Trumpet of the Unicorn

Rating:
Summary: Read This Book!
Review: Can an author write an unbiased review of his own work? Let's see, shall we?
Trumpet of the Unicorn was an experiment to see if a popular character I invented for a brief appearance in a sci-fi series could stand up on his own. Not only does he make a rather realistic and charming hero with foibles and worries and mistakes despite his air of high intelligence and good breeding, but Geoff McKenna has now become a permanent fixture in my sci-fi stories, with a few of them told entirely or in part from his own point of view. I could only give the book four out of five stars because I tend to be rather a harsh critic of my own work, yet I find this particular story lightly refreshing, funny, and downright enjoyable every time I dust off one of the manuscripts for a quick trip back to Montana and the ill-fated digsite where Geoff nearly loses everything in the quest to preserve something rare which doesn't even belong to him.
If you like light reading in the vein of Gregory McDonald (Fletch and Flynn series) or Sue Grafton (those irresistable alphabet crime stories) you may well enjoy meeting fish-out-of-water Geoff, aspiring young veterinarian and inadvertant sleuth.

Rating:
Summary: Absolute Corruption...
Review: It's a cunning story featuring a young, fresh-faced, all-American lad who unwittingly finds himself caught in an unfamiliar setting where his closest friends may be backstabbers and the people he's most suspicious of may prove to be his best allies. We get to observe the corruption of a noble and innocent if not slightly naive hero just trying to make the best of things on a hopelessly downward turn of luck, and find ourselves rooting for him just the same, though the book finishes with him as quite the changed young man--a little wiser, a little battle-scarred, a little more matured. What kinds of things can happen to a veterinary student at a fossil dig hundreds of miles from home? It's a brisk read, entertaining, amusing, with an awesome death-defying climax that will have you at the edge of your seat. A tale wherein no-one is quite whom they seem. Trumpet should make a nice addition to anybody's private mystery collection.

Rating:
Summary: Grows On You
Review: It's not a great book, but the more I read it, the more I like it. The author tells the story of a young veterinary student who winds up inadvertantly at a paleontological dig in Montana, thousands of miles from home. A fascinating fossilized discovery is made, and suddenly the hero finds himself in the midst of thieves and backstabbers and can no longer tell who he can and cannot trust. I like the way the author sort of tells the story through the main character's eyes--he's unfamiliar with the science of paleontology, and therefore makes a lot of guesses as to what's going on and why the diggers behave they way they do. The writer's style is relaxed, quick, and witty, making this a brisk read, explaining just enough to keep your interest without bogging the reader down with scientific jargon. The climax will leave you wide-eyed and breathless with excitement, and the end, though a little cliche, still carries a cute little twist.
Trumpet is light, funny, and meant to sweep the reader way for a little while to a time and place where nothing is as it seems and, as in life, a few questions are best left unanswered.

Rating:
Summary: Adventures of Daddy-Man
Review: Trumpet is allegedly based upon an actual experience that my father had when he was young. I found the story funny, and a little scary at times--especially the climax where he's up in the airplane with one of the bad guys and gets shot at. Overall, it was pretty interesting. I liked the way Detetch seemed to tell the story the way my father would have, not knowing anything about paleontology at the time and making guesses about it's history and the details of the science. It's written in a very easy-to-follow, casual style that lets you get through it quickly. I think it would make a great beach book or travel book. Now I just have to find out exactly how much of it is true--especially the twist at the end!

Rating:
Summary: An Interesting Mystery
Review: Trumpet Of The Unicorn is about a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Veterinary student Geoff McKenna is sent to Snakebite, Montana where he's told to wait for his girlfriend who was supposed to go with him, but who, for reasons unclear to him, had to postposne her flight from New York by one day. When she finally arrives with her husband, Geoff is caught in a turmoil, trapped in the middle of nowhere with his lover and the spouse he didn't know she had. The guy is a well-known paleontologist there to visit an unusual discovery by an old college chum of his'an early mammal with a single horn on its head like a unicorn. Because of the similarities, thieves starts to crawl out of the woodwork to steal the thing, and Geoff ends up helping the digteam try to protect the rare fossil as well as get to the bottom of things. Is it the local Native Americans whose land the team is digging on trying to mess things up, or a band of Asian strangers who show up inexplicably and beat up half the digteam, or does the threat come inside the group of diggers themselves? By the time Geoff finds out, the body count has risen, and he risks his life on board an airplane, trying to stop a homocidal maniac from taking off with the animal's horn before it can be sent to parts unknown and disappear forever. The end is cute, but a little cliche, with Geoff coming out on top, but I liked it anyhow because in this story EVERYBODY is a suspect and NOBODY AT ALL is innocent. I recommend it for anybody who likes mysteries that can make you laugh or have you hanging on the edge of your seat.