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Mourning Ride
5.0 out of 5 stars
FINE MOTORCYCLING
Harrison Thomas loses his wife to a tragic accident. He finds himself on a motorcycle ride to places, people, and problems he could not have imagined. A novel of action, mystery, and romance. Circa 176 pages
FINE MOTORCYCLING
Harrison Thomas loses his wife to a tragic accident. He finds himself on a motorcycle ride to places, people, and problems he could not have imagined. A novel of action, mystery, and romance. Circa 176 pages
176 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2011
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 14, 2012
5.0 out of 5 stars FINE MOTORCYCLING YARN:
Harrison Thomas loses his wife to a tragic accident. He finds himself on a motorcycle ride to places, people, and problems he could not have imagined. A novel of action, mystery, and romance. Circa 176 pages
MOURNING RIDE by DAVE PRESTON
Reviewed by Brucus Scriptus
Published on Amazon.com
LAST WEEK I was travelling with three books. One was Paul Hendrickson's 2012 biography of Papa, Hemingway's Boat. Another was James Lee Burke's 2009 Rain Gods, a tale of human trafficking and dignity on the Texas border. But the story that kept pulling me back was Dave Preston's 2011 novel Mourning Ride.
First there was the Wild One. Then Came Bronson. Eventally there was Reno Raines with show-saving sidekick Bobby Sixkiller. Harrison Thomas is less brutal than Lee Child's Jack Reacher - and packs softer laughs than Janet Evanovich's car crazy Stephanie Plum. It's a murdersickle story with a difference: it has a ghost. Not a nasty ghost, a sweet one, the sort that beguiled TV's Cosmo Topper. The phantom is Harrison's late wife Catherine, recently killed in a street accident. The insurance settlement left Harrison rich but inert:
`Once in awhile Catherine would visit me... quiet visits late at night. I'd wake up in the lonely bed and find her sitting at the end, dressed casually, smiling at me with kindness. We'd talk for awhile. She always knew what was on my mind, and she'd chide me gently to get going again.'
Harrison Thomas' situation is akin to the traveller in the 1974 bestseller Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,wrestling with the Greek concept of 'arete.' But if Harrison's bent is not so formally philosophical it does ask, how then shall we live?
As a native Puget Sounder, the author won my respect by the observation that Seattleites are uptight about more stuff than coffee. Harrison, retired from the recession-hit motorcycle industry, and before that, a career as an English teacher, loves Seattle and loves his cat. But after spreading his beloved's ashes in Hawaii, a mainland road trip is necessary.
Back on continental USA, Harrison leaves Seattle on his lusty Kawasaki Concours 1400cc sport touring bike. His wants are few: a spate of travel before breakfast, a few hundred miles of 'B' roads after that, cruising at 80mph and occasionally cracking the ton. At nightfall, he selects a cheap motel, belying the lump in his bank account. Dinner in a small town diner, or from KFC, couldn't be finer with a couple beers, a motorcycle magazine and dessert of a Snickers: `Simple food, simple pleasure. As Pepys said - "and so to bed."'
Quietly erudite Harrison shows competence, braving a storm from Provo, Utah into Colorado. Take it from a Washington State motorcyclist: Dave Preston writes good storm.
Unpredictable characters populate the narrative. One such keeper is Bartholemew Chance III, a Vietnam veteran engineer trained in special ops, who left the service with a detachable leg, nowadays strapped to his Harley Davidson. As an ad hoc team, Harrison, a self-confessed spoiled white guy from the suburbs, and Chance, forged in routine 1960s racism, are a salt and pepper duo facing danger around an outback Kansas Harley shop. They're not in Washington anymore. But the adventures have just begun.
Mourning Ride's appeal is not limited to bikers. The author knows less is more. Dialogue is spare, but fraught with subtle chuckles. There are oedipal villains, and even r-o-m-a-n-c-e. Try explaining that to your favorite ghost.
