17 January 2016

Review #319: Taking on Water by David Rawding



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“Some of your childhood traumas may be remembered with incredible clarity, while others are so frightening or incomprehensible that your conscious mind buries the memory in your unconscious.”

----Renee Fredrickson


David Rawding, an American author, pens his new psychological thriller called Taking on Water that portrays the story of a happily married couple- a social worker and a local cop, set in a small American fishing town, who tries hard to protect the young teens from abuse and drug addiction and use, all the while trying hard to fight with their own past issues as well as present. In the process, they get to meet a lobsterman and his wife and teenage son, who then become very close friends. This is a story about friendship, betrayal, drug trafficking and child abuse.




Synopsis:

When James Morrow, a social worker, first meets Kevin Flynn, he suspects the teen is being abused. To learn more about Kevin’s home life, he gets to know the boy’s father, Tucker, who’s a lobsterman. James is able to put his suspicions to rest, and the two families begin to form a friendship.

When a kid at the local recreation center dies of an overdose, Detective Maya Morrow adds the case to the long list related to the drug problem plaguing the small New Hampshire coastal town of Newborough. But her investigation gets her much too close to the dangerous players.

Both the Morrows and the Flynns are holding dark secrets, and when their lives collide, tragedy is inevitable.



James is a social worker who helps children from abuse in the town of Newborough. His wife, Maya, is a local cop, who is fighting hard everyday to protect young teenagers from drug abuse as well as trying hard to crack the drug trafficking ring. James meet Tucker, a lobsterman, through Tucker's young teenage son, Kevin. Soon these two families develop a strong bond of friendship over fishing trips and family dinners. But when a healthy fisherman kills himself in front of James and a young teenager from James social circle dies due to drug overdose, things get ugly in this small coastal town. Maya, on the other hand, with the help of her colleagues, is trying to find how the drug is getting in to the city and who are involved behind the trafficking. Little did she knew that she was putting her foot into a dangerous territory where friends can turn their back at any time to protect their own family. Whereas each incident is shaking up James from the very core of his heart and he is fighting hard with his own trauma from childhood. Will it be the end of James and Maya? What role does Tucker and his family plays in this whole scenario?

The writing is fresh and articulate with suspense brimming from each and every page. The narrative is extremely free-flowing and engaging enough to keep the readers on their edges. The pacing of book changes from being very slow to so fast that it keeps the readers hooked on to it till the very end. There are lots of shocking and unpredictable twists and turns in the story, thus making it one hell of a thrilling roller-coaster ride filled with action, pain and lots of hallucinations.

The characters are drawn with enough realism and are very well developed, especially the character of James, who is very normal from the outside but equally disturbed from the inside because of his broken childhood and abuse. James tries hard to be a doting husband to Maya, even he is successful in it, but fights everyday with his hallucinations about his father, mother and other people who matter to him the most. Even the evil within him is portrayed with lots of pain and innocence. Maya on the other hand, is a strong character who won't stop at anything to get to the bottom of anything. Tucker, is someone, who is a loser, doesn't show much care on the outside, yet would do anything to protect his own family. Even the rest of the characters are so powerful, that some of them are bound to leave a lasting impression in the minds of the readers.

The story has so many elements- mystery, abuse, drugs and love. The love between James and Maya is depicted with so much compassion and deep emotions, more like they set an example of perfectly balanced married life, despite of their hectic job schedules. The mystery is projected with many twists and turns that makes the readers keep on anticipating and guessing until it's disclosure. The climax is drawn perfectly well and is completely justifiable with the story. The author tries to teach his readers a lesson about the effects of child abuse and drug abuse through this story with a loud and clear message.

In a nutshell, this story is quite mind-blowing, poignant, painful and even thought-provoking.

Verdict: This is one of the quite promising psychological thrillers in the world of fiction.

Courtesy: Thanks to the author, David Rawding, for providing me with a copy of his book, in return for an honest review. 
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Author Info:
David Rawding has a BA in English from The University of New Hampshire and an MFA in Fiction from Southern New Hampshire University. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and his short stories have been published in numerous literary journals and magazines. David spent three years as a fly-fishing guide in Alaska, worked several years at a non-profit for at-risk youth, was an online adjunct professor, and has a litany of other jobs in his wake. When he's not writing, he enjoys traveling the world with a backpack and a fly rod.  
Visit him here


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