Alphin ( Counterfeit Son) adds texture by inserting Graeme's journals between Charles's narration, and she brings unusual candor to her portrayal of gay characters. When Charles pushes Graeme to find his true self ('You're nothing but a lifeless mirror that reflects everyone's expectations!'), Graeme commits suicide and camouflages it as a heart attack, leaving a note explaining his actions to Charles. show me how to keep from locking myself away inside a studio forever.' While the boys connect immediately, Charles realizes that Graeme is also 'playing,' just like Graeme's protagonist ('He knew what Simon wanted before Simon even said anything'). Charles, who now refuses to let others see his paintings, is hoping that Graeme can show him 'how to get beyond the game. Nobody even wants to admit they're playing'). The school's amenities notwithstanding, Charles has enrolled simply in order to meet Graeme Brandt, a senior, and author of a YA novel that Charles finds brilliant in its send-up of people's shallowness ('Life is just one big game of Simon Says. (Sept.High school junior Charles Weston, whose paintings convey 'truth' so powerfully that all who see them promptly fear and/or dislike him, has just arrived at Whitman, a boarding school for artists. Though Alphin races through the conflicts a little too quickly, she achieves a neat and happy ending readers will be enthralled by her suspenseful plot. The author's treatment of each character's psychological wounds is also impressive, and she doesn't skirt the subject of DNA testing or other forensic refutation of Cameron's identity. The tensions accelerate to a fever pitch when Pop's accomplice Cougar shows up, threatening to unmask him if Cameron doesn't cooperate with Cougar's crimes. He chokes down Neil's favorite meals and fumbles for the answers to old family riddles, all the time observed by his hostile sister, who resents the effect that Neil's disappearance and rediscovery has had on their parents. Alphin (Tournament of Time) builds the pressure masterfully, describing Cameron's constant fear of being found out by the Laceys or the suspicious police detective.

Cameron, seeing a chance at a normal life, decides to pass himself off as one of Pop's murder victims and claims he is Neil Lacey, missing for six years. As this gripping novel opens, the police have finally raided his Tennessee home and fatally shot Pop. Cameron Miller's Pop locked him in the cellar while he beat to death the boys he kidnapped-more than 20 boys over the years and Cameron, too, has suffered at his father's hands.

Counterfeit son by elaine marie alphin