Books That Pull You Along

[Peg Herring]

A very talented friend gave me a manuscript to read, and I'm hooked. After half a century of reading (OMG!) I find that most books are time-passers, not reading adventures. I know the plotline after a few pages, and if the author surprises, it's with invented devices, incidents meant to be funny, or characters that are grotesquely unusual. I read to the end, but I never feel the "what's going to happen?" question forming in my head. With this one, I want to find that out.

A good story, well-written and well-plotted, is a pleasant surprise. No quirky relatives. No crazed serial killers who apparently stay up nights figuring out how to kill a person in a more bizarre way than the world has before seen. How about a story where you just want to know what happens to a person you care about from page one?

Well, that's what I've got, but I'm only halfway through. Will the author sustain my credibility and caring? Will the ending satisfy my soul and answer all my question? Stay tuned. This is one book that I'll be reading every chance I get, so it shouldn't be long before we know.