In the novel Into the Web, Thomas H. Cook weaves the past and the present together in a suspenseful book that keeps the reader turning the pages for more answers. The title caught my eye first and foremost as it was mysterious and promised suspense.
Roy Slater, a teacher for a private school in California, returns home to care for his dying father despite a rift and a mutual dislike that has been between them for as long as he can remember. While in town he is invited to a crime scene by the town's sheriff, the son of the former sheriff Roy knew growing up. What begins to unfold brings back the past and a mystery that is revealed. Roy begins to investigate the secrets and unspoken truths behind a murder his brother was accused of years before. In his quest for answers he begins to gain some answers to his questions about his own father and why his father is the man he is.
As pieces of the mysterious past are woven with the present, and each piece of the web is strung, Roy gains new understanding of his father, and perhaps new respect. What he finds out in the meantime sends him into a blinding murderous rage, that threatens to destroy his own life as well.
Throughout the novel the reader follows Roy through his search for answers about his father, and his brother's state of mind when the infamous murder was committed. He finds that his assumptions are wrong, and that when things are brought to light, that the truth is something much darker and more sinister than he originally conceived. What Roy discovers as he's drawn into the web of deceit, secrets and lies is that his own life will never again be the same and in some way a peace is gained between father and son, as well as within himself.
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