Time to go on vacation and leave the schoolbooks and job behind as we head off for Eagle’s Claw Lake. An action-packed summer novel that is great for the car or train, it opens when Dr. Reid Tucker crosses a tarmac in Spokane in search for asylum from a criminal malpractice suite in Minneapolis, MN. Although declared not guilty to the charges of manslaughter of Mary Anee McAlfir and Josephine Elizabeth Smaus, he suffers the consequences of a destroyed professional reputation after years of trying to establish it. Where to now? Time for the midlife crisis as he takes a break in a remote cabin in the backwoods of Washington State with his trusty, Black Labrador, Cinders, who goes along for the joyride.

Fast-moving and cinematic, the story moves quickly through the use of effective dialogue. But as the plot turns with as many hairpins as a logging road, Littlejohn and his men become almost as ubiquitous as Peter O’Toole’s sidekick, Chan as action springs out of every possible nook and corner. With their wings clipped, they are surrounded by hostile territory where they attempt to escape by boat. Reid’s debonair personality puts him in the role of the Pied Piper as they collect refugees and lost souls in the area. The doc has a medical bag more magical than the Purple Crayon Harold had, dispensing not only band-aids, but immunization injections for childhood diseases. And although he’s just survived a lawsuit in Minnesota for violating medical ethics, he practices without a license in the Washington backwoods. His surgical skills under duress would make Hawkeye envious so it’s no wonder that Kate falls for him and all the others fall in line like goslings after the mother goose.

Whether a thriller, adventure or comedy, it’s impossible to be bored as there’s too much action going down with effective dialogue. With the exception of a few overly melodramatic scenes, the characters are identifiable in well drawn settings. The author has studied his material, but contrived too much. Like the novice card-player, he hasn’t yet learned to shield his hand and keep the strategy hidden behind the mask as every trick betrays his desire to win.

~ pogo, pogomcl@authorsden.com

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