I accepted a review copy of Chris Towndrow‘s Tow Away Zone from Rachel’s Random Resources.
When a travelling salesman with monochromatic vision finds a town that’s not on the map, he must choose between romance and a long-held promise of untold riches.
Beckman Spiers is a grey man in a grey world—and he’s happy with that. After 12 years of routine and grind, he’s again fighting to become Number One Salesman of the Year. Legend has it, Number Ones get so rich, they never work again. With a week to go, Beckman is gaining on his nemesis, smooth-talking Tyler Quittle. When a chance blowout on a deserted Arizona highway leaves Beckman stranded, the mysterious Saul arrives, and tows him to the strange neon-lit town of Sunrise. Here, he meets the glamorous Lolita Milan and his fortunes change. Yet, Sunrise’s small-town charms conceal secrets, and his world becomes one of private investigators and backstabbing business deals. What will he have to do to reach Number One? And what will he do if he wins the race?
I thought this was a fun read with quirky, likeable characters that kept me interested. While the writing was perfectly readable and well edited, it did occasionally slant a little too far toward trying so hard to be witty that it fell flat instead. Such as the times it read like this, for example:
Mercifully, before long, a shape rose from the heat haze. A stationary shape. A building-shaped shape. A gas station-shaped building shape. (pg 15)
Yeah, this is my *blank, un-amused stare.* I see what the author is doing there, but can we not? Similarly, I occasionally didn’t understand what the characters were actually trying to relay in some of their verbal byplay.
But more often than any of that, I chuckled along with the what on earth is going to happen next-ness of the book, appreciated how things wrapped back around on themselves, and I’d happily read another.
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