This magical realism should turn into a movie, though whether the plot involves plutonium is arguable. What's certain is the author must write an encore. Bring on the motorcycle yarns!
Brucus Scriptus
Durham, UK, April 5, 2012
**
- Follow David Preston on Twitter @davidpreston47
- Http://www.davidpreston.biz
Harrison Thomas loses his wife to a tragic accident. He finds himself on a motorcycle ride to places, people, and problems he could not have imagined. A novel of action, mystery, and romance. Circa 176 pages
MOURNING RIDE by DAVE PRESTON
Reviewed by Brucus Scriptus
Published on Amazon.com
LAST WEEK I was travelling with three books. One was Paul Hendrickson's 2012 biography of Papa, Hemingway's Boat. Another was James Lee Burke's 2009 Rain Gods, a tale of human trafficking and dignity on the Texas border. But the story that kept pulling me back was Dave Preston's 2011 novel Mourning Ride.
First there was the Wild One. Then Came Bronson. Eventally there was Reno Raines with show-saving sidekick Bobby Sixkiller. Harrison Thomas is less brutal than Lee Child's Jack Reacher - and packs softer laughs than Janet Evanovich's car crazy Stephanie Plum. It's a murdersickle story with a difference: it has a ghost. Not a nasty ghost, a sweet one, the sort that beguiled TV's Cosmo Topper. The phantom is Harrison's late wife Catherine, recently killed in a street accident. The insurance settlement left Harrison rich but inert:
`Once in awhile Catherine would visit me... quiet visits late at night. I'd wake up in the lonely bed and find her sitting at the end, dressed casually, smiling at me with kindness. We'd talk for awhile. She always knew what was on my mind, and she'd chide me gently to get going again.'
Harrison Thomas' situation is akin to the traveller in the 1974 bestseller Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,wrestling with the Greek concept of 'arete.' But if Harrison's bent is not so formally philosophical it does ask, how then shall we live?
As a native Puget Sounder, the author won my respect by the observation that Seattleites are uptight about more stuff than coffee. Harrison, retired from the recession-hit motorcycle industry, and before that, a career as an English teacher, loves Seattle and loves his cat. But after spreading his beloved's ashes in Hawaii, a mainland road trip is necessary.
Back on continental USA, Harrison leaves Seattle on his lusty Kawasaki Concours 1400cc sport touring bike. His wants are few: a spate of travel before breakfast, a few hundred miles of 'B' roads after that, cruising at 80mph and occasionally cracking the ton. At nightfall, he selects a cheap motel, belying the lump in his bank account. Dinner in a small town diner, or from KFC, couldn't be finer with a couple beers, a motorcycle magazine and dessert of a Snickers: `Simple food, simple pleasure. As Pepys said - "and so to bed."'
Quietly erudite Harrison shows competence, braving a storm from Provo, Utah into Colorado. Take it from a Washington State motorcyclist: Dave Preston writes good storm.
Unpredictable characters populate the narrative. One such keeper is Bartholemew Chance III, a Vietnam veteran engineer trained in special ops, who left the service with a detachable leg, nowadays strapped to his Harley Davidson. As an ad hoc team, Harrison, a self-confessed spoiled white guy from the suburbs, and Chance, forged in routine 1960s racism, are a salt and pepper duo facing danger around an outback Kansas Harley shop. They're not in Washington anymore. But the adventures have just begun.
Mourning Ride's appeal is not limited to bikers. The author knows less is more. Dialogue is spare, but fraught with subtle chuckles. There are oedipal villains, and even r-o-m-a-n-c-e. Try explaining that to your favorite ghost.
This magical realism should turn into a movie, though whether the plot involves plutonium is arguable. What's certain is the author must write an encore. Bring on the motorcycle yarns!
Brucus Scriptus
Durham, UK, April 5, 2012
**
- Follow David Preston on Twitter @davidpreston47
- Http://www.davidpreston.biz
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