Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Imagine someone coming to your door. They're dressed in a well cut suit and tie, looking official. You can tell by their air of authority that they are a government man. Behind that government man stands a young boy spouting the same joke you taught your child, the boy who drowned decades ago. The voice sounds the same and when you get a gander at him you see that it is your son, returned by some miracle from the dead. That's what happens to Harold Hargrave and thus starts "The Returned" and from the very first page I was hooked. Lucille and Harold Hargrave are in their seventies now. They are good, decent people who know right from wrong and act accordingly, so when the government locates a concentration camp in their small town of Arcadia to contain the "returned", dead people who have mysteriously started showing up all over the world, they are forced to reconcile their beliefs with reality. They know the boy Agent Bellamy brought them is their son, but what does mean? They grapple with that question as more and more of the "returned" are relocated in Arcadia. Pressure builds between the living and the returned as soldiers transport truck loads of the living dead into Arcadia and stay to guard them. When Harold and his son, Jacob, end up in the camp, Lucille Hargrave decides to take action but not before the tension has built to a boiling point between the town's people, the soldiers, and the thousands of returned that now inhabit the town. I read with great anticipation to find how this was all going to play out. Mott's characters are alive and vibrant. When Harold's smoker's hack becomes uncontrollable, my lungs burned. When Lucille chastises Harold for one of his many faults, I could hear my wife chastising me. When both try to keep Jacob close and protect him from the chaos and violence, they did what any parent would do despite their misgivings about Jacob. When Agent Bellamy and Harold played horseshoes, I could hear the ring of the shoe as it hit the stake and feel the comradery of two people playing a friendly game as they discussed what was going on. I was there and now I'm not and I'll miss these people. Mott's writing is superb. The story flows and the plot develops with elegant images and sensory perceptions. As a reader, I propelled myself through the book with wonderment and awe and hated to reach the end of such fine writing. The book is a nice respite from the mundane. Mott, is that all you've got?