Bitten by Books
Chief Superintendent Frankford Lucas was well aware of his importance to the police force and also of his tenuous hold on reality. After a brief stint in a mental institution in his younger years, Frankford tried his best to keep his visions and intuitions from interfering with his everyday life. When he slept, however, his dreams would take him along The Quiet Road where he learned how to tap in to his hidden powers and assure his success as the Chief. As the stress of his job increased, Frankford was plagued with dreams from The Quiet Road involving a tall character in a dark cloak that possessed various bands of color, tying them in with horrible visions as Frankford submitted to the lure of the colors. Red was the first to draw him in, and when he awakened, he was stunned to find a silver ring with a small red stone upon his bedside table. On his drive to work, Frankford was stuck in traffic when a middle-aged woman caught his attention, and to his horror, she held up her left hand and formed the words, “You were there.” Suddenly, he noticed a red circle on her torso that quickly became a gaping wound and Frankford was both shocked and horrified. Knowing he would be unable to share this burden with his co-workers, he decided to hide his knowledge and continued onto the police station.
Frankford began to dread sleeping at night, knowing that each evening would bring another visitation of color, a horrific vision of murder, and the case file presented to him the next morning. Once the department profiler brought in an expert, a psychic medium called The Sarsaparilla Duchess, to assist in solving the murders, Frankford feared his secrets would soon be discovered. What Sarsaparilla sensed would completely change everything Frankford believed about himself and would also condemn him to an unsettled and insecure future.
Although I found the premise of “rainbow” murders corresponding to the seven chakras interesting and the arrival of Sarsaparilla and her input to be enlightening, I found The Quiet Road overall was difficult to read. The language and phrasing seemed stilted and did not flow smoothly, and after the color spectrum had been exhausted, the storyline fell into descriptions of Frankford’s various mental ailments and the demons that possessed him, causing him to commit unspeakable sins. I felt Frankford was an unsympathetic character, difficult to understand, since he was stern and unyielding in the first half of the book and basically insane in the second half. There were many details provided throughout, and I felt that, in many cases, less detail would have provided a clearer story and made the book easier to read.
Book Stats:
- Paperback: 313 pages
- Publisher: Vanguard Press; 1st edition (November 27, 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 184386567X
- ISBN-13: 978-1843865674
Buy a print copy of The Quiet Road from Amazon by clicking here.
Review Overview
Overall Rating
Total
Summary : Although I found the premise of “rainbow” murders corresponding to the seven chakras interesting and the arrival of Sarsaparilla and her input to be enlightening, I found The Quiet Road overall was difficult to read. The language and phrasing seemed stilted and did not flow smoothly, and after the color spectrum had been exhausted, the storyline fell into descriptions of Frankford’s various mental ailments and the demons that possessed him, causing him to commit unspeakable sins.
