Cape Fear

Cape Fear, by John D. MacDonald, 224 pages


Sam Bowden is a successful attorney with a beautiful wife and children. Life is pretty perfect for him.  When he finds out that Max Cady, a man he put in prison for sexual assault, has been released,  he gets mildly worried.  But when he sees Cady in his town, scary accidents start to occur and the authorities can't seem to protect him or his family.  Sam has to take matters into his own hands.  I had no idea that this book, upon which the movie was based, was from the late 1950s.  I just had vague recollections of a man strapped to the undercarriage of a car, which doesn't actually happen in the book.  This is a work of slow building suspense, and I have no idea how it made it onto my to-read list and why I ultimately read it.  It is well-written, but I wouldn't recommend it.