Beneath the Amarillo Plains

by Henry Melton

Jeff Kale thought his home town of Amarillo Texas was as ordinary and unspectacular as the table-top flatness of its terrain, but his life changed forever when his buddy's car was smashed into the overpass-leaving him with permanent brain damage and questions he was unable to express. Who ran them off the road, and why? And how was he going to be able to regain his speech abilities, and reclaim his life? Karen Applegate wasn't his high school girlfriend-she'd made that clear up front, but as an aspiring reporter, she was happy to help him dig for the facts. Soon, that led to parts of Amarillo's past that they'd never imagined and into dark secrets that they'd rather not know. Henry Melton has been writing science fiction adventures that have featured interesting locations in his Small Towns, Big Ideas series, but he had neglected his own home town of Amarillo until he realized that events of his youth and parts of Amarillo's history that seemed ordinary at the time formed the core of an intriging mystery. Come share the secrets that lie just below the surface.

204 pages, Paperback

First published March 19, 2014

About the author

Henry Melton is often on the road with his wife Mary Ann, a nature photographer and frequently captivated by the places he visits. This has inspired his latest series of novels; Small Towns, Big Ideas. Formerly a programmer specializing in database work and web design, he pioneered Internet use for a Fortune 500 company until the tech bubble collapse. In the early days of home computers, he created one of the earliest commercial word processing programs, and built his own computers back when that meant wiring the chips together by hand to his own schematics.
Henry's short fiction has been published in many magazines and anthologies, most frequently in ANALOG. Catacomb, published in DRAGON magazine, is considered a classic, and by the continuing fan mail twenty years later, a formative influence among modern computer gaming programmers. Many of these are available for free on his website.
Other than an occasional short story, most of his time is spent writing science fiction YA novels. Currently being published by Wire Rim Books are the Small Towns, Big Ideas series of books, where high school aged heroes of the here and now are confronted with classic science fiction themes. The first, Emperor Dad, was the winner of the 2008 Darrell Award for Best Novel.
Sharing what he's learned about the art, craft, and business of writing has been an on-going part of his life, from grade school readings to teaching formal classes and veranda coaching for the students of George Benson Christian College in Zambia during his 2007 trip to Africa.

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Reviews

[John Loyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hank has something to show Jeff, they leave the party right now. Before they can get to the destination, a car that has been following them forces them into a crash. Hank is hurt and Jeff has brain damage that affects his language center. His rehab includes a brain chair, that allows him to use biofeedback to control his senses. Not a super power, just an aid his comprehension and/or speed his recovery. Hank has been avoiding him and he also wonders what happened to Hank's girlfriend. No one has seen Cat for months. He takes it upon himself to look into what happened to Cat, he gets help from Karen, but Hank is afraid whoever has her will hurt her if he presses. So Jeff tries to be as circumspect as he can while investigating. Oh, plus he's trying to get on with his life. Besides the recovery he needs to make up that last bit of school so he can graduate and maybe reevaluate what he wants to do as a career.

Quick fun read. Mystery. A slow start while Jeff was having trouble communicating after the crash. It picked up, the characters were great and the resolution was clever. 4.5 stars.

[Charlayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beneath the Amarillo Plains (Jeff Kale, Brain Damaged Detective) by Henry Melton.

Jeff is riding in a car driven by his life-long buddy Hank as they leave a graduation party in Lake Tanglewood just outside of their hometown of Amarillo, Texas. But someone’s following them and that someone bumps their car, which goes off the road and crashes. Both boys end up at the hospital.

Jeff has a brain injury and is having to learn to talk and read again but he does remember the crash. Who was in that other vehicle? And why were they chasing them? Hank doesn’t remember anything, and doesn’t want to talk about it, his parents are also worried Jeff’s family will sue.
In the course of trying to figure out the mystery of the crash, he enlists a school friend, Karen, who makes it clear that she’s wanting to help him and that she’s not his girlfriend. She’s planning to head off to college to be a journalist and this investigation is good practice for later.

Then they find out that Hank’s girlfriend is missing, no police report has been filed, and everyone around the weird case refuse to talk about any of it. The mystery deepens and leads them into things they never thought they would be doing. Can they unravel the mystery?

I picked up Beneath the Amarillo Plains at a convention in Dallas. I was an author guest and I always go talk to the other authors in the dealer’s room about their work. Henry has a lot of books out, many children’s books and science fiction. The yellow of the Amarillo book, along with the title caught my eye and I picked I up. When I asked if it was called “Amarillo,” was he talking about the color or the place, he said it was the place. I was born and raised in Amarillo and I have a lot of fond memories of “back home.” We talked about high school. He attended the old Amarillo High before the 1970 fire at the original site on Polk street while I went to Palo Duro a few year later. We knew a lot of the same places and it was fun to talk to him. He let me know that the story is tied to Tascosa high school since the “new” Amarillo High isn’t his AHS, which was totally understandable.

I started the book about a week after the convention and I read it in two sessions. It is very interesting and the twist (which I will not spoil for you) was something I didn’t expect. It’s well written and his treatment of Jeff and the head injury was very well done and I felt for him. The mystery kept me guessing right up to the end. And the fact that I was able to not only follow the story but recognize places, and look them up on Google Maps, was completely wonderful.

I’ve already promised to let my daughter-in-law read this one, I very seldom let my autographed copies of books out of the house but she and my son were both born in Amarillo and they graduated from Tascosa. She’s looking forward t reading the book too.

I think this book would be suitable for well-read junior high students through adult. I can recommend it for school and city libraries as well.

[Lela Markham · Rating 3 out of 5]

I discovered Beneath the Amarillo Plains while researching aphasia for a novel project of my own, but I was so engaged by Henry Melton's writing that I ordered the book. This YA mystery is extremely well-written, allowing real danger to carry the excitement and does not rely on gimmicks. Melton does an excellent job of portraying the struggles of a young man who suffers a head injury that robs him of his ability to process language. I would recommend it highly for 7-10th grade readers and suggest they also check out other titles by this author.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

OK, well while I still think that being brain damaged would be terrible, I am quite amazed at how this young man could channel or shut down some parts of his brain to help the damaged section. He was getting much of his language facility back, though listening and responding took effort and time and caused excruciating headaches. But he and a friend were able endure the danger to solve the mystery... I continue to love this author.