Ride Away Home
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
It has been two years since Hope - Jack and Jenna Tanner's bright and beautiful only child - walked out of her off-campus apartment at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and vanished into the night. Since then, Jenna's grief has led to a mental breakdown and she is in a psychiatric hospital. Jack has been unable to concentrate on business and has lost his job as a tax attorney. Meanwhile, Slater Babcock, Hope's college boyfriend, and the only suspect in her disappearance, is enjoying the decadent life of a rich man's spoiled son in Key West, Florida. The police have no solid evidence of Slater's guilt, but Jack is convince that Slater is responsible.
Jack has never been the adventurous type. But he decides he must confront Slater and somehow get him to reveal what happened to Hope. To do this, he knows he needs to become a man of decisive action. So he buys a Harley-Davidson Road King motorcycle and sets out on a 1,900-mile journey to the southern-most tip of the country, to Land's End Key West.
Along the way, Jack encounters a series of characters unlike any he's ever met, including Hannah, the young street hustler; the Devil's Disciples, certainly the most unlikely sort of motorcycle gang there ever was; a psychopathic 300-pound survivalist nicknamed Big Foot; and, in Key West, a man who looks and behaves like Ernest Hemingway, and who may or may not actually believe that he is the great writer.
Ride along with Jack Tanner on his personal journey of heartbreak, self-discovery and ultimate redemption.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This briskly paced debut crime novel from Wells begins with an odd premise: Jack Tanner, a 52-year-old, out-of-work tax attorney from the Minneapolis suburb of Edina decides to get a large Harley-Davidson and a learner's motorcycle permit. He embarks on a 2,300-mile road trip to Florida where he plans to confront Slater Babcock, the student boyfriend of his missing daughter, Hope. Jack is certain that Slater, once considered (but released) by the investigating police as a "person of interest," knows more than he has let on about Hope's disappearance from school more than a year ago. Slater has left the University of Wisconsin, and his father has set him up as a bar owner in Key West. En route, Jack stops by to visit his grieving, depressed wife Jenna, who has been an in-patient at an upscale psychiatric facility called The Sanctuary in MacLean, Va. On the road again, he meets a series of colorful and sometimes unsavory characters, beginning with Hannah, the nubile redheaded hitchhiker he picks up with disastrous results. Later, a motorcycle gang of white-collar members calling themselves the Devil's Disciples invites Jack to ride along with them to Florida. Upon reaching his destination, Jack again has to depend on a resourceful stranger's help, this time an Ernest Hemingway lookalike named Edward Hollingsworth, to close out Wells's offbeat but entertaining debut novel.
