The hooded man door Jay Bennett

Title: The hooded man
Author: Jay Bennett

The author is an American writer of fiction for teenagers.
His books are not about ordinary life but deal with mystery and suspense.
The stories he writes are too absurd to be true but very fast and exciting.
He has won several prizes.

The title refers to a Persian legend about a figure (a ghost?) who represents justice and who is usually followed by death (to execute the justice). That figure is a person wearing a black cape with a black hood. (I imagine like the Klu Klux Clan have in white.)

The part of the book I liked best was the end because in the end there is a climax in which the hooded man who has killed already two boys tries to kill the third boy who is the main character. The boy is saved and the hooded man is unmasked. Of course it is a big surprise who the hooded man turns out to be.

The worst part of the book, if any, was the conversation between Cory (the main character) and his father. This was a relatively slow part of the book and was not nice to read because the father and the son did not understand each other.

The story takes place in the present time. Young students driving a car, sports being very important in college and the football coach being fired because of a lack of success. It could also have been positioned in another time. However because it is in modern time the events with the hooded figure may even seem more absurd. It seems to be logical that nobody believes Cory’s story about the hooded man but they all believe Cory has gone nuts.

The story takes place in a quiet American town with a local college. It could well have been situated elsewhere because the story does not rely on being realistic.

The time elapsed between the beginning and the end of the story is a couple of weeks or maybe two months or so.

There is no message in the book. The author is only interested to make an exciting story that is good fun to read.

It is the author who tells the story but a lot of dialogue is being quoted.

Summary

The story begins with a strange introduction. It is a very threatening message that says that three boys are going to be killed because they killed a fourth. Then we see a boy, the main character Cory, who is about to break down for fear and guilt. He talks to his father and asks to go away for a while.

After this introduction we begin to understand what happened as the story goes back to the beginning. Four friends are thinking of pulling a stunt for the occasion of them being accepted in the most popular fraternity in the college. Cory comes up with the idea to remove a bell from an old abandoned meeting hall. One of the friends, Fred Harris, does not like the idea but Cory insists and the boys decide to go ahead. Fred gives in. When they are up in the tower of the meeting hall Fred and Cory are trying to carry the bell towards an edge to throw it down. However the bell is heavier than they expected, Cory trips over a nail in the wooden floor, loses his balance and Fred can no longer hold the bell and he falls down. He is dead.

Cory feels very guilty about this accident. It was his idea, Fred did not want to do it and it was again Cory that caused Fred to fall down. Fred’s mother is desperate. Fred was all she had.

Cory’s guilt gets bigger and is mixed with fear when two people come to him to blame him for the death of Fred. Fred was the most popular pupil for two teachers who see their future collapse. The sports coach Ed Cobb had his hopes at Fred to bring success to the school football team and secure a new contract for him. Another teacher Dr. Khan was hoping to have in Fred a successor for his department.

Both actually are so angry that they more or less threaten to kill the three remaining friends because they killed Fred. Ed Cobb does so in a very blunt way but Dr. Khan refers to the Persian legend of the hooded man that brings justice. The hooded man always brings along death.

The thoughts of the hooded man are every now and then revealed in a separate chapter, written in italics. In the first chapter the hooded man wants to kill Cory first. Later on he decides to kill the others first in order to torture Cory longer because Cory is the main killer of Fred.

Cory starts seeing the hooded man every now and then. He becomes more and more scared. Then the hooded man presents himself also to Frank and Cory together. Now Frank believes it. Frank does a lot of thinking, he calls Cory to come over because he has an idea of who the hooded man could be. He noticed something about the shoes…. When Cory arrives at Franks place Frank is floating in the swimming pool. Killed.

Cory feels totally alone again. Then Miles, the fourth friend, calls. He wants to talk to Cory because he wants to believe him and talk about it. They should meet right away. When Cory comes to the meeting place, at the old meeting hall (!!), Miles is lying there, dead, fallen down from where the bell hangs.

Then Cory tells the police about the hooded man and the threats by Ed Cobb and Dr. Khan, even though he still does not think they will believe him. Dr. Khan calls Cory to discuss. He is furious that Cory told that story to the police which made him suspect. On his way out from Dr. Khan, Cory is afraid that Dr. Khan is the killer, he meets Fred’s mother. Fred’s mother has problems with her car. Cory offers to help. Cory brings her home in his car. She asks him in. She wants him to go to Fred’s room…. Cory starts to feel uncomfortable. About the shoes? They were woman’s shoes! Fred’s mother was the hooded man. She also heard the legend. She is about to shoot Cory when the police rushes in. They came from Dr. Kahn. Ed Cobb had good alibis. Dr. Kahn saw Cory leave with Mrs. Harris. So Dr. Khan in fact saved Cory’s life.

Assignments

11. The actual events of the story are in fact the summary of the whole book since the entire book mainly consists of a series of events.

09. The last chapter in this kind of story usually has one simple goal: to answer the question “who did it”. Also in this book that is the case.

08. Settings of the story. See page one.

12. The order of importance of the following elements is:
1. Plot
2. Character
3. Theme
The author is, as explained above only interested in writing a story that is exiting to read. It is the plot that counts. In order to make it a thriller it is necessary to explain some characters, in particular to understand who may have been the murderer. This is however secondary to the plot.
Finally the theme is not really relevant. Any theme, if any, can serve to build a thriller on.