The Desperate Season by Michael Blaine

The Desperate Season by Michael Blaine

In the frozen isolation of a remote country cabin, a young man holds his mother, father, and sister at gunpoint. As their survival hangs in the balance, they must face a terrifying reality: The shadow of madness looms closer than we choose to acknowledge-and sometimes, it is born of our own flesh and blood.

It begins, as shocking events usually do, with a simple lapse in judgment: On February 26, Maurice Coleman is prematurely released from the institution where he is being treated for schizophrenia. After dumping his medications into a stream and buying a semiautomatic, Maurice makes his way through the bitter snow to his parents' secluded hunting cabin. There, he demands from them the truth-with threats that are at once vividly delusional and unmercifully violent. And from the members of the broken family that both love and fear him we learn of their complicity in Maurice's sickness: Moira, the estranged mother who offers little comfort to Maurice; Nathan, the ex-husband and devoted father who showers his son with a dangerous, unconditional love; Crissie, the younger sister who befriends, despises, and ultimately sees her brother as only a sibling can; and Vince, an outsider with a secret who finds himself drawn into the final, fateful confrontation.

A visceral, relentlessly compelling novel of true literary achievement, The Desperate Season captivates as it terrifies, with a psychological power that will resonate long after its haunting conclusion.