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Published: Oct. 15, 2011
Words: 119,308 (approximate)
Language: English
ISBN: 9781466083271
Short description
For 25 years, the word was Nathan Sitteroff had willed himself to die and gave himself leukemia a year later. But his daughter Lisa, now grown, in her search to uncover the truth surrounding the puzzling death of her brilliant scientist father finds a cache of deep secrets--ones that start to destroy her family, marriage, and sanity. The facts Lisa uncovers are shocking and come at a high cost.Extended description
A happily married man with three small children decides one day he no longer wants to live. He gives himself leukemia and nine months later is dead.This is the conundrum Lisa Sitteroff is determined to solve regarding her dead father—the tale her mother, Ruth, told Lisa and her two brothers, Rafferty and Neal, throughout their childhood. But Lisa, now thirty and watching Raff suffer from the ravages of bipolar illness, believes if she can solve this puzzle, she might somehow save her brother. For Raff’s pain is intrinsically tied up with feelings of parental abandonment.
What starts as a noble goal for Lisa soon grows into a vicious family war, wreaking destruction on Lisa’s marriage. Lisa discovers details of her parents’ relationship that her mother has long hidden. Shocking clues appear as Lisa reads a letter her father, Nathan, wrote before he died, prompting her to visit Nathan’s former boss, Ed Hutchinson. From him, Lisa learns that her engineer father helped desi.. (Read more)
Tags
thriller, suspense, drama, mystery, family drama, depression, suicide, family, betrayal, lies, truth, bipolar, intrigue, aerospace, radiation, cold warAvailable ebook reading formats
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Reviews
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Review by:
Glynn Young
on Oct. 26, 2011 :
In Conundrum, Lisa Sitteroff is watching her marriage fall apart, one brother increasingly bent on suicide, another brother who floats from job to job and relationship to relationship with a seeming dedication to making nothing last. And then there’s Ruth Sitteroff, their mother, who seems a character right out of Mommie Dearest.
Lisa’s father is dead, dying when she was a young child of what her mother describes as self-induced leukemia. It is Lisa’s father who sits at the heart of the story, as Lisa decides she wants to know the man who as her father. Her marriage falls apart and her husband leaves home; she and her mother have a major quarrel and falling out. And Lisa embarks on a journey, both physical and allegorical, to learn what she can about her father. And what she learns strips away both pretence and what has covered over lies and deceit.
Liss grows over the course of the book, She becomes more recognizable, more human and, gradually, more sympathetic and she unfolds the truth about her father, her mother and her brothers. The story ends well, but the reader stays tense getting there.
(review of free book)
Review by:
queenofsheba50
on Oct. 24, 2011 :
I love this book!!! Read it in one sitting
(review of free book)
Review by:
Ann Lee Miller
on Oct. 21, 2011 :
C.S. Lakin grabbed me by the heart and swept me into the lives of her characters. I ached for their brokenness and cheered for their soul-deep relationships. It was one of those books I flew through and wished for more. Intense and satisfying.
(review of free book)
Review by:
Catherine Leggitt
on Oct. 17, 2011 :
This is not an easy book to read. Most of the time, it's intense and gut-wrenching. But I recognized myself in some of the characters. There's drama aplenty, betrayal, layers of secrets to unfold. After all, relationships are one of the toughest things to do well. What do you do about the unanswerable questions in your own life? Is it really true that the truth will set you free? This is a book that explores important issues in a way that keeps you turning the pages.
(review of free book)
Review by:
Barbara Rose Brooker
on Oct. 16, 2011 :
This novel is the kind of book that you can't stop reading. When I read it I felt like a voyeur, peeking into a world that I'm not supposed to be in--one that I can identify with, that most people are afraid of. The honesty, the sheer beauty of the writing is breathtaking. I can't stop thinking about the characters in this book, and I believe that Lakin is one of our great writers.
Also, this is a novel that I have underlined, as there is great wisdom and insights in the pain.
Barbara Rose Brooker
(review of free book)
Review by:
Lee Miller
on Oct. 16, 2011 :
If you love an intense relational drama, literary writing, and a heart-wrenching story wrapped in a fascinating mystery, don't miss this. The book explores a mystery that takes place in the aerospace industry during the Cold War and space race, and the author does a great job in showing how oppressive relatives can be toxic and must be removed from our lives. She also delves into the pain of bipolar illness, and even though so much of the book is heavy, it is also beautifully life-affirming and hopeful in the end. A masterpiece!
(review of free book)