Richard C Hemingway and the novel Past Twilight:
Mainstream fiction stirred with Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, Action/Adventure and more than a
smidgen of Science Fiction and humor. And yes, all served up by a hard boiled detective.
ForeWord Clarion Review
FICTION
Past
Twilight
Richard C.
Hemingway
CreateSpace
978-1-4565-6083-6
Three Stars (out of
Five)
In Past Twilight,
author Richard C. Hemingway offers a fast-paced tale of obsession, greed, and murder in a small town on
the Jersey shore. In it,
Jack, a washed-up, drunken 59-year-old ex-hospital security officer who’s just been diagnosed with
terminal kidney cancer gets a chance to live a fateful part of his life over again. A meeting with a stranger
gives him a chance to turn his life around, solve a mystery, and save the life of the gifted young woman
with whom he had been obsessed many years earlier. In the process, he confronts an evil family dynasty and
uncovers secrets of the woman’s birth and heritage that rock the community of Ocean Beach.
Time travel has long been
a popular device in fiction—almost everyone can relate to the longing to go back and repair their past mistakes,
but, unless one is writing pure science fiction, it can be difficult to find a convincing and relevant way to
access the past. Hemingway has chosen to use an alien in human form who says to Jack, “Go back and you will live
longer. No death, only what lies past twilight, everything you ever wanted if you can summon the courage to
believe in yourself.” Aware of everything that went on during the pivotal events in Ocean Beach and able to read Jack’s mind, the alien equips him with meaningful, though cryptic,
clues, a lottery win, and enough of a memory for the events that had led up to the murders that he is able to
make better choices the second time around. But even though the alien’s more ample perspective allows for
some interesting metaphysical discussion, he, unlike the human characters in the tale, is not convincing.
Aside from providing the protagonist with a pass to his past and making a few cameo appearances throughout
the story, the character is not a meaningful addition to the plot.
While Hemingway’s main
characters exhibit the full range of human emotions,
his secondary characters are less
well developed, and reveal a rather one-sided devotion to self-interest, greed, deception, and lust, making it
easy for the reader to hope for their downfall. However, the well-paced and gripping plot holds readers’
attention, as he fights to end the evil Martin family’s grip on the lives of Ocean Beach’s
residents, against a timeline that includes an impending hurricane.
Past Twilight will appeal
to those who enjoy their mystery and suspense laced
with a hint of science fiction,
especially if they are not deterred by portrayals of physical and emotional violence and the attitudes and
behaviors common to people who spend a good deal of their time in bars. Fortunately, the author balances the
all-too-human negative traits of his characters with forays into ethics, honor, and self-respect.
Hemingway is a gifted
storyteller. He brings to his work the observational and
investigative skills and ability
to read subtle body language that he learned during his nearly twenty years of experience as a New York State
Peacekeeper. Such skills allow him to convey much with little and move his story forward with a character’s
gesture or glance.
Kristine Morris
ForeWord Clarion Review
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