Author: Gordon Osmond

Publisher: Secret Cravings Publishing

ASIN: B00JOWF2JY

Borrowing from his many experiences as a produced award-winning playwright and an attorney, as well as being inspired and challenged by the wonders of the English language, Gordon Osmond with great dexterity has created his own unique style which is quite in evidence with his most recent novel, Turner's Point. With fluid, playful, elegant prose and witty dialogue, he has crafted a gem of a story where every chapter is filled with scenes that are not only tender but at times quite comical as he pokes fun at a variety of situations and circumstances. At times I remarked to myself that Osmond missed his calling in life, he should have been a standup comedian.

And if you relish reading offbeat fiction or watching television soap operas, this one is most likely to win your admiration with its tossed salad of themes such as identity or the search for self that is interlaced with events carried out by quite a cast of idiosyncratic characters.

Not afraid to imagine wildly, Osmond's yarn unfolds with the introduction to Eileen Brockway who is leaving her home-town of Johnson, Ohio to Hollywood, California to visit her estranged son, Kyle. We learn that Eileen was married for twenty years to Dan Brockway, who is an attorney. The couple are now divorced after Eileen had shared her bed with her former matinee idol and washed up actor Adrian Conway, who had also shared some “inappropriately intimate moments” with her son, Kyle. As for ex-hubby Dan, upon discovering his wife's infidelity, he not only divorces Eileen, but runs off to San Diego with his law partner Raul Fioravanti and his son Kyle's former girlfriend, Erin O'Malley whom he eventually marries.

After meeting some of Kyle's friends, Eileen and Kyle decide to surprise Dan and attend Erin's college graduation ceremony where she was named valedictorian. It is here where the Brockway family has quite an awkward and uncomfortable reunion, but according to Eileen and Kyle, and in their own words, it was one that was an essential step in a twelve-step program mother and son had devised to recover some sense of purpose and direction in their lives.

As one excellently rendered chapter follows another, Osmond peels away the layers of the Brockway secrets as Eileen and Kyle try to make sense of their lives in their quest for redemption. Along the way, mother and son discover attributes in one another that they never knew existed such as Kyle's karate skills or Eileen's culinary interests, the latter eventually leading to Eileen's purchasing of a restaurant called La Vache Bleu.

What's more, if you think the Brockways have their secrets, I have news for you, wait until you read about Dan's partner Raul and his escapades which will result in a few unforeseen surprises.

In the end what we have here is an exhilarating well-paced intelligent novel that brims with humor, unpredictability and countless insights as it explores the deep, inexplicable bond between mother and son. Although this is a busy novel with plenty happening, it nevertheless effectively conveys the nuances of feelings as well as the cruelty of facts brought about by dark pains affecting many families.

Follow Here To Read Norm's Interview With Gordon Osmond

Follow Here To Purchase Turner's Point