Leading the Cheers

This Whitbread-winning novel lives in the imagination long after the book is shelved. Dan Silas is an advertising executive whose life takes an unexpected turn when he's invited to leave London and return to rural Michigan to give a speech at a reunion of his American high-school class. Burrowing into forgotten places and old relationships, he discovers an unknown parallel life which runs beneath his own history. His best friend has had a breakdown and believes himself to be a Native American called Pale Eagle, while his girlfriend reveals she gave birth to their daughter, who has since been murdered by a mysterious serial killer. It's this man, the sinister Scott Hollinger, who is the author of the horror at the heart of the book. Cartwright is a master of description, combining intensely sensuous detailing with an ability to evoke both social type and archetype at a stroke.