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Retirement. Publishers, thank you for the many years of reading pleasure you gave me, but all good things must come to an end. Due to failing eyesight I am forced to retire. I can no longer review your books, and any that you send will be donated to the local library, unread. Do not send any more. I can only read for a couple hours every day, and this does not allow me to finish a book in reasonable time. I will be devoting time to my own books from now on, and reading on a personal level. Books that interest me. I prefer paperbacks and hardbacks, not eBooks. My eyesight has been failing the last few years, and I cannot handle hundreds of review books any more. My books are still available for review. Anyone interested in reviewing any of them, they are found in the Link to Tom’s Books On Amazon. Contact me for pdf copies at fadingshadows40@gmail.com

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Ticket To Hollywood


Ticket To Hollywood (Literary Fiction)
By Gary Reilly
Running Meter Press publisher@runningmeterpress.com
SBN #978-0984786015
Price $13.01
216 Pages
Rating 5-Stars

“A Wonderful Read”

Brendan Murphy, a taxi driver in Denver has a set of rules he lives by while driving a cab, one of which is never get involved with his passengers. Unfortunately, that’s usually the first rule he breaks. And it always leads to trouble. Picking up a fare, the young girl is attending the Mile Hi Film Festival, and dressed like a flapper from the 1920s. She looks 18, and tipsy on vodka. It’s none of his business until she leaves her purse in the back seat containing a roll of hundred dollar bills. It’s time for Murph’s shift to end, but he wants to find the girl and return the purse. Circumstances intervene, and before the case is over, the girl comes up missing, is found, and then disappears again – to Hollywood.

The character of Murph is a fascinating individual who can’t seem to help himself in getting involved when someone is in trouble. After struggling through seven years of college, he feels his true calling is driving a taxi, though he has a dream of becoming a novelist some day – and has the rejected and uncompleted manuscripts to prove it. Each story is told in a literary style, with a simple plot and interesting character. Murph eats hamburgers three times a day, his breakfast entails Twinkies and a Coke, and he lives on the top floor of an apartment building he called his crow’s nest, because he can see across the rooftops of Denver. Instead of gun battles and fistfights, Murph throws philosophical advice to all of his passengers. A wonderful read.

The cover art for the Asphalt Warrior series is also quite interested. Done in a retro style, they feature the taxi as the commanding figure within the central scene. “Ticket To Hollywood” has my favorite cover so far, but they are all good. The art is by John Sherffius, and the cover design is by Rebecca Finkel.

Tom Johnson
Echoes Magazine

2 comments:

  1. Sounds like an interesting story. I'll have to check it out.

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  2. Gary passed away a couple years ago, and left quite a few unpublished manuscripts. The Asphalt Warrior series were among them - ten or eleven books. His friends are bringing them out as they can. They published the first three already, and told me two more would be released around November this year.

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