This book is a pretty captivating read for older children/ young adults. The plot is pretty dark and I would suggest it only for mature readers. The story is essentially about a boy who finds out his father is a serial killer. There's many twists and turns in the story and the boy eventually finds out his father was not really his father after all. The boy was kidnapped when he was a baby. The book is captivating while still addressing the identity crisis of the young man. ( )

Teenagers love books about one of their own getting out of an abusive situation and this book fits the bill. It opens with a young man escaping the basement of a house where he had been beaten and locked up and where other boys had been buried. At the same time the police arrive and a shoot out ends in the death of the abuser, his father.

Cameron had plenty of time to read all the files his father kept on the other boys so when he was found he identified himself as Neil Lacey, one of the other victims. He chose this identity because the articles mentioned his family owned a sailboat and he liked to sail.

He seemed to be acclimating again to his family except for his perceptive and bitter sister. She and the younger brother had plenty to deal with after his disappearance. And then Pop's cohort, Cougar, was released from prison and is shaking him down with the threat of abducting his brother.

Will his family learn of his true identity? Or will he learn about his own real identity?

Good story. ( )

I practically inhaled this book in ninth grade. I've since read it four times; there aren't a whole lot of books that can claim that. The story is brilliant, the character development is fascinating and the ending is incredible (though predictable to an adult me). ( )

Counterfeit Son, the 2000 Edgar Award Winner, is a dark and disturbing story about a teenage boy, Cameron who was held captive and sexually abused for years by Pop. In addition, Cameron witnessed the abuse and murder of dozens of other young boys and was forced to help dispose of the bodies. While Pop was brutalizing the boys, Cameron would hide in the far corner of the dark basement behind a filing cabinet in an attempt to get as far away from the screams as possible. He would distract himself by reading the newspaper clippings about the missing boys Pop kept in the cabinet. This is how he learns everything about one of the missing boys, Neil Lacey, whom Cameron helped dig a hole for and bury beneath the dirt floor of the basement. When Pop is killed by the police, Cameron is finally able to escape his life of abuse and leave if far behind by assuming the identity of the missing Neil Lacey.

Pretending to be Neil, Cameron "returns" home to the Lacey house after being abducted six years earlier. His family is overjoyed at his return and are patient with the "lapses" in his memory and his episodes of "amnesia" - something they were told to anticipate by the police. Cameron becomes increasingly nervous that his charade will be discovered when he is continually unable to recall certain details and events that are crucial to Neil's identity. He is certain Neil's body will be discovered in the basement and identified during the investigation. Will he be arrested and charged for impersonating Neil Lacey? Will he be charged as an accomplice to the murder of all of those boys? ( )

Wow, this is not for the fainthearted. A gritty, heartwrenching story of a boy (Cameron) who's been abducted, abused and living in terror while watching other boys be killed by his Dad. At the outset , the boy is looking for a home and life for himself, having escaped from the basement. He assumes the identity of one of the murdered boys (Neil) and attempts to convince the family that he is their long lost son. You are grabbed at the first line, and can't put it down. Full of suspense, twists and turns.
Must read for reluctant readers and guys who say they never read.