Tag: book club

When it comes to book clubs. I’m kind of the way Fight Club’s Marla Singer is about support groups. I can’t pass one up. One of my favorite groups, called Wine and Words, is put on by Gathering Volumes, the Toledo area’s only independent bookstore. This month’s Wine and Words read was The End of the Road by Andrew Welsh-Huggins, a gripping crime novel set in Columbus, Ohio. 

The novel offers three intriguing point-of-view characters, but the real driver of the action is Penny, a woman whose partner—after just one day out of prison—is shot by the crime boss he testified against. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that the only way to stop the merciless crime boss is for Penny to go after him herself. During the course of her quest, Penny meets rural sheriff’s deputy J.P. (another wonderful POV character), who joins her on her journey toward a final showdown.

Reader Takeaway

There’s a lot to enjoy in this novel, but the propulsive forward momentum was what stood out to me. Fair warning: you might want to clear your schedule, because once you start reading The End of the Road, it’s hard to put down. Part of this is due to Penny, a tenacious yet vulnerable protagonist determined to find justice in an unjust situation. 

Writer Takeaway

Another reason this book is so gripping is that Welsh-Huggins gives Penny a crystal-clear motivation for seeking vigilante justice, along with a rapidly ticking clock. In crime fiction, “the ticking clock” is a plot mechanism that compels the protagonist to reach their goal by a certain time or else risk losing everything. Anyone looking for a good example of this technique should pick up this book. Welsh-Huggins masterfully sets the clock in motion that propels Penny on her frenetic overnight journey through Columbus and rural Ohio. 

Bonus: For fans of crime novels and sports, Welsh-Huggins is also the author of seven books in the highly entertaining Andy Hayes series, which features a former Ohio State football player turned private eye.