Tall Oaks

Sometimes when a blurb says "Everyone is a suspect" I tend to think that's highly unlikely and there often ends up being only about two suspects. In the case of Tall Oaks, the wonderful debut novel by Chris Whitaker, just about everyone actually is a suspect and that's just how I like my mysteries! Time to put on my biggest detective hat and figure out what happened to three-year-old Harry...and what's Jared..and Henrietta.. and Jerry (just to name a few) hiding? See...secrets.The book is set in a small California town where everyone knows everyone and a crime like the kidnapping of a small child had previously been unheard of. Needless to say, the close knit town is rocked when three year old Harry is taken from his bed one night. His mother, Jessica, a single mom whose no good husband Michael had left her and Harry, is home at the time and what she sees on the baby monitor when Harry goes missing has left her a terrified, unstable basket case. Luckily, she has the support of Jim who's not only the dogged police detective working tirelessly to find Harry, he's also a friend from high school who, perhaps, would like to be more than friends.The plot weaves between the downward spiral of Jessica, her hunt for Harry, and the happenings between many others in the small town. We meet Manny, a high schooler who, along with his friend Abe, wants to be the "gangsters" in town and plays the part accordingly with his language ,outfits and "shakedowns" of places like Pizza Hut. Too funny! I have to say, Manny steals the show in this book. He's not your typical teenager by any means, I mean his language is atrocious (i.e. liberal use of the F word) and his goals include being a gangster, but Manny makes no excuses for himself, he loves his mom and his little sister and he'd do anything for them. And then he meets Furat and young love is in store for Manny:)I'd love to go on and on about all the wonderful unique characters in this book but in the interests of keeping this review manageable I'll give you a condensed lowdown. There's Jerry who's got a soul crushing mother and life, Henrietta, who's married to Roger and let's just say there's something quite off about that marriage, Jared, the newcomer to town who's definitely running from something...and that's just a few of the characters you'll get to know and question! I have to mention another of my very favorite characters...French John. He's a baker in town and friends with Manny's mom and I thought his character was extremely witty and funny. See, that's the thing about this book. You would think that an author writing a mystery novel about a missing child couldn't also write characters who were quirky, funny, and endearing and I admit to being skeptical about it myself but Chris Whitaker has done just that and done it in a way that's true to the story. This book really is a 'whodunit' that's at times sad, funny, and endearing.As you can see, I really enjoyed this story. If there's one critique I have it's that within the chapters , perspectives change abruptly from one person to another with only a small space break and at first I had a hard time keeping the differing perspectives straight as there's many characters and storylines introduced but after the first several chapters when we've met all the characters and gotten a feel for their storylines, I followed everything perfectly fine and didn't notice the quick shifts anymore. As far as what happened to Harry, I thought I had put all my detective skills to use on this one and had it all figured out but it turns out I'm not as good as I thought I was at being a detective.

I read this book on my Kindle and the way it was set up was confusing at first. In every chapter, there were abrupt changes in setting/characters, without an indented paragraph or extra spacing to indicate that the author was taking us somewhere else. After a few chapters, as I became more familiar with the characters, I was able to adjust to the sudden breaks. Otherwise, I'd rate this book a 5 because I easily became engrossed in the plot and characters. It kept me guessing and I appreciated that all the conflict were resolved before the conclusion.

Chris Whitaker created an excellent read with Tall Oaks. As with all of his books, I couldn’t put this one down! Twists you never see coming, super interesting characters, just a lot of fun to read!

This was an odd book. It was simultaneously about everything, about nothing, and about an unsolved abduction of a three year old boy. For me, it was like watching an Episode of Seinfeld, crossed with an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, crossed with an episode of Twin Peaks.The book starts out building the backstory about Jess, the mother to Harry, the abducted three year old boy, and then goes promptly off the rails and introduces us to everyone in the peanut gallery: the other residents of Tall Oaks. And boy, are there a bunch of them.We learn about the residents in metered bits and pieces. It's kinda like ... if you're knitting ... something (I don't knit but I know plenty of folk who do), and working with ten skeins of (expensive!) yarn. You, the knitter, have the pattern and you know the end result you wish to achieve. However us, the non-knitters, haven't the foggiest idea how you will be incorporating these many skeins into your end product. In fact, I daresay, we have no idea what your end product may be: is it a scarf? An afghan? A quilt? Neither? All of the above?Consider all these ponderous "skeins" to be the many residents of Tall Oaks. Do all of them have to do with the plot? No. Is there a plot? Well, this novel certainly isn't plot driven. So if there is a plot, I missed it.Continuing the knitting analogy (it's late and I blame cheap box wine), the skeins I liked best had nothing to do with child abduction. Nothing! Wait! Manny's little sister, Thalia, used to play with Harry, so I guess tangentially there was some kind of relationship?I loved Manny. His dad left his mother, Elena, and his sister, Thalia, to fend on their own. Manny is a high school senior, but some of his actions (dressing in three piece suits, wearing a fedora, and p!ans to "shake down" the town businesses with his best friend Abel) seem rather juvenile.Before Manny decided he'd go full-on gangster, he went through a phase where he idolized Sylvester Stallone in Rocky II. As his dad was never there for him, all he really wants is the feeling he gets when he sees Adrian chant: "Win, Rocky, win!" He wants someone to support him and show him unconditional love; support for him just being Manny.Spoiler: he does get his "winning" moment and it's very sweet - but it has NOTHING to do with the plot, if there every was one.Good character development if you're a David Lynch fan, otherwise, not so much.Writing is very good and the author does paint pictures with his words, so there's that. Also, there are unexpected moments of witty dialogue.

