heavy/drowning book but it is a book that examines cause and effect with a strict minuteness that is superb. Meanwhile, thank goodness for the remarkable Donnelly Fiume and his variously scaled menagerie in East Village -- they lighten and enhance the reader's load. Addendum: poets and poetry lovers may find a special affinity for this novel. And, anyone who is an Anne Sexton fan.

John Searles has created a second successful novel. STRANGE BUT TRUE is anything but 'strange', it is mesmerizing! It is a story of lives affected by events at and following a high school graduation Prom. Ronnie Chase, girlfriend Melissa, her twin sister Tracy, and date Chaz hire a limousine to deliver them to and from the Inn where the celebration is held. Philip Chase is living with his mother Charlene in the Pennsylvania suburbs, while recuperating from a fall off a balcony of his New York City apartment. Melissa phones Philip and Charlene then pays them a visit, first since five years past. The news she has to deliver stuns Philip and receives a venomous reaction from Charlene. Melissa is nine months pregnant. Through visitations to a psychic and in answer to her prayers, Melissa believes the conception is Ronnie's baby. She has only had sexual intercourse one time with one person and that is Ronnie Chase on the night of the Prom. However, Ronnie died almost five years ago. He was killed in a tragic accident when the limousine crashed into a thick oak tree on the return trip taking the foursome home. The limo driver had a high level of alcohol in his system. Full of loneliness and sadness, Melissa is estranged from her parents, living in a cottage, and has received a notice to vacate because of unpaid rent. Landlords Gail and Bill Erwin appear to be happily married, even though Gail has been disappointed in a few previous marriages and Bill is an ex-policeman who was asked to leave his job. Richard Chase, Ronnie's father, and second wife Holly live in Florida. Richard harbors a secret from the past. Charlene is an embittered ex-wife and mother grieving for her dead son. Along with Ronnie's 1979 Mercedes in the garage, Charlene keeps Ronnie's bedroom locked enshrined like a museum. Formerly a librarian, Charlene visits the town library. As she steps into the lobby, "she is overcome by one simple thing: the smell of books." Philip loves reading and writing poetry. He has always known that his brother was the favored son. He overheard a conversation in which Charlene said "? the wrong son died". Searles delivers poetic essence in STRANGE BUT TRUE. In one instance he writes, "The wind? has died off, leaving the woods around the three small houses in a perfect hush." With intended humor, the author also writes of Charlene speaking to Philip, "?watching too much TV will make your brain rot". Searles's style of storytelling encourages readers to linger from beginning to end uniquely blending chapters with the past and the present . The author gives credence to main and sideline characters assigning each a burden of trials, tribulations, and disappointments. STRANGE BUT TRUE is an avid reader's treasure full of astounding surprises. Personification of the cast members is uniquely filled with happiness and sadness, anger and forgiveness, loss and gain, hatred and love, good and evil, but most of all - survival. A story that poetica