TAKING on WATER

The author sent me an autographed copy of his novel to review:

What started out to be a somewhat typical hackneyed small town drug mystery turned out to be a wild and crazy ride in last 100 pages. The author, David Rawding, skillfully guided the reader into a typical scenario of a minor town (in this case, Newborough, New Hampshire) with a drug problem...then lowered the boom big time. About halfway through the novel, you will discover that the author has a little bit of George R.R. Martin in him (in what way?)...meet David Rawding, a newbie in the literary world. Could the novel had a better first half? Of course, but this is his maiden novel. The prose was okay, but I thought that it could have been more descriptive. But I did like his usage of italic type whenever a character was thinking something to him/herself, such as, “...but a dead man lay at her feet, his eyes still open. I’m good. She said the words over and over in her head.” So let me tell you briefly about the story.

There are four main characters (the ideal amount) consisting of James Morrow, a social worker, and the love of his life, his wife Maya, a police detective. The other two are Tucker Flynn, a down on his luck lobsterman and his wife Melanie, a housewife. The novel starts off with James getting the impression that Tucker’s son Kevin was abused by his dad; Tucker getting a hard time on the water with rotund lobsterman Tom Braxton and his cronies, and Maya getting into a shoot-out on a drug bust and kills a gang member. None of the assumed heroin was found on the site. Now that sounds like a lot happening, but it took quite a few chapters to develop. I just gave you the abridged version. After James goes lobstering with Tucker, he finds that his allegations of child abuse are wrong. The Tuckers and the Flynns become friends. Later James comes upon a jumper (Carl Mending) on the bridge over the Skog River. James tries to talk Carl down, but he jumps. Maya and the police arrive too late.

Meanwhile, James goes to the Monroe Recreational Center and finds a overdosed boy in a bathroom stall. The police show up, but once again, it’s too late...the boy dies. Maya takes it upon herself to find out how and who is supplying the town with heroin. In the meantime, psychiatrist Carol Wayneright gives a talk to the Critical Incident Stress Debriefing meeting to talk about the bridge suicide and the death of the overdosed boy. After the meeting, James makes an appointment with Carol to talk about his mental health since his father (now deceased) use to beat him and his mother. Does he now have violent tendencies? Is Maya on dangerous ground investigating the town’s problems on her own? Why did Carl jump off the bridge? After a nor’easter hits the town hard, 850 of Tucker’s 900 lobster traps are destroyed...and he also loses his second job as a security guard. Now what can he do for moolah since he is broke and way behind his mortgage?

I know that you are saying, “Why did you say the first half of the novel was hackneyed (lacking significance) when so much happened? It’s because the first half pales in comparison to the second half of the novel. And guess what? I’m not going to say a word about the second half. I will tell you only that it is full of surprises and revengeful violence. This was a good maiden novel for David Rawding. If you want to know how it ends...go out and buy a copy of this thriller. Obviously, I highly recommend.
 
RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

Comment: There are many books that deal with hateful revenge like our protagonist, James Morrow displayed in Taking on Water. If you look at a series of novels, one would have to say that George R.R. Martin’s, A Game of Thrones (a Song of Ice and Fire) is the number one revengeful serial of all time. What about a single novel? Well, for me, the answer is simple.

The most revengeful novel that I ever read was Stephen King’s Carrie (1974). Goodreads.com says, “Carrie knew she should not use the terrifying power she possessed...but one night at her senior prom, Carrie was scorned and humiliated just one time too many, and in a fit of uncontrollable fury she turned her clandestine game into a weapon of horror and destruction…”