Dan Chaon is the King of Dread--if you need convincing, read his short story The Bees--and this book was chock full of menace. What sounds like a strange pastiche of satanic ritual abuse, serial killers, and repressed memories is actually a down-to-earth story about a troubled family in crisis. Chaon is great at depicting fraught family relationships, as he did in his short story collections Among the Missing and Fitting Ends. This also reminded me of Stephen King in his non-supernatural vein. I am usually disappointed in thrillers, but I COULD NOT PUT THIS DOWN.