Title: Saga of the Diver – Volume One: Skeletons
Author: Holden Gerrig
Publisher: 2015, HydraGaea Books
ISBN: 9780692391327
Pages: 408, Paperback
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Reviewed by: Anita Lock, Pacific Book Review
5 Star Review
Winner: Best New Fiction – 2015 Pacific Book Awards
Book Review
Paul Schultz, who is disenchanted with both his job and teetering marriage, meets the overly confident Jim Costas while working out at a gym. Although contrasting personalities, Paul and Jim have one thing in common: their love for diving. Paul, an expert diving instructor, trains Jim. In turn, Jim mentors Paul on entrepreneurial skills that go beyond the ordinary since he uses Salsa as a way to hit on the ladies. Paul is captivated by Jim’s salacious prowess. Yet he finds Jim’s impish interactions with women a bit disconcerting, especially since he is married to a hot wife, Teagan. Lynn Teal, Teagan’s best friend, enters the scene, and with her comes a flurry of interpersonal attractions between Jim and Teagan. While Paul desperately works on getting his life together amid all the weird sexual environs, he is unaware of the role that he plays in a devious plot to destroy Jim.Award winning and rising author Holden Gerrig pens a dizzying one-of-a-kind psychological thriller. Unique to Gerrig’s debut novel is a tight list of literary elements. High on that record is Gerrig’s attractive yet convoluted cast. Gerrig’s attention to detail has produced four well-developed characters that leave readers with mixed emotions. Although his characters lead a variety of questionable lifestyles, Gerrig manages to evoke compassion among his readers when he reveals the troubled human aspects of their past (via omniscient viewpoints) to validate their actions. Pitted in the middle, of course, is the underachieving Paul who is unwittingly caught in the throes of a vicious game of domination. There is more, however, to Gerrig’s creative character design. Pulling out another literary trick out of his sleeve, Gerrig uses his principal cast as foils to draw out their contrasting features. Needless to say, Gerrig’s cast will keep readers in a tizzy.
Gerrig opens his third person narrative with a scene leading up to the story’s apex, followed by a quick shift to an entangled web of backstories. Each chapter is replete with a barrage of alternating character scenes that slowly but deliberately build up to an un-hackneyed cliffhanger – one that catches readers totally off guard. Amid the backstories, Gerrig numbers his alternating scenes, which not only breaks up monotony, but also keeps his plot seamlessly flowing. In addition, Gerrig aptly aligns his complex cast to his storyline by incorporating strong and often lewd language and lust filled scenes as the plot thickens from one deception to another.
A page turner from beginning to end, there is no doubt that “Saga of the Diver – Volume One: Skeletons”– the first book in Gerrig’s series Saga of the Diver — is one captivating roller-coaster read.
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