Shannon Hodges: The Lonely Void

Amazon Books

I've just finished reading my brother Shan's recent novel and enjoyed it for its great hook and its surprising ending. As with his previous mystery novel, City of Shadows, the plot is complex and presents many characters - you might want to write down their names as you read - but the story is nonetheless a page-turner. Here's one reason why:

They . . . threw him onto a medical table strapping him down tightly. They stretched a cloth tightly across his face. He was unsure what was happening when suddenly water was poured down his mouth. He had always read water boarding simulated drowning and now had firsthand knowledge of the torture method's accurate simulation. He felt himself slipping, gagging, taking in water and it was absolute torture. Just as he felt the life force was about to leave his body, his tormentors stopped. (Shannon Hodges, The Lonely Void, New Generation Publishing, 2014, page 471)

They may have stopped, but I read on . . . and so, I think, will you as you follow counselor Bob Gifford along the paths of his two parallel, but star-crossed, noneuclidean careers.

Not knowing precisely how waterboarding works, I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the above description, but from this description, I know that what is depicted would be torture for me to endure.