Darkmistress's Full Review: Elaine Marie Alphin - Counterfeit Son
I enjoyed Picture Perfect so much that I immediately had to run right out and search out other books by this author. She made it easier on me by writing a couple of early reader books and while I’m interested in her other books I’m just not interested enough to read a fifty page book on how a telephone works. I located The Ghost Cadet at the library and I’ll review that another time. The one I really wanted to get my hands on was the Counterfeit Son. I read several reviews in Books In Print and this one peaked my interest for more reasons than the Agatha it won.
Counterfeit Son is about a boy named Cameron who is the son of a serial killer who preys on little boys. Hank always locks Cameron in the cellar while he practices his "hobby." Cameron always tries to tell the boys to behave because he thinks if they are good enough Hank won’t kill them. He bases this on the fact that Hank has never killed him because he lets Hank do whatever he wants. He’s terribly guilty that the boys never listen to him and while he’s locked in the basement, to block out the sound of the screams and blows upstairs, Cameron reads through his father’s files about his victims. Serial killers tend to collect souvenirs of their victims and Hank’s souvenirs are newspaper clippings about the boys he’s taken. One day, after a bad night, Cameron returns home to find the police surrounding his house. He turns himself in to the police and tells them that he’s Neil Lacey, one of Hank’s victims. He picked the name out of the files because they mentioned sailing and he wants to sail. The police don’t all believe him, but they are forced to turn him over to the Laceys because the father is a lawyer and they’re afraid of being sued. Cameron thought getting past the police would be the easy part, but when he arrived in Neil’s home he finds that he needs to act like Neil and he has no idea how.
So, I liked the book, but I had some problems with it. On the plus side, psychologically the characters are true as trees. Cameron/Neil has been severely abused. He doesn’t understand why, when he does something wrong, Neil’s parents don’t punish him. Of course his idea of punishment is more than a little skewed. If they aren’t breaking his bones he doesn’t feel that he’s been punished. And for the parents side, they’re reluctant to punish him anyway. In addition to the fact that they feel he’s been punished enough (which he has) they weren’t much for punishing Neil before he was abducted. Basically, Neil, who was abducted at 8, was a brat. He always got his way, he bullied his younger brother and sister and he was abducted because he went to an arcade when his mother told him not to. Brat, absolutely. Cameron/Neil also has some (understandable) issues with being touched. He’s ok with his mother touching him, but he has trouble with his father getting near him and that gets better over the course of the story.
The brother and sister are interesting and well rounded too. Diana is jealous of her brother because he was always the favorite and even when he was gone and assumed dead, her parents didn’t pay attention to her. Stevie worshipped his brother. He was only 4 when Neil disappeared, but even then Neil treated him badly. The parents too are very realistic. They aren’t perfect as people or as parents, but they aren’t totally absent like Peanuts adults. There’s also a housekeeper, but she doesn’t have a big part. She still treats Cameron/Neil as though he was still 8. And then there’s the bad guy, Cougar. Cougar’s a little on the thin side, but he’s also pretty realistic for a nutcase on the make.
The tension level rises nicely as Cameron/Neil tries to pretend to be someone he’s not while not understanding why his parents don’t love him enough to punish him. Then we have the detective who never believed he was Neil still trying to prove that he’s not. The dental records were inconclusive, but the lab is working overtime identifying the remains buried in Hank’s basement. And then there’s Cougar who was Hank’s partner for a brief time. Cougar catches up with Cameron/Neil. He was in prison for a kidnapping Hank had done, but now he’s free. In classic crazy reasoning, he blames Cameron/Neil. First he demands that Cameron/Neil bring him a bribe and when he gets it he says it isn’t enough and if Cameron/Neil doesn’t bring him the key to the house he’s going to kidnap Stevie.
See, if I tell you anymore about the plot I’m going to give it all away and you won’t want to read the book. And you should read the book. Every review I read said the ended was a little unbelievable. I agree. While it’s pretty psychologically sound, it’s hard to believe. Probably if I were a kid reading this book I would have totally gone for it, but since I’m an adult I had a harder time with it. I can’t actually call that a flaw with the book since it’s my jaundiced eye seeing too much and it is a young adult novel. However, I didn’t have any of these kind of misgivings with Picture Perfect.
Now, this does involve a serial killer and a lot of implied violence. I have an entirely too good imagination so I was a little disturbed by it. If you or the kid you happen to be thinking of for this book has an overactive imagination you might want to either skip it completely or be prepared to discuss it. The implied violence does include sexual abuse. Is that clear enough? Nothing is stated outright, but it’s hinted at. I think if I had read this book at, oh, 16-17 I would have internalized it and been driven a little nuts (but my mother was giving me Stephen King to read.) This isn’t a bad thing, really, but you gotta be prepared for the worst. Creepy.
So I guess to sum up, this is a really good book. Better than most other young adult suspense novels, but not as good as Picture Perfect. Like Picture Perfect, I’d recommend a group reading of this one. If you want to give it to a kid, read it first so you know what’s up before it gets really disturbing. But don’t over look it. It really is a good read for kids and adults. And it’s the kind of subject matter that will appeal to reluctant readers.
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