REUNION OF THE GOOD WEATHER SUICIDE CULT

The sole survivor of a cult’s mass suicide struggles to piece his shattered life back together in McCord’s novel.

For decades, Tom Duncan belonged to the Good Weather Community, a strange apocalyptic religious group devoted to the rambling teachings of Leonard Fairbanks, known to his disciples as Rain. Tom, also known as Ohio, came to believe that the world was coming to a cataclysmic end and that in preparation to make the transition to Shamayim—basically heaven—the group had to kill themselves, which they did on one fateful day in the summer of 2019. Tom survived, despite getting his throat cut, and he was the only one left of 137 members of the cult, including his wife, Lisa. Prosecutors believe he masterminded the suicide plot—or maybe it was a mass-murder plot—and although they fail to convict him in a court of law, a Netflix documentary in 2020 succeeds at doing so in the court of public opinion. McCord thrillingly chronicles the aftermath of Tom’s tragedy as he’s hounded by paparazzi, estranged from his daughter and granddaughter, and devastated that he was deceived by Rain, a self-styled prophet whom Tom now characterizes as a “deranged lunatic.” Tom attends a reunion of Good Weather members who’d left the cult, which provides an opportunity for old animosities to reemerge, and he’s confronted about the true nature of his traumatic experience. The author masterfully dispenses information with restraint; slowly, tantalizingly, the reader learns about Tom’s involvement in the community, his relationship with his spouse and child, and his participation in a mass death. McCord’s prose is generally straightforward but powerful and precise, and it avoids the trap of excessive sentimentality. However, although the core of the story is a timeless mystery—how do otherwise reasonably intelligent people come to believe a narcissist’s nonsense?—the answer it provides is disappointingly ordinary. As Tom observes: “Rain was a master manipulator. He could make you feel loved and valued with just a word or leave you in a broken waste with the same.”

An often compelling work despite a dissatisfying reveal.