Eerie and Unsettling Suspense

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The suspense begins to build on page one. There's the first paragraph warning that an unnamed he will snuff out one's life and simply smoke a cigarette afterwards, and then the back story begins with a foreboding setting. There's a cold, dark cabin and the empty rocking chair where Mom always. sat. Never mind that she never greeted anyone, never bathed (ewwww), or was a thin sack of bones held together by crepe-y skin with just enough energy to pop pills. Mom is not in her usual place because... SPOILER ALERT even though you will learn this as early as page 4... she has committed suicide.

Now with fifteen dollars cash in the house and half a sack of potatoes in the food cupboard, brothers Jack and Matty must make a life for themselves. Matty is still young and innocent; he comes home excited about his score on the times-table math test. But Jack has big problems now. He has to find a job so there's money for food, for providing a home for Matty so some Social Services Department doesn't take him away. And with a murderer for a father, life is especially tough.

I'm not sure where this story is headed or if the father's history will turn out to be the big story as a flashback. There is enough tension to keep the reader turning pages.