Surviving The Fall

by William R. Potter

James Goodal has spent his entire life avoiding uncomfortable situations. This safe and easy existence has left James lonely and facing divorce. Everything changes when he takes in a young street girl named Ashley. The pair finds comfort in their unorthodox friendship until her violent world returns forcing James to fight for Ashley and for his very survival.

Genres: Thriller

178 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 11, 2011

About the author

William R. Potter’s first book was the award-winning short story collection, Lighting The Dark Side. He began Dead of Knight in the summer of 2002. The birth of his first child put the book on hold, an early version was completed by Christmas 2004. After publishing his debut book and finishing another novel manuscript in 2006, Potter finally returned to the world of Detective Jack Staal. William lives with his wife, two children, and a pair of spoiled cats in Vancouver, Canada.

Reviews

[Thomas Drinkard · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Surviving the Fall" is one of those rare books that makes the reader slow down toward the end because he/she doesn’t want to leave the people the author has introduced. Yes, the book is a thriller, complete with truly nasty bad guys and women. But it is ultimately the story of two people who need one another and, like many, have difficulty in truly connecting.

The protagonist, James Goodal, is a thirty-something man confronting the reality that his wife, his childhood sweetheart, has left him. He is a man working in a good, but unexciting job, a man who as his soon-to-be ex-wife taunted him, “…needs to be needed.”

Excitement arrives when a woman-child of fifteen comes flying from a speeding car into the street in front of him. Ashley Metcalf, fifteen going on forty, has been a street girl for years, a profession her mother forced on her. She needs help, she needs a friend and Goodal sees in her a cure for his loneliness.

Ashley gradually begins to accept Goodal’s hospitality and kindness. She begins to flourish and believe in herself as well as her benefactor.

Her casual sexuality, and her age, present conflicts in Goodal that lash him like whips of desire and self-denial. The two, despite their age differences, are enmeshed in a love that they must deny.

She has, lurking in her background, predators who will kill without compunction. Goodal is unaware of the danger her presence represents until it becomes a threat to both their lives.

Complicating their lives together, the State—with the best of intentions—will not accept Goodal and Ashley as they live together. Goodal’s self-righteous sister agrees.

Potter has given readers two unique and sympathetic characters that we come to know well. He has masterfully crafted their personalities and shows us their weaknesses and strengths by molding them through the situations they confront.

Readers will be satisfied, but will want more. Highly recommended.

[Nancy Silk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read many of this author's books. He is a very thought provoking author, with clear pictures of his characters, but he never seems to continue his stories to the cinderella ending. He ends his stories making you wonder what happens next? In this story, one that I did not feel comfortable with, a teenaged girl is striped of innocence and pushed into the street world of prostition. Ashley jumps from a moving car onto the street, with no apparent injuries and is swept up by James, who has been abandoned by his wife and is bored with his mundane job. As a child, he loved helping animals by bringing them home to be nurtured. He does the same with Ashley. The story moves on to where both their lives are at stake from mafia-type scum who seek a treasure that is in the possession of Ashley. I won't ruin the story for you, but if you are hesitant to read this, don't be. Read to the end .... well, the story can continue on, but you'll have to build the cinderella ending on your own. Just know, that Ashley and James appear to be back on the straight course, but... you'll have to form your own conclusion.

[Jemima Pett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've had this one on my kindle for a long time, and got it because Mr Potter was one of the first people I 'met' when I started blogging and writing. It's the story of a man who can't help taking in strays, and this time he picks up more than he can handle when it's a stray girl, bundled out of a car on an icy street in Vancouver, just before Christmas.

It's an engaging, or compelling tale, even if I didn't like where it was leading at times. I felt that the man kept getting too close to doing what he shouldn't, but then, that really was the whole point; he's no angel, after all. The complications he gets himself into are no worse than they could be, and the twist is in how it finally resolves.

I suspect this is one of the authors earliest works, and his style has developed. It came across somewhat stilted, due mainly to the descriptions of the man's feelings. Plenty of tell rather than showing. But somehow that got overlaid by the sense of being an observer of the whole horrid mess, and in the end I found it engaging rather than irritating.

It's a good read, and I'll probably read some more of Mr Potter's work. That must be a good thing!

[Donya Soltis · Rating 3 out of 5]

All in all, I enjoyed reading Surviving The Fall. I was taken with the innocence of Ashley, the main character, and respected the amount of restraint that James exhibited when dealing with her sexual advances. I felt bad about how it ended up. I don't want to put any spoilers in here, but I would've preferred a different ending. I could imagine this as a far longer novel, delving into more of Ashley's life before James and more about the outcome for her mother's life and advancing several years to see what happened with James and Ashley in the future. I think I would enjoy learning more about how it turned out.



Donya Petrock
Six Ways From Sunday