rhetorical excursions

There is clear evidence of hard work, endless researching and quite a bit of maturity to be found in Jonathan Maas' latest book, Dion: A Tale of the Highway . The story opens in the barest, most confusing fashion possible, for both reader and character. Dion awakes on the side of a road, completely naked and unsure of who his is and where he’s at and most importantly, how he got there. A strange dream still lingers on his memory. Besides him there is a car and in the car, a note: “ Drive this vehicle. Drive along this road, in the direction that the vehicle is pointed now. Drive until this road ends, and then drive some more” That’s not creepy, right? I thought initially, okay, this is going to be a travelogue about Dion, and along the way he’ll meet some people and do some things and they all learn something about themselves and the world around them. Maybe a subtle and modern tip of the hat to Kerouac . I couldn’t have been more wrong. This story is so packed fu...

This story deals with the chances of time travel through dreams. What would you change, what would you leave the same, what would you do to better your life and those around you? Brock Matthews has a chance to do all of this, however he doesn’t quite know how or what to change each time he goes back. This story wrestles quite a bit with mortality, religion and family. Brock and his brother Ron are the owners of a very successful Coffee business. Although the dollars are raking in the millions, their relationship is fraying to the point of inaudible mumblings a handful of times a week as they awkwardly pass each other in the halls on their way to the respective office to shut out the world and focus on making more millions. This has always been their relationship. Ron is younger than Brock but somehow he always manages to be better at everything they do. Brock’s marriage is also falling apart as he focuses more and more of his time on his business instead of his family. His wife ...

The first thing I noticed about this novel right from the start was that although it says, "A Sherlock Holmes Mystery" it didn't immediately feel that way. The novel's characters shared a lot of similarities and even posted at the famous 221B Baker Street address, but their attitudes, mannerisms and even dialogue was somewhat skewed. Not to discredit the author, the story in of itself was actually quite captivating and entertaining to boot. A mystery shrouding an Earl, art dealers murdering civilians and a very seductive damsel in distress. Action flooded nearly every page in this story and the climate in the scenes help mask the shady-dealings happening on every page. Snowy nights muffling suspicious footfalls, shadows cast when no one is near, the cold ripping at the clothing of the characters as they battle to survive. I will give the author, Bonnie MacBird much praise in her set up for this story which is revealed to the reader in the first few lines of this...