Ratings4
Average rating3.3
Andrew, an advertising executive in his mid-30s, returns to his hometown in upstate New York for his mother's funeral. He does not intend to stay in the slow rural backwater he left seventeen years before. But the dreams and memories persist and in the darkened farmhouse he relives that hot, bloody night when Eden Close was blinded - by the same gun that killed her father.
The enigmatic Eden had been Andrew's childhood companion. Together the two roamed summer cornfields, smoked their first forbidden cigarettes, skated, fished and fought until the tomboy turned temptress - then their friendship ended. Now, despite warnings, Andrew is drawn again to this lost, blind girl of his youth, drawn to save her from the cruel neglect she has endured for seventeen sightless years without him. But first he must discover the grisly truth about that night...
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I wasn't sure what to expect with a title like “Eden Close”. Initially I thought it referred to a place in England. But, it really refers to a character's name in the book.
The book tells the story of Eden Close, adopted as a child, hated by her mother and loved by her father. She lived in a rural town and was known to be a bit of a tease. The boys crushed after her, including Andrew, her next door neighbor. One night, guns shots were heard next door to Andrew's that left Mr. Close dead and Eden blind. The truth about what happened that night - who was responsible - remained a mystery.
Suspicion about what happened that night made the rounds through the town, and was still the subject of gossip on the residents' lips as Andrew discovered 17 years later when he returned to his childhood home to pack up his deceased mother's house and settle her estate. At this stage in his life he had been through a divorce and trying to work through his own troubles. Eden was still living next door with her mother. Feelings Andrew had about Eden resurface...the mystery as to what happened also is revealed.
I was into the book from the beginning - a great bathtub read.