Genre: Thriller
Description:
Jeff is a quiet family man who works at the local grocery store. At
home, in the middle of the night, he’s awoken by noises downstairs. Armed with
a gun, he surprises two men in his kitchen and kills them both. The story
follows Jeff as the ramifications of that night’s events change his life
forever.
Author:
Samuel Hawley taught English in East Asia for many years before
becoming a full-time writer. His books include the novel Bad Elephant Far Stream and the nonfiction works Speed Duel: The Inside Story of the Land
Speed Record in the Sixties; I Just Ran: Percy Williams, World’s Fastest
Human; and The Imjin War: Japan’s
Sixteenth-Century Invasion of Korea and Attempt
to Conquer China. He lives in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
Appraisal:
Jeff is an unlikely main character—just an everyman, really. His
deadly shots on the night of the break in had no malice about them. He was as
terrified as he crept downstairs to protect his family as I would have been.
Initially, I thought maybe Jeff would have problems with the police
believing his story—I was worried for the man. The problems that did ensue,
however, were of a quite different nature, and, for me, totally unexpected.
I don’t want to spoil the story, so I won’t go into detail, but a
second thread that runs through the novel involves some local gangstas. The
author drew these characters as vividly as he did Jeff and his family. And the
juxtaposition between these two wildly different groups of people was what made
the novel so compelling.
I read this in two sittings, staying up late. From an unlikely
beginning, the novel grows and develops into an action-packed, well-written
thriller.
FYI:
Added for
Reprise Review: Home Owner
with a Gun by Samuel Hawley was a nominee in the Thriller category for
B&P 2015 Readers' Choice Awards. Original review ran January 28, 2015.
Format/Typo
Issues:
Well edited.
Rating:
***** Five Stars
Reviewed
by: Pete Barber
Approximate
word count: 70-75,000 words
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