The Cottagers by Marshall N. Klimasewiski

The Cottagers, a novel by Marshall N. Klimasewiski (Norton): This arresting first book explores the mysterious and envious nature of the friendship between two couples on vacation at the Vancouver Island resort town of East Sooke. Thrown into this catastrophic mix is nineteen-year-old Cyrus Collingswood, a potential genius who just might have a tendency toward real evil. The complex dynamic among these five characters only darkens further with the disappearance of one of the husbands, who might have been murdered. One of the novel's great pleasures is just how far past the end it is willing to go. "I think," the surviving husband confesses to the widow, "in the utter strangeness of losing Nicholas that way, we must have lost our minds a little, too." Klimasewiski has crafted an edgy and compelling story. —Fred Leebron