Shallcross: The Blindspot Cathedral, A Novel

by Charles Porter

In this one-of-a-kind novel, a South Florida man living with hallucinations falls in love and meets danger along the way. A modern-day Odyssey. A modern-day romance. Shades of A Clockwork Orange with a shocking end and a surprising view from inside a man’s split mind, Shallcross tells the story of a middle-aged car dealer who entertains and haunts himself in a heated hatchery of colorful phanera, film, and music, spawned in the auditory and visual hallucinations he’s experienced since childhood. Aubrey Shallcross feels lost after selling his business, but conventional cures do not seem to help. In his retirement without executive routine, he and Triple Suiter, his mind’s other voice, ride the good times and bad, going on long hauls through the sawgrass of his psyche and engaging in a scary retrospect of Catholicism after journeying from religious to secular man. Determined to stay sane and happy on his South Florida farm, he resumes a lifelong passion for training horses, surfing, and music in his oceanfront county, where big cattle ranches stretch inland to Lake Okeechobee. Aubrey falls in love with an unusual woman, and they lead a life of devotion and magic until a rabid stalker, jealous of this love, shoots out the sun.

246 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 3, 2015

About the author

Charles Porter was born in 1944 and grew up in Stuart, Florida, on the St. Lucie River. The family home was the same old wooden house in which his father was born. He went to work in his father's lumber yard following his father's untimely death in 1963. In 1988, he sold the lumber company and pursued his interested in the sport of dressage, an Olympic equestrian discipline. He now devotes much of his time to the schooling, coaching, buying and selling of imported horses. He continues to write poetry and music, but in 2012 turned to prose. Shallcross: The Blindspot Cathedral, won Kirkus Best Book of 2014 award. In 2017 he published Flame Vine: His Voices, to critical acclaim, and in 2020 he published, Shallcross: Animal Slippers and won Best Books of 2020 from Kirkus again. Porter lives in Loxahatchee, Florida and South Dartmouth, Massachusetts. He has one son, Michael, who is a circus performer and lives in Las Vegas.

Reviews

[S. Jeyran Main · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shallcross is an existential thriller fiction and a perfect tale for Halloween and horror fans. The story begins with Aubrey Shallcross and his feelings of the absence of routine since he has sold his business and is retired. Things have lost their purpose, and so he has more time on his hand to find comfort from the fear of anxiety in the familiarity of a Triple Suiter.
Things take a slight turn when we are introduced to this Triple Suiter, and you get to see how influential his mind’s other voice can be. Aubrey attempts to manage and maintain his sanity by keeping himself indulged with his passions, and when he encounters love, the life he leads finds a different meaning.

The literature is dark and twisted. It has the exact kind of mystery and amusement to keep you wanting more. Aubrey’s personality is indeed the catalyst for the premise, and although he has many voices in his head, he seems to still be happy.

This is a fascinating and well-written story. It is apparent how much the author has cared about creating it, and if you are a fan of this genre, you won’t be disappointed.

I recommend this book to those who like to read fiction thrillers.

[GrnEyed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charles Porter’s book, Shallcross: The Blindspot Cathedral was a fascinating book. I also found it to be difficult to both read and follow at times. Perhaps that was necessary in order to understand what it must be like to live with multiple voices in your head. There were times when the character of Aubrey was like anyone else. At other times it was difficult to understand if he was in fact talking to a real person or one of the voices in his head.
I might have to read the book a second time just to catch all of the different messages and nuances that Charles Porter so obviously included in this book. It might help me get a better picture of some of the different personas/voices, such as Triple Suiter. One of the greatest aspects to this book is the fact that despite Aubrey has multiple voices in his head; he can still go through his life being happy and productive. Overall this is just a simply fascinating book and one I imagine most people should read more than once. I know I will be reading it again.

[Alandrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unlike any other book I’ve ever read.