As the reviewers say, it is a dark book with comic overtones. It was hard for me to keep the characters straight as their roles were introduced slowly, but everything made sense in the end. It is worth reading just for Manny, who is so irreverent and funny.

I recently read Whitaker’s book, “All the Colors of the Dark” and could not stop raving about it. I knew then that I had to read everything that he had written. “Tall Oaks” did not disappoint! What a great story, complete with well developed characters. Will keep you guessing until the end!

Loved this book! I rated it 5 out of 5 stars on Goodreads!

As other readers have said before: an intricate story, very atmospheric and with great, engaging characters that i so much felt for. I loved every page and will absolutely read chris' other two novels - thank you very much for this great story!

A gripping tale of a maniacal love story which keeps a reader on the edge till the end. The story is light in some parts with endearing funny characters and heartwarming scenes which gives the reader a respite from otherwise a nail-biting thriller.

Something quite different from the formula crime-based story. This is about the people who live in the small community of Tall Oaks. Expectations, perceptions and misunderstandings. I was hooked from start to end.

Combining a missing child storyline with a cast of crackpot characters and whip-smart black humour shouldn’t in theory work and has the potential to be considered somewhat distasteful, but my, how it works in Chris Whitaker’s mesmeric debut novel, Tall Oaks. Instead, this fly on the wall take on life is the small and well-heeled American town of Tall Oaks as the search for missing three-year-old Harry Monroe passes the three month juncture is a marvellously atmospheric psychological thriller driven by some kooky comedy characters. The novel balances humour with some surprisingly tense moments and is driven by Whitaker’s subtle insights on the residents that live within the confines of Tall Oaks as suspicions grows with everyone a seemingly viable suspect. The opening chapter conveys the burden shouldered by both Harry’s mother and the small town sheriff who cannot move on as he listens again and again to the recorded interviews with distraught mother, Jess. The Feds and media circus have moved on, but life in Tall Oaks has stalled, with each and every resident preoccupied with keeping their own dark secrets out of the public domain.Overseeing the fallout in the local sergeant, Jim, a man with a law degree from Harvard, an obsession with finding Harry Monroe and an emotional attachment to Harry’s beleaguered mother, Jess. Returning to Tall Oaks to pursue his career in the police, it is with dismay that he observes how the atmosphere has turned increasingly sinister, bordering on poisonous, since the day Harry disappeared. Sergeant Jim Young’s obsession with revisiting the case and the personal demons that haunt him are every bit as visible in mother Jess, driven to inebriation and promiscuity in an endless search for distraction. Now residing with her mother, Alison, Jess never gives up, still asking questions and painting the town with missing persons posters. Together with her sister, Henrietta, Alison runs the tearoom in Main Street and Henrietta has some rather bizarre domestic circumstances of her own, with English husband, Roger, essentially a stranger since their short-lived and tragic end to parenting. Meanwhile, cheating spouse and father to Harry, the feckless and controlling Michael Monroe is nowhere to be seen, with scant interest in his son’s disappearance but still put on a pedestal by Jess, who cherishes him.Senior student and Mexican, Manny Romero, is currently in his latest reincarnation since his father, Danny, left home two-years-ago as a 1950s Italian gangster, much to the amusement of the townsfolk who see him get out of his duck-egg blue Ford, in a full three-piece suit and Fedora that chafes. And best mate and future consigliere, Abel Goldenblatt, isn’t helping his image much either by sporting a tan suit! For all his bluster and casual cursing, Manny has a heart of gold and genuinely feels an onus to protect his mother, patisserie assistant, Elena and his three-year-old sister, Thalia, and that means keeping a close eye on his mother’s dating partners, notably fly-by-night car dealer, Jared Martin. Meanwhile Elena’s boss, French John, has his hands full catering to the demands of airhead millionaire’s daughter, Laura McDermott, and her wedding requests. And don’t forget dim-witted gentle giant, Jerry, who is stuck in his job in the PhotoMax, with a bullying boss in Max and a mother with a brain tumour that is squeezing the life out of her. His obsession with photography is well-known and his boss’s fiancée, pharmacy worker, Lisa, encourages him to enter his work into an annual periodical competition. New resident, Furat Al-Basri, the daughter of the Iraqi dentist is wryly entertained by Manny and together they are discovering first love. Seeing how the lives of the residents intersect and their common connections joins the dots and knits the whole small town unit together, but it is the case of missing Harry Monroe that overshadows their lives.As the cracks start to appear and the sordid secrets veer closer to the surface, life in Tall Oaks refuses to relinquish its grip on readers attention and Chris Whitaker manages an original and gripping take on a familiar plot. Staggered revelations keep reader engaged as Whitaker embellishes his often endearing cast with their own fascinating backstories. Tall Oaks is a story about a missing child, but it is also a story which exposes the decisions which people make to ensure that their lives are bearable. The denouement, which conspires to draw each element of the individual stories together, packs a resounding punch and whilst I didn’t expect to be so moved by a story packed wall to wall with some cracking one-liners, I was remarkably touched. Sensitive observation combined with ingenious characterisation and a cornucopia of hidden secrets make Tall Oaks a fresh and memorable reading experience.Review written by Rachel Hall (@hallrachel)