Free Reign: A Suspense Novel

Rating:
Summary: Ellis Portal - A Different Kind Of Hero
Review: Although this book is now out of print, it would be worth hunting for because the main character of the book - Ellis Portal - is definitely a different type of hero.

Although street people are not people I normally come in contact with, I began to appreciate the problems Ellis Portal faced the more I got into the book.

This book is definitely work looking for and reading.

Rating:
Summary: This one is worth it!
Review: Believe it or not, the story works. Rosemary Aubert writes like a dream. Her protagonist, Ellis Portal, offers us a glimpse into a world we hope never to enter. The mystery is as compelling as the hero. I'm not going to go on and on about the story as some reviewers do. I'll only say this: To those mystery lovers who yearn for a masterfully told tale, snap this one up!

Rating:
Summary: The story is an example of karma both good and bad.
Review: Ellis Portal rose from nothing to attain almost everything he ever dreamed of but fails to appreciate it. When he burns out as a criminal judge and finds himself lower than he started Ellis is forced to come face to face with his own humanity. Finally through the trials of his fallen life he learns to appreciate what he had and yes what comes around goes around.

Rating:
Summary: Proof that mysteries can be fine literature as well
Review: Hero Ellis Portal was once a judge but now lives in a hut in Toronto's river park area. The novel is as much the story of his mental and emotional recovery as the solving of a crime. Aubert vividly describes the life of the homeless and the class barriers we all, often unintentionally, erect. Superb writing overcome a somewhat weak and rushed ending. Kathleen T. Choi, HAWAII CATHOLIC HERALD

Rating:
Summary: Proof that mysteries can be fine literature as well
Review: Hero Ellis Portal was once a judge but now lives in a hut in Toronto's river park area. The novel is as much the story of his mental and emotional recovery as the solving of a crime. Aubert vividly describes the life of the homeless and the class barriers we all, often unintentionally, erect. Superb writing overcome a somewhat weak and rushed ending. Kathleen T. Choi, HAWAII CATHOLIC HERALD

Rating:
Summary: Liked the beginning but didn't sustain my interest
Review: I found the book interesting from being told from the perspective of a former judge who is now homeless. The details of getting showers and meals and 'pride of place' were good. The regrets of letting go of the best of his former life ring true. However, the suspense, for me, didn't last until the end; the story got progressively thinner and less interesting.

Rating:
Summary: Free Reign
Review: Once a powerful judge, Ellis Portal was convicted of a felony and disgraced. His life style has changed drastically. He is now living as a homeless person in a ravine along a Toronto river. While working in his vegetable garden, he finds a ring with a black hand attached to it. Ellis recognizes the ring as one of five that was exchanged between himself and four other law school graduates (all of whom were white). When the rings were exchanged, they were accompanied by a vow that each of them would perform one favor, no questions asked, for each of the others. During the book, this favor is called in twice for Ellis.

In order to solve the mystery of the ring, Portal needs to go back into the civilized world. When he does so as a vagrant, he is treated without respect. When he goes through great lengths to appear "normal", he is accepted. He first visits another street person, Queenie, who cannot help him but asks him to see how a young woman named Moonstar is doing. Moonstar is a prostitute who spent some time at a hostel called "Second Chances". She is convinced that the well-to-do hostel is responsible for spiriting away several people, including newborn babies of some of the women who reside there. Although this seems implausible to Ellis, he agrees to look into it.

His main connection whohelps in his investigation is a reporter named Aliana who treated him fairly during his worst ordeals. She is kind and helpful. She also serves a useful purpose in the story of being able to tap into information that Ellis needs to investigate Second Chances and the other lawyers with whom he made his pact.

The first two-thirds of the book were thought-provoking as it made the reader consider attitudes toward the unfortunates of society. However, the last third veered off into fantastic events, clichés and unbelievable happy endings for almost everybody. Aubert writes with great sensitivity about the intricacies of life on the streets as well as other issues such as prostitution, homosexuality and the vagaries of the justice system, all of which make this a book worth reading in spite of the overly fortuitous plot resolutions.

Rating:
Summary: LAWYER BASHING CANADIAN STYLE
Review: The only reason I got through this book is because our plane was 2 1/2 hours late on our return from vacation and the plane trip was 4 1/2 hours. True, I could have read about the safety features of the Boeing 757, but there's someting wrong about reading 1/2 a book and not fininshing it off.

Half way through I was sick of the judge-turned- vagabond's endless trips back and forth to the Don valley hut where this judge was living. It was interesting to imagine such a great fall for such a powerful person but you aren't told why this fall occured until the last 5 pages! That was very frustrating. Even worse, the whole plot changes and ends up so fantastical as to be beyond belief. The writing was good and I really did like the main character and his description of his past and struggle for success. By the time you are told why the hand ends up in the judge's garden (actually, I still don't understand it) and how the judge's friends are harvesting unborn children for medical treatment (the saddest thing is that this is actually happening) your sick and tired of the whole group. There are also unnecessary sub-plots, like a hurricane in Toronto? Is that actually possible? Even if it is, who cares? Why waste 20 pages or more on this? Then you are never told about characters introduced in the book like the judge's wife and son. We only learn about his daughter who is now an attorney herself, and this is only in the last paragraph or so.

I wouldn't waste my time reading about this judge who falls from grace. Just read the daily newspapers, there are enough good stories about lawyers and judges loosing it all. Let this be a lesson to those flying: always have plenty of GOOD reading material!

Rating:
Summary: Ellis Portal - A Different Kind Of Hero
Review: The premise of Free Reign is promising. Ellis Portal, a former judge, is now one of Toronto's homeless, living in the bush of that city's Don River Valley. One day, he finds a man's amputated hand, wearing a ring Portal recognizes as one of five that he and four law-school classmates exchanged. But he and his colleagues were white; this hand is that of a black man. How did that ring get on that hand - and how did it end up buried near Portal's shanty home? But Aubert, a award-winning writer of short stories doesn't deliver the goods in this novel. This story gets muddied in clichéd writing, lapses in credulity and tangents that go nowhere. Portal sets off into the city, and the traces of his former life, in an attempt to solve the mystery. The tale takes him into a city newsroom, to the Queen Street hooker district, to a hostel for the homeless and another for women. The foundation of a terrific story is here but the reader gets derailed by overblown writing: "Her fingers were long and slim. So were her nails. I wondered how she spent hours typing on her computer with nails like that. Maybe the were stronger than they looked. Maybe she was." Then there are those kiss-of-death moments when the reader knows that something isn't right. A lone beat cop walks Toronto's downtown alleys after 11 at night. Not in this decade in that city. A reporter, without asking what the story is about, gives Portal an appointment weeks away. In a competitive news city, it would never happen. A massive storm takes Toronto by surprise and drowns 70 people. Hurricane Hazel killed 79 people - and that was 43 years ago, before the weather tracking and flood controls that prevent any city from being taken by that sort of surprise again. And the ending? In the space of a few pages, our homeless protagonist finds he's not just respected again but a hero; that he's still, unknowingly, a judge; he's owed five years' pay; and he is still adored by daughter and grandchild. The news is not all bad. Aubert has created an truly interesting character and spun an inventive plot. But the story just doesn't work and her overblown writing makes it worse.

Rating:
Summary: Free Reign a disappointment
Review: The premise of Free Reign is promising. Ellis Portal, a former judge, is now one of Toronto's homeless, living in the bush of that city's Don River Valley. One day, he finds a man's amputated hand, wearing a ring Portal recognizes as one of five that he and four law-school classmates exchanged. But he and his colleagues were white; this hand is that of a black man. How did that ring get on that hand - and how did it end up buried near Portal's shanty home? But Aubert, a award-winning writer of short stories doesn't deliver the goods in this novel. This story gets muddied in clichéd writing, lapses in credulity and tangents that go nowhere. Portal sets off into the city, and the traces of his former life, in an attempt to solve the mystery. The tale takes him into a city newsroom, to the Queen Street hooker district, to a hostel for the homeless and another for women. The foundation of a terrific story is here but the reader gets derailed by overblown writing: "Her fingers were long and slim. So were her nails. I wondered how she spent hours typing on her computer with nails like that. Maybe the were stronger than they looked. Maybe she was." Then there are those kiss-of-death moments when the reader knows that something isn't right. A lone beat cop walks Toronto's downtown alleys after 11 at night. Not in this decade in that city. A reporter, without asking what the story is about, gives Portal an appointment weeks away. In a competitive news city, it would never happen. A massive storm takes Toronto by surprise and drowns 70 people. Hurricane Hazel killed 79 people - and that was 43 years ago, before the weather tracking and flood controls that prevent any city from being taken by that sort of surprise again. And the ending? In the space of a few pages, our homeless protagonist finds he's not just respected again but a hero; that he's still, unknowingly, a judge; he's owed five years' pay; and he is still adored by daughter and grandchild. The news is not all bad. Aubert has created an truly interesting character and spun an inventive plot. But the story just doesn't work and her overblown writing makes it worse.