Detour by Jeff Rake and Rob Hart Book Review

About the Book:

Ryan Crane wasn’t looking for trouble—just a cup of coffee. But when this cop spots a gunman emerging from an unmarked van, he leaps into action and unknowingly saves John Ward, a billionaire with presidential aspirations, from an assassination attempt.

As thanks for Ryan’s quick thinking, Ward offers him the chance of a lifetime: to join a group of lucky civilians chosen to accompany three veteran astronauts on the first manned mission to Saturn’s moon Titan.

A devoted family man, Ryan is reluctant to leave on this two-year expedition, yet with the encouragement of his loving wife—and an exorbitant paycheck guaranteeing lifetime care for their disabled son—he crews up and ventures into a new frontier.

But as the ship is circling Titan, it is rocked by an unexplained series of explosions. The crew works together to get back on course, and they return to Earth as heroes.

When the fanfare dies down, Ryan and his fellow astronauts notice that things are different. Some changes are good, such as lavish upgrades to their homes, but others are more disconcerting. Before the group can connect, mysterious figures start tailing them, and their communications are scrambled.

Separated and suspicious, the crew must uncover the truth and decide how far they’re willing to go to return to their normal lives. Just when their space adventure seemingly ends, it shockingly begins.

My Review:

I have good news and bad news about this book. The good news is that it is very well written. I was totally engaged as I got to know the people going on the Titan adventure. I was willing to wait until over half way through to actually begin the space travel. I was rooting for them all the way, excited by the potential disasters they faced and the explosions they lived through. I continued to be engaged as they came home and faced strange things.

And then the bad news, “To be continued.” Up until then, five stars all the way. When I read that, I was angry. I wanted to give it two stars. I felt deceived. It is one thing to say a book is part of a series, that usually means a number of separate but complete novels, it is another to be part one of a serialized story.

Potential readers need to know this is not a complete story. We will need to wait for the next novel from this duo to find a resolution to an intense cliffhanger.

My rating: 3/5 stars.

About the Authors:

Rob Hart is the USA TODAY bestselling author of the Assassins Anonymous series. The latest installment, THE MEDUSA PROTOCOL, is in stores now. He also wrote THE WAREHOUSE, THE PARADOX HOTEL, the Ash McKenna crime series, the short story collection TAKE-OUT, the novella SCOTT FREE with James Patterson, the comic book BLOOD OATH with Alex Segura, and the novel DARK SPACE, also with Segura. His next book, available in January, is DETOUR, co-written with Jeff Rake, the creator and showrunner of TV’s MANIFEST. He’s also a freelance editor and a writing mentor in Seton Hill’s Writing Popular Fiction MFA. He lives in Jersey City.

Jeff Rake recently served as creator, executive producer, writer, and showrunner for NBC/Netflix’s Manifest. He previously developed and Executive Produced The Mysteries of Laura, which aired for multiple seasons on NBC and in more than 100 countries. His past credits include consulting producer on The CW’s Beauty and the Beast, TNT’s Franklin & Bash and Hawthorne, and Fox’s Bones. Jeff also executive produced ABC’s Cashmere Mafia and Boston Legal. On the feature side, he has written screenplays for MGM and Disney. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and many children.

Random House, 320 pages.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent review.

(My star ratings: 5-I love it, 4-I like it, 3-It's OK, 2-I don't like it, 1-I hate it.)