Reunion at Red Paint Bay

Red Paint calls itself "the friendliest town in Maine," a place where everyone knows one another and nothing too disturbing ever happens. Native son Simon Howe is a sturdy family man--a good father and husband--and owner-editor of the town's newspaper. Because there's rarely any real news, he runs stories about Virgin Mary sightings, high school reunions, and petty criminals.One day Simon's predictable and peaceful life is disrupted by the arrival of an anonymous postcard, the first in a series of increasingly menacing messages. He tries to ignore them, but the implied danger becomes more real, threatening to engulf his wife and son as well. The Howe family becomes engaged in a full-scale psychological battle with their unidentified stalker--without even knowing it. Secrets from Simon's past are uncovered, escalating toward a tense and unexpected climax.More than a conventional mystery or thriller, Reunion at Red Paint Bay is an exploration of the consequences of guilt, denial, and moral absolutism. Harrar weaves a dramatic and suspenseful tale sure to spur readers into examining the limits of responsibility for one's actions.Review"Harrar skillfully echoes Alfred Hitchcock's theme about how a seemingly innocent man can be sucked into a disturbing vortex of forces that lie just below the surface of 'normal' life." --Kirkus Reviews"But messages aside, this is tightly written psychological suspense... Harrar is one of those writers on the verge of connecting with a much larger audience; this could be his moment."--Booklist"George Harrar's incisive look at the soft-focus lens through which we view our respective pasts, chronicles the days leading up to a high-school reunion in a small coastal town in Maine."--BookPage"Secrets can haunt us. In George Harrar's novel Reunion At Red Paint Bay (Other Press), secrets hunt us down for revenge."--Interview Magazine"Although the novel may appear to be a stalker thriller, and it certainly starts as that, this is not an adequate description. Yes, there are moments of gripping intensity, but in the final analysis, the novel turns in a much more thoughtful, psychological direction and morphs into something unexpected and even creepier as we are faced with some big questions about guilt, remorse and atonement."--Swiftly Tilting Planet, WordPress.com"This is a rather uniquely constructed mystery that explores the magnitude of one's lies, guilt, and denial... A good story and well told."--Mysterious Reviews"...it is the setting, the easy, low-key environment of life in Red Paint that seduces the reader, the hypnotizing prose of a storyteller revealing the fragility of what a man holds dear."--Curled Up With a Good BookAbout the AuthorGeorge Harrar is the author of two novels for adults, including the literary mystery The Spinning Man. Among his dozen published short stories, "The 5:22" won the prestigious Carson McCullers Prize and was selected for The Best American Short Stories 1999. Harrar lives west of Boston with his wife, Linda, a documentary filmmaker. Their son, Tony, was the inspiration for Harrar's award-winning novel for middle-grade readers titled Parents Wanted, published by Milkweed Editions. He is also the author of Not As Crazy As I Seem, a poignant and funny young adult novel from Houghton Mifflin that has become a standard of realistic fiction dealing with obsesssive-compulsive disorder.