The Cherry Tree

Someone tosses firebombs late at night at adult bookstores and bars in the Philadelphia area, leading to the grizzly deaths of some bar patrons. Also at night, young Billy and Lori neck behind a tombstone in a suburban Philadelphia cemetery—a graveyard that abuts the property of a reclusive old man who lives in Mason House, an aging Victorian structure. These two seemingly unrelated events collide in an unlikely twist of fate due to the suspicions conjured up in the minds of the teenagers. They spy on the old man and wonder about the strange rantings emanating from behind boarded up windows on the second floor of Mason House. Teenage bravado and curiosity compel Billy to climb a cherry tree outside of Mason House in an effort to snoop. Later, his surveillance becomes an obsession that ultimately binds Billy and the old man. Their improbable relationship prompts a probe by the boy’s father, a police officer, who for years concealed his own ties to Mason House’s sole occupant. The policeman’s long-held secret, coupled with his son’s peculiar relationship with the old man, pushes Billy’s father into following a trail of questions. What ties bind the old man and Billy? Does the old man’s odd behavior have any connection to the heinous bombings? And, can the father and son mend their own fractured relationship before it dissolves? The search leads not only to an analysis of father-son conflict. It leads to journeys in time and space–first to the gardens of Cornell University, then back 25 years to the Korean War. Lee Carl’s third novel is an intriguing blend of mystery and family drama played out in the suburbs and streets of Philadelphia during the late 1970s. Carl also is the author of The White Squirrel and Under the Burdock Weed.