Time goes by fast, but it seems to have flown at the speed of sound, when John Michaels, a now famous retired magician receives a request from Drew Marsh, an former classmate who begs him to come out of retirement to put on a show for the class for their 30th reunion. Never one to say no to an old friend and curious to see how some of his classmates have fared in life, John agrees to bring the show out of retirement one more time.
During their conversation, Drew shares that he has contacted and verified attendance by all but a few classmates. John learns Buddy Marcella died in Vietnam, and that there are several other classmates Drew is on the track of…it’s just a matter of time before he finds them. But one classmate Alex Hollowman, the former big man on campus, and their senior year class President cannot be located. Both Drew and John discuss Alex’s at length and ruminate on where he might be.
Getting into the idea of bringing the show back for one fun show, John checks in with his old crew to see if they are available. All three ladies, Sally, Patty and Maria are thrilled to join in on the fun and Dave Marsh, master carpenter is in as well. The excitement grows as they discuss and decide on what they will put into this performance.
Meanwhile John can’t get it out of his mind that Alex cannot be found. They had been such good friends, until a horrific event changed Alex’s life. After the event Alex’s cousin, Stella began to help Alex put his life back together. But as they say, “Things change as time does,” and virtually overnight, Alex was gone and all leads brought those searching back to the beginning. His childhood home where he was not living despite all avenues they searched for ideas as to his location was where all leads stopped.
Time was growing short, the show was quickly approaching and John needed Alex for a myriad of reasons. One the reader finds to be simply the fact that he is worried about his friend. And others bring this tale together in a magical way. These other reasons are very important to the story but to share them would ruin a suspenseful magical tale and the ending wouldn’t have the effect on the reader the author intended, were I to reveal it.
It is an interesting story and though I got bogged down in part with excess verbiage regarding Alex, the search and Alex’s cousin Stella, it was still a book that leaves the reader wondering if it really will have a happy ending or if the traditional “happy ending” will be nothing but a disappearing act in Alex‘s life, that he will never be found. For this reader, I liked that the author very cleverly kept certain details unsaid until the end. I think it is this choice the author made, that makes the book, one that is hard to put down and though there are a lot of facts to wade through, they do help flesh out parts of the book that need to be known.
Other than tightening up the storyline and losing some repetitive facts, this is an enjoyable book that will keep the reader interest peeked as John searches for his friend, and reconnects with friends he hasn’t seen in over 30 years with an ending that is true to the image of John the master magician.
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