The Reluctant (Crayder Chronicles #1)

I love a good smartass. That’s probably why I married my wife. It’s also probably why I dug the hell out of The Reluctant by C.S. Splitter. In fact, I thought so much of it I pestered Splitter until he agreed to sit down for an interview about his work . The Reluctant is the first in a series called The Crayder Chronicles about—brace yourselves—a guy named Tom Crayder. Who would have thought, right? I’m not exactly what genre to put it in—it’s not really a Mystery, and it’s kind of a Thriller, but I’m just going to call it a Crime story and leave it at that.

Genres aside, what really sets the novel apart is the narrative style and voice. As you might have guessed already, the narrator (which would be Tom Crayder, as show more it’s first person) is a wise-acre of the first order. He’s got more jokes than a stand up comedian, but they never get in the way of the telling of the story. At times tongue-in-cheek, at others hard as nails, it reminds me a lot of Donald E. Westlake, the master of the humorous crime-caper.

As far as the plot goes, it’s something that’s been done before, but Splitter throws enough twists in there to make it his own. It starts out with a bang. Or rather, a crash—I mean, forced landing. Crayder’s consulting business has hit a slow patch recently, and in order to make ends meet he’s taken a couple under the table jobs ferrying men and cash in his Cesna C-180 for a local “businessman” he happens to be friends with. Of course it’s all strictly illegal, so when his plane’s engine conks out in mid-flight, the “forced landing” isn’t the only fancy flying he has to do. He also has to hide his criminal involvement from local law enforcement, weather an FAA investigation, and—perhaps most harrowing of all—make up with his wife for not coming home on time. All of this catches the eye of some very interesting people. After a little test (which involves rescuing a damsel in distress and disposing the dead body that results from said rescue), he is propositioned by an organization that specializes in making up where normal law enforcement drops the ball—or, as the folks at home might recognize it, vigilante justice.

The idea is that Crayder seems to be constantly walking the line in some way or another—with his consulting business, with his airplane gigs on the side, with his marriage—but in the end he’s actually a decent-hearted person. All that line-walking and heart-in-the-right-place stuff turns out to be the perfect combination for a vigilante hit man. Splitter does a good job of illustrating these themes and the moral quandaries they present while keeping the mood light, and that alone takes some talent to do.

Now, if there’s something that could be improved upon (and you knew I was going to point it out if there was), it would have to be a minor structural element that just… got to me. About five chapters into the novel there’s a flashback which explains a little bit of Crayder’s business and why he was on the extra-curricular trip in his plane when it went down. It’s not very long, and before you know it we’re back in business and on with the story. Being the over-analyzing SoB that I am, I can’t help feeling like the flashback was an unnecessary inclusion. The same objective could have been accomplished through a phone call or something like that after the crash, and the use of the flashback felt a little jarring given the rest of the narrative stream. But only a little. And really, if this is the only thing I have to bitch about with the book, it’s got to be pretty damn good, don’t you think? Major props should go to Splitter’s editor as I noticed only one typo in the entire novel. When it comes to self-published fiction (I think that’s what this is, though I’m not exactly sure) that’s kind of like seeing only one piece of trash on the side of the highway in New Jersey—amazing to the point of being miraculous. I give The Reluctant by C.S. Splitter four stars.

http://readabookonce.blogspot.com/2012/02/reluctant-by-cs-splitter-review-and.ht... show less

Title: The Reluctant (Crayder Chronicles #1)
Author: C.S. Splitter
Genre: Action/Suspense/Thriller

This is another first time author for me C.S. Splitter writing is first rate, the character descriptions were nicely done and his word flowed smoothly. The plot was easy to follow and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the book. C.S. Splitter next book in this series is The Willing: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13029054-the-willing, and I am definitely going to purchase it so I can see what happens next in the (Crayder Chronicles #2) .

Tom Crayder is a happily married man, son in college, wife’s works hard to help make ends meet you would say the all American family. To keep up with the payments on the house, bills and his plane show more Tom takes on small jobs from the head of the local biker’s gang. Tom and Jake have a deal that he will delivery small packages and sometimes people but never drugs, Tom doesn’t ask and Jake doesn’t tell what’s in the packages or who the people are. This relationship works out well for both of them and Tom is paid for his time. Tom is a calm and relatively reliable man and gets along with everyone he appears to be a mans man. As a hobby or stress reliever Tom sometimes heads over to the gun range and practices shooting, there he meets a woman who he in visions taking to a hotel for you all a quick romp in the hay let’s say. But nothing ever turns out the way Tom expects or even imagines in his head. This story is full of suspense, murder, and truly some funny situations that somehow Tom seems to think fast and work calmly through.

Now for the reason I thought this wasn’t my type of book is because it all done from the POV of the main character Tom Crayder so to say it’s written with a man’s perspective is true but it worked out well and I actually enjoyed it more then I imagined. Once I started reading this book I couldn’t put it down. I will follow C.S Splitters writing and try to keep up with this series. It was truly a good book and I would recommend it to anyone who likes suspense, murder, mystery, and a bit of a laugh. It is quite a fascinating how Tom ends up in these situations and how he seems to work calmly and think fast through it all. show less

3 and 1/2 stars.

I'm not going to be as effusive with my praise of this novel as some of the other reviewers have been.

Overall a good and interesting story, with action, adventure and a bit of humor. I like the twist with Lorena.

My only true criticism is that there is way too much info about flying contained herein. Stuff about flaps and air currents and things like that that only another pilot would care about.

I did enjoy this story and would be interested to read more of the adventures of Tom Crayder.

What a delightful romp - part 'Date Night' meets Harlan Coben. The perfect thing to gobble down in one greedy gulp on a sunny Sunday in the garden.