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It’s fall 1976 and Ted Cassidy takes his art & craft fair on the road again, unmindful of his partner Mike McCool’s design to steal the show for himself at any cost . . . including murder.
Through four weekends Autumnfest plays halls in San Diego, Sacramento, Seattle and San Francisco. Over the tour, Ted and the fair suffer a series of misfortunes—his office manager goes into a coma from a drug overdose, the box-office is robbed of a weekend's receipts, loads of artists’ works are stolen overnight, a bomb threat empties the hall, a fire is started and the smoke clears the hall once again. All this, while Ted and Hope Wolcott—a potter at the fair—develop an increasingly amorous relationship.
The fair hobbles along—mostly through Ted's resolve and resourcefulness—until the last day of the tour when even he cannot save it from collapsing.
Through four weekends Autumnfest plays halls in San Diego, Sacramento, Seattle and San Francisco. Over the tour, Ted and the fair suffer a series of misfortunes—his office manager goes into a coma from a drug overdose, the box-office is robbed of a weekend's receipts, loads of artists’ works are stolen overnight, a bomb threat empties the hall, a fire is started and the smoke clears the hall once again. All this, while Ted and Hope Wolcott—a potter at the fair—develop an increasingly amorous relationship.
The fair hobbles along—mostly through Ted's resolve and resourcefulness—until the last day of the tour when even he cannot save it from collapsing.
279 pages, Paperback
Published June 4, 2022
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 4, 2022
Professional show producer Ted Cassidy is frantically trying to finish readying his Autumnfest artisan craft show for the first stop, San Diego. With his smooth-operating team, the four shows of Autumnfest are due to be an enormous success. With his trusty dad-joke-telling MC, Paul DiMartini, assorted popular entertainers including acrobats, clog dancers, a blue-grass band and of course the two couples who cater the events every year to the delight of shoppers. The shows, which are in major cities San Diego, Sacramento, Seattle, and San Francisco, should draw a huge crowd. He receives word from his new hire Rachel that Linda Blick, his trusted assistant, has neither reported to work nor is she answering her phone. Her distraught parent drive down to her home, using their spare key, to find Linda unresponsive and barely breathing. She is rushed to the hospital in a coma from a suspected overdose. That is the first in a series of unfortunate and disturbing mishaps to occur around his four scheduled shows. Unbeknownst to Ted, his partner and former brother-in-law Mike McCool is working behind the scenes to destroy the shows in order to take the business and production management for himself. Fueled by rage, alcohol, and cocaine, Mike will stop at nothing to get what he wants, including murder. Ted’s ability to pivot and cleverly figure out ways to turn things around allow the shows to wobble along instead of resulting in complete wash-outs. Meanwhile, while rushing to put out fires to save the shows, Ted and a professional potter who sells her merchandise at Autumnfest, Hope Wolcott, begin a budding romance.
I’m not sure where to begin. I think the first things that struck me were the overly-described physical traits of the characters, including head-to-toe details and specifics of each of the outfits they wore to every event. Now, I am never a critic of a well-described scene or character, in fact, quite the opposite when it adds structure and backdrop to a scene; but unfortunately the novel became tangled up in too many details there. There are much more concise approaches to still offer the same effective word pictures. There were no surprises either, which disappointed me. Mike was evil through and through, especially with his addictions to alcohol, cocaine, and sleeping with every woman he met right under the nose of his wife, Nellie, who ran the cash office and financials for every event. Also, it was abundantly clear throughout the novel, that Mike was the “bad guy” character and who his accomplices were. Ted is the “too nice” guy, believing only in inherent goodness and generally being very gullible, especially while cleaning up everyone else’s mess. Fortunately, his dear friend Paul was astute in observation, trying to point out that to which Ted was blind; Hope was adept at discerning both goodness and manipulation as well. I was a bit disappointed in the ending, which seemed rushed at the end after a devastating blow right before the finale. The book was okay overall, but tautening the writing and the addition of a couple of added twists would greatly improve the plot overall.
I’d like to thank Reedsy Discovery and Warren Cook for the ability to read and review this ARC.
I’m not sure where to begin. I think the first things that struck me were the overly-described physical traits of the characters, including head-to-toe details and specifics of each of the outfits they wore to every event. Now, I am never a critic of a well-described scene or character, in fact, quite the opposite when it adds structure and backdrop to a scene; but unfortunately the novel became tangled up in too many details there. There are much more concise approaches to still offer the same effective word pictures. There were no surprises either, which disappointed me. Mike was evil through and through, especially with his addictions to alcohol, cocaine, and sleeping with every woman he met right under the nose of his wife, Nellie, who ran the cash office and financials for every event. Also, it was abundantly clear throughout the novel, that Mike was the “bad guy” character and who his accomplices were. Ted is the “too nice” guy, believing only in inherent goodness and generally being very gullible, especially while cleaning up everyone else’s mess. Fortunately, his dear friend Paul was astute in observation, trying to point out that to which Ted was blind; Hope was adept at discerning both goodness and manipulation as well. I was a bit disappointed in the ending, which seemed rushed at the end after a devastating blow right before the finale. The book was okay overall, but tautening the writing and the addition of a couple of added twists would greatly improve the plot overall.
I’d like to thank Reedsy Discovery and Warren Cook for the ability to read and review this ARC.
Displaying 1 of 1 review