The Cry of the Owl

Robert Forrester, an aeronautics designer, has just moved to a small town from New York City to escape the problems in his life, including the dissolution of his marriage initiated by his soon to be ex-wife Nickie Grace, their relationship seemingly becoming even more bitingly toxic as the proceedings progress, a diagnosed bout of depression, and self-esteem issues which has led to socialization problems, all these problems of which he is self-aware. In an isolated part of town at night, he becomes obsessed with secretly staring at the mundane activities of a young woman as she works in her brightly lit kitchen, it not so much her with who he is obsessed, but rather the quiet happiness she seems to exude in her life and relationship, something that he never really had with Nickie. As she, bank employee Jenny Thierolf, catches him in her yard on one of those viewing nights, she becomes intrigued by his presence, which she believes is fate as some sort of harbinger in her life. This act of her literally inviting him in for tea begins a mutually obsessive relationship between the two, one fraught with problems as their individual obsession with the other is coming from different places for each of them and what they need out of the other in that regard. Also problematic is the reaction of Jenny's friends, especially her boyfriend, Greg Wyncoop, who becomes violently jealous of Robert, while Robert in turn initially only saw in Greg the source of Jenny's peace. So when Greg goes missing after his and Robert's latest violent altercation, Robert is placed at the top of the suspect list of whatever may have happened to Greg, which may be murder.—Huggo