To The Last Page

There's no doubt that Evans can write well and you can't deny the impact he achieves with the opening scene of The Divide , the mood and tone perfect for the discovery of a body by two skiers in the Montana wilderness, or the emotional force he achieves with the gut-wrenching reaction the discovery has on the parents of the dead girl.  The correctness of tone and quality of the writing is maintained throughout the main section of the novel, a flashback sequence which recounts the events leading up to the present. There's a strong thematic coherence as well, capturing in the break-up of the Cooper family the deep sense of a divide and shift in attitudes between class, generations and their relative values in modern-day America, particularly with regard to environmental issues. The division between the old world and a post 9/11 loss of innocence however seems a bit forced.  It is all a little neat - particularly the well-wrapped conclusion - but Evans manages to capture this ...