Romance

Written by Kay Hooper

SUMMARY:

As a partial sequel to 1989’s Enemy Mine, Kay Hooper penned this 294-page spin-off in 1991.

For wealthy British American adventurer and amateur archaeologist Drew Haviland, it’s been several months (most likely, the year before) since the events of Enemy Mine. In suburban Washington, D.C., a chance encounter with a familiar emerald necklace sets up Haviland for an awkward reunion with its prior owner. She’s the demure ex-fiancée who had jilted him a decade before. He hasn’t forgotten Spencer Wyatt, nor has he processed why she left him for another (and clearly lesser) man.

Now a 28-year-old divorcée, an emotionally exhausted Spencer barely resists off Haviland’s aggressive romantic advances amidst coping with her family’s rapid financial decline. To comfort her dying and increasingly senile father, Allan, Spencer (his only child) seeks to complete his lifelong obsession: discovering the legendary and priceless Hapsburg Cross in its secluded hiding place somewhere in Western Europe.

Following her father’s extensive notes and journals, Spencer stubbornly intends to go it alone on this dangerous journey. Given Spencer’s knack for correlating historical knowledge with insights re: human nature, it may prove welcome compensation for an amateur treasure hunter.

Scoffing at her utterly remote chances, a condescending Haviland soon realizes that he has misjudged the surprisingly resilient Ms. Wyatt. Growing emotionally attached to Spencer, an overnight burglary convinces Haviland to join her overseas search, whether she likes it or not.

Likely awaiting them in Austria is Haviland’s ruthless arch-nemesis, Lon Stanton, who won’t hesitate to kill first to claim the Cross. Even with help from Enemy Mine’s Kane & Tyler Pendleton, not to mention Interpol’s Burke Corbett, Haviland senses in horror that Stanton’s deadly ace is abducting Spencer.

Haviland and Spencer gradually accept that their destinies have become intertwined, but will their future together be short-lived?

Notes: The Jove paperback reprint (as seen below) was issued in 2005. This title is also available digitally and in hardcover.

REVIEW:

The Haviland Touch, in general terms, is a forgettable getaway Kay Hooper concocted early in her literary career. From the start, Hooper devises an appealing heroine in Spencer Wyatt, though she is far too easily overwhelmed by the macho Haviland’s presence. Initially depicted as a domineering bully, Hooper’s slick storytelling quickly reshapes Drew Haviland into a suave knight-in-shining armor with a sensitive side.

It’s easy to visualize a blond Hugh Jackman twenty years ago inhabiting this kind of generic hero. Opposite him, casting options might include Reese Witherspoon, Eliza Dushku, Jordana Brewster, or Scarlett Johannson, as the petite brunette, Spencer. Then again, it’s just as plausible imagining Miss Scarlet and The Duke’s Kate Phillips and Stuart Martin pairing up as Spencer & Drew.

Regardless of any what-if film adaptation, there’s no subtlety delaying how Spencer Wyatt predictably becomes Haviland’s damsel in distress in this present-day fairy tale-meets-Indiana Jones. Hence, the undemanding Haviland Touch, for the romantic adventure genre, isn’t remotely innovative, as far as playing anywhere outside the numbers. Hooper, for instance, opts to pitch a few extended (and eye-rolling) sex scenes before briefly deploying her story’s suspenseful twists in its last fifty pages.

Still, this formulaic tale offers a fast and relatively likable read before one moves on to bigger and better plots.

ADDITIONAL FEATURES:

A brief supplemental note has Hooper acknowledge this storyline (including any Hapsburg Cross) is completely fictional.

BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING: 4½ Stars

Written by David Fuller

SUMMARY:

The historical novel, Sundance, was released by Riverhead Books as a 338-page hardcover in 2014. In the late spring of 1913, Harry Alonzo Longbaugh (the Sundance Kid, now in his mid-forties) is quietly released from a Wyoming state penitentiary after a twelve-year prison sentence he willingly chose to endure.

Without his familiar moustache and hiding behind a flimsy alias, Longbaugh has staved off most curiosity seekers while intensely defending his wife’s honor, as necessary. All that has kept him sane surviving prison and perpetual loneliness are his wife’s letters, despite his continued pleas for her to explore a new life without him. At Longbaugh’s behest, she has left the West for a fresh start in New York City.

During his incarceration, the world learned of his violent demise with best friend Robert Leroy Parker (aka Butch Cassidy) in a Bolivian shootout. Long out of touch with modern society, Longbaugh wisely opts to let the world believe this falsehood. All he wants to do now is find his beloved wife: Etta Place, whom he has not heard from in two years.

Forced to kill an ex-sheriff’s vengeful son, Longbaugh finds himself on the run again – from both the law and ghosts from his past. Dodging a posse’s efforts, Longbaugh is told by his estranged sister-in-law that answers most likely await him in New York City. Moving East, the former outlaw finds how New York embodies modern life in a rapidly-changing 20^th Century. Inevitably, he is now an often-bewildered relic struggling to catch up.

Clues to Etta’s socially progressive activities bring an ever-savvy Longbaugh into conflict with the New York mob and others associated with his elusive wife. Worse yet, the Kid’s old nemesis, manhunter Charlie Siringo, is doggedly pursuing his world-weary quarry from the remnants of the Western frontier to the shadowy back alleys of New York. All Longbaugh wants is Etta back, but his obsession may cost him everything.

Notes: This title is also available in digital, audiobook, and paperback formats. The cover incorporates an image of Etta Place from her only verified photo – a studio portrait with her fugitive husband taken in New York City, circa 1901. As a matter of trivia, novelist/screenwriter William Goldman (who wrote “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”) once used ‘Harry Longbaugh’ as a pen name.

REVIEW:

Including his own take on the ‘Butch & Sundance’ Bolivian mystery, author David Fuller’s poignant what-if isn’t merely a Western gone East. For historical fiction enthusiasts, the ambitious Sundance succeeds as both a romantic mystery and an action-thriller. Readers must sit tight to learn Etta’s enigmatic fate, but the anticipation proves worth it. Still, Longbaugh’s unrelenting personal quest is counter-balanced by sequences depicting bleak and occasionally violent realism.

Though some events are totally fictitious and others historically-tinged, such scenes creeping upon readers are well-played, no matter how dark their outcome. Case in point: the haunting impact upon Longbaugh’s mind imagining the horrific 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire where Etta may have been best spells out his humanity.

Despite retaining his fearsome fast-draw, Longbaugh’s conscience is similarly felt when he fails to discourage an inept ‘Butch & Sundance’ impersonator duo early on. Such detail reveals a mostly reformed rogue witnessing the ugly fallout of his legend now romanticized in dime novels. One can appreciate Longbaugh’s maturity recognizing why he does not just as easily resume his old crime spree.

Further, Fuller capably devises a revisionist Western where redemption is far harder earned than escaping with the loot from any brazen train heist. Transplanting an aging Sundance Kid (and, by extension, Etta Place) as anachronisms into a complex, pre-World War I metropolis of skyscrapers, motorcars, subways, and turbulent social reforms is a challenge that Fuller impressively lives up to.

Both poignantly written and faithfully researched, Fuller’s Sundance makes it almost easy to visualize Robert Redford reprising perhaps his most iconic role. For instance, a catch-me-if-you-can rooftop exchange between Longbaugh (with a gleam in his eye) and the cool-tempered Siringo is one of several scenes worthy of Redford’s cinematic persona.

Though plot contrivances are a given, Fuller takes some excessive gambles that diminish his novel’s momentum. One is an ultra-convenient reunion that ridiculously comes out of nowhere – twice! Though the first sequence’s banter is wonderfully written, Fuller overplays his storytelling hand, as far as pushing what-if romanticism. He really should have left the tantalizing fate of Sundance’s favorite buddy solely to the audience’s imagination.

Note: Curiously, one thing that Fuller does not divulge is any post-prison re-assessments his enlightened ‘Longbaugh ‘ has made of his ruthless ex-Wild Bunch cronies, like Harvey “Kid Curry” Logan.

Far more critical to the climax is a wartime sub-plot that links too many of that era’s historical events. Unfortunately, Fuller’s war profiteering angle again appears taken from the ‘this only happens in fiction’ playbook. While neither of these plot angles are a dealbreaker, they are other reasons this reviewer’s rating is not even higher.

Ultimately, Sundance delivers high-caliber fiction entertainingly rooted in familiar American history. Clearly, unlike the incorrigible desperado the real Harry Alonzo Longabaugh was, his fictional counterpart risks a far greater endgame. Regardless whether one is an Old West buff or not, Sundance concocts a satisfying and surprisingly powerful read.

ADDITIONAL FEATURES:

The author briefly notes the real Sundance Kid’s historical fate, even though his Bolivian grave still has not been located. Fuller’s acknowledgements section confirms he has slightly altered the spelling of Longabaugh to make ‘Harry Longbaugh’ more his own creation.

BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING: 8½ Stars