Turn Signal

by Howard Owen

In Speakeasy, Virginia, everyone knows Kenny Stone. He'd had his ups and downs, Some still remembered the fatal act of teen-age carelessness, the unfulfilled athletic promise, how he gave up on college and his first wife spectacularly gave up on him. But by age 46, he'd straightened himself out, had a new family and a job that kept up with a slightly uncomfortable mortgage. Kenny might have coasted through the rest of his life, content with his hard-won comfort, if that damned old man--was he his muse or his worst enemy?--hadn't appeared out of the twilight alongside Interstate 64. The moment Kenny pulled his 18-wheeler off the highway to pick up the scraggly hitchhiker, everything started to change. By the time the old man had dissolved back into the fog, he had taken Kenny Stone's peace of mind with him, for he had reminded Kenny that he had once dreamed of being a writer. Worse, he placed upon him the curse of Never Too Late. Now, two years later, Kenny's world is fraying around the edges. His mortgage payments are behind and he seems to be falling behind elsewhere as well, neglecting both his children and his lovely and long-suffering second wife who believes in for better or worse but silently wonders how much worse? But Kenny Stone isn't worried. The old man left him something--the first few pages of a novel. Now, Kenny has completed it and, with the help of an old classmate, feels sure he will fulfill his destiny; a small-town Everyman getting a second chance at a dream. But before his quest is realized, he will discover the cost his dream carries, for the must take account of all that is dear to him and decide if he is willing to pay that price. Kenny and those aroundhim--and one editor in particular--will come to understand that Kenny Stone would kill to be a writer.

224 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2004

About the author

Howard Owen was born March 1, 1949, in Fayetteville, N.C. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1971, journalism) and has a master's degree from Virginia Commonwealth University (1981, English).
He and his wife since 1973, Karen Van Neste Owen (the former publisher of Van Neste Books), live in Richmond, Va. He was a newspaper reporter and editor for 44 years.
Owen won The Dashiell Hammett Prize for crime literature in the United States and Canada for Oregon Hill, his 10th novel.
His first novel, "Littlejohn," was written in 1989, when he was 40. It was bought by The Permanent Press and published in 1992. Random House bought it from The Permanent Press and reissued it as a Villard hardcover in 1993 and a Vintage Contemporary paperback in 1994. It was nominated for the Abbey Award (American Booksellers) and Discovery (Barnes & Noble) award for best new fiction. It has sold, in all, more than 50,000 copies. It has been printed in Japanese, French and Korean; it has been a Doubleday Book Club selection; audio and large-print editions have been issued, and movie option rights have been sold.
His second novel, "Fat Lightning," came out as a Permanent Press book in 1994. It was bought by HarperCollins and was reissued as a Harper Perennial paperback in 1996. It received a starred review from Publishers' Weekly.
His third novel, "Answers to Lucky," was published by HarperCollins as a hardcover in 1996 and as a paperback in 1997. It received favorable reviews in The New York Times, Southern Living, GW, Publishers' Weekly, the Atlanta Constitution, the Baltimore Sun, the Memphis Commercial Appeal and numerous other publications. It was included in "The Best Novels of the Nineties: A Reader’s Guide."
His fourth novel, "The Measured Man," was published in hardcover by HarperCollins in 1997. It was praised in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Publishers' Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, the Raleigh News & Observer, the Orlando Sentinel, the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel and many other publications. It was one of the LA Times Book Reviews’ "Recommended Titles" for 1997. It was included in "The Best Novels of the Nineties: A Reader’s Guide."
Owen's fifth novel, "Harry and Ruth," was published by The Permanent Press in September of 2000 to critical acclaim from Kirkus, Publisher's Weekly and various weekly publications.
His sixth novel, "The Rail," was published in April of 2002. It is about (among other things) baseball and the parable of the talents. Owen won the 2002 Theresa Pollack Award for Words.
His seventh novel, "Turn Signal," was about a man whose muse drives him either to madness or to the best move he's ever made in his life. It came out in 2004 and was a Booksense selection for July of 2004.
His eighth novel, "Rock of Ages," is something of a sequel to his first novel, "Littlejohn." Georgia McCain returns to her hometown years after her father’s death to sell the family farm and finds herself immersed in baby-boomer guilt and a murder mystery. It was a Booksense pick for July of 2006.

His ninth novel, "The Reckoning," about ghosts of the ’60s, came out in late 2010 and received very positive reviews from, among others, Publishers Weekly and the New York Journal of Books.
His short story, "The Thirteenth Floor," part of "Richmond Noir," came out in early 2010.
The protagonist of “The Thirteenth Floor,” Willie Black, also is at the center of Owen’s 10th novel, “Oregon Hill,” which came in July of 2012 to very positive reviews in The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus and elsewhere. It's also an audio book.

Willie starred in future Owen novels: The Philadelphia Quarry (2013), Parker Field (2014), The Bottom (2015), Grace (2016) and The Devil's Triangle (2017). His 16th novel, Annie's Bones, comes out in April of 2018.

Reviews

[Cindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm sorry, I just did not like this book. I never did understand what the old man meant in this book. The main character was very lackluster and the whole kidnapping his friend them turning into buddies and him getting a book deal out of it... Really?

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm sure that the author had fun writing this dark satire particularly when he was skewering the publishing industry as a central part of his plot. The book is more than that, though, and the cast of dysfunctional characters attempting to navigate midlife crisis rings true as people who never quite escaped the pitfalls of small town adolescence. The ending was over the top, but, so what, overall it was an original and entertaining read, 4+ for